Race and Ethnicity

Teaching 'Race' with a Gendered Edge

by Kristín Loftsdóttir

co-authored with Brigitte Hipfl

This collection of essays responds to the need to approach questions of race and racism from a feminist perspective,... more This collection of essays responds to the need to approach questions of race and racism from a feminist perspective, focusing on the intersections of race, class and gender. Only a thorough exploration of these intersections can open up a deeper understanding of racism against particular groups that have emerged in the European historical context and point to ways of intervening in the racial practices of the present. The chapters in the book are structured into two parts: the first section focuses on particular themes like representation of race and gender inequality, as well as everyday racism in educational institutions, whereas in the second section, the intersections of race and gender are explored in national contexts.

Brigitte Hipfl is Associate Professor of Media Studies at the Department of Media and Communication Studies at the University of Klagenfurt, Austria Kristin Loftsdottir is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Iceland

Addressing ethnicity in social care research

by Tom Vickers

co-authored with Gary Craig and Karl Atkin, published by Social Policy and Administration, 2012. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9515.2012.00851.x

This article surveys recent developments in relation to the dimensions of ethnicity and ethnic disadvantage in social... more This article surveys recent developments in relation to the dimensions of ethnicity and ethnic disadvantage in social policy research and practice, with a focus on social care. While there has been limited increase in attention to ethnicity within general policy discussion and increasing sophistication within specialist debates, advances in theory and methodology have largely failed to penetrate the mainstream of research, let alone policy or practice. This is a long standing problem. We argue for a more focussed consideration of ethnicity and ethnic disadvantage at all levels. Failure to do so creates the risk of social policy research being left behind in understanding rapid changes in ethnic minority demographics and patterns of migration, and increasing disadvantage to minorities.

Urban Schism, Social Strains: Exploring the Collective Identities of Youth in Contemporary Belfast

by David Drissel

Ethnicity and machine politics

by Jerome Krase

This is a book I co-wrote with Charles La Cerra: Ethnicity and Machine Politics: The Madison Club of Brooklyn. Washington, D.C.: University Press of America, 1992.

Bensonhurst, Brooklyn: Italian American Victims and Victimizers

by Jerome Krase

This is a draft of an article published as “Bensonhurst, Brooklyn: Italian American Victimizers and Victims.” In The Review of Italian American Studies. 2000: 233-44.

First Year Review Paper - Multicultural Citizenship: the case of Cyprus

by George Iordanou

The paper that was used as a basis for my First Year Review presentation. It is an outline of the literature on multicultural citizenship, the literature on Cyprus minorities and the contribution of my project.

Communautés, fragmentation territoriale et gouvernement au Proche-Orient arabe (Irak, Syrie, Jordanie et Liban)

by Fabrice Balanche

Publiée dans la revue Etudes Interculturelles, Chaire UNESCO de l'Université Catholique de Lyon, mai 2012.

Dans le contexte conflictuel du Proche-Orient, marqué par le conflit israélo-arabe et la concurrence des grandes... more Dans le contexte conflictuel du Proche-Orient, marqué par le conflit israélo-arabe et la concurrence des grandes puissances pour les richesses en hydrocarbures du Golfe, la division communautaire est un facteur supplémentaire de conflit. Cela nous renvoie au fait que la communauté est une construction sociale et/ou politique et non pas une donnée fondamentale immuable forcément facteur de violence. Cependant, dans le contexte géopolitique du Proche-Orient contemporain, les fractures sociales recoupent des fractures communautaires, et lorsqu’une communauté s’identifie à un territoire, cela peut provoquer une partition du pays à la faveur d’un conflit. Le processus de mondialisation, qui provoque un affaiblissement des « Etats-nations », fait rejouer les lignes de failles communautaires, d’autant plus que les Etats du Proche-Orient ne sont que des Etats-territoire. Dans ce contexte, la remise en cause de l’autoritarisme, avec le « printemps arabe » de 2011, ouvre une période d’instabilité qui peut se révéler dangereuse pour les minorités dans toute la région. De l’invasion américaine de l’Irak en 2003 à la révolte syrienne de 2011, en passant par la révolution du Cèdre au Liban en 2005, huit années ce sont écoulées durant lesquelles de nettes tendances à la fragmentation interne se sont dessinées.

And You Can Be My Sheikh: Gender, Race, and Orientalism in Contemporary Romance Novels

by Jessica Taylor

Published in The Journal of Popular Culture, Volume 40, Issue 6, pages 1032–1051, December 2007

This paper examines popular category romances with sheikhs as heroes within the context of writing on Orientalism. I... more This paper examines popular category romances with sheikhs as heroes within the context of writing on Orientalism. I suggest that in category romances the conventions of Orientalism and those of the romance allow for a narrative of difference where a masculine, sexualized, Oriental Other and a feminine, western, desiring Subject meet, struggle, and resolve in an amalgam of Other and Self. This paper considers this narrative in the context of the place of the white Anglo Woman in the expansion of the American empire and the larger discourses of masculinity and femininity, race and ethnicity. I argue that sheikh romances create an imaginary eastern landscape which can be captured through detailed knowledge and which is open to the white woman's gaze. They create an Orient with harems empty of women, where anxieties about gender relations in the West can play out in a geographically separate terrain. The sheikhs in these romances are liminal figures: dark and desirable, but not too dark; masculine and powerful, yet willing to surrender to love; rooted in their “eastern” place, yet international. These sheikhs represent the Orient as desirable, but also desiring a union with the West in the form of a woman, representing the possibility of the Orient's incorporation into an expanding American cultural empire.

Geography, Genetics and Generalizations: the Abandonment of Race in the Anthropological Study of Human Biological Variation

by Michael Billinger

“Speaking Shadows”: A History of the Voice in the Transition from Silent to Sound Film in the United States

by Jessica Taylor

Published in the Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, Volume 19 Issue 1 June 2009

In this paper I examine the media discourse surrounding the voice in the silent to sound film transition in American... more In this paper I examine the media discourse surrounding the voice in the silent to sound film transition in American cinema. When the technologies of synchronized sound became widespread in the late 1920s the question of how this new technology would be incorporated into the well-established film culture was of great interest, revealing some of the underlying ideologies of language at the time. These discussions worked to stabilize the new sound cinema around an ideology of the voice, closely tied to an ideology of American society, which became less audible as it became more certain, leaving behind its now naturalized structures of voiced race, class, gender and ethnicity. [voice, technology, cinema, race, gender]

My First Experience at a Women-Only Conference by Grace Yia-Hei Kao

by Feminism and Religion

Originally published on the Feminism and Religion project

“This ain’t your daddy’s conference!”

I knew that I was going to be attending a totally different type of... more “This ain’t your daddy’s conference!”

I knew that I was going to be attending a totally different type of conference than I had ever been to before when I received the following instructions on additional items to pack: (1) my own mug with which to drink coffee or tea (“we will go green in this conference as much as possible”), (2) 3 oz. of water “from a source of nature near your home” to be offered during “opening worship,” and (3) a small, modest, pre-owned, homemade, or inexpensive “earth-honoring gift for exchange.”

Peranakan as a social concept

by Giokhun Pue

This article discusses the significance of etymology and its role in the construction of social concepts pertaining to... more This article discusses the significance of etymology and its role in the construction of social concepts pertaining to amalgam, namely an ethnic group whose formation stemmed from amalgamation as part of assimilation process which occurs continuously in interethnic relations between the majority ethnic group and the minority. It is an ethnic group that is often overlooked in the discourse of ethnicity as a way to organise social difference in a society into different ethnic categories. The perception that such a group has no place in mainstream society is reflected by the way labels that are created and used on the group tend to be negative and pejorative. As a result, this contributes to ethnic contestation in the society. However, this is not the case in the Malay Archipelago where culturally localised, local-born of non-indigenous descent, particularly offspring from mix-marriage with native women, are referred to as ‘Peranakan’. Derived from the root word ‘anak’ (meaning child), Peranakan may be seen as one of rare social concepts that refers to amalgam in a neutral, if not positive way where the majority accepts the minority as one of their own while simultaneously acknowledging the latter’s ethnic differences. As such, Peranakan may be adopted into societies from non-Malay world as a more suitable social concept to explain amalgamation harmoniously as a way to promote social cohesion in a society.

Annotation of Toni Morrison, "Recitatif"

by Martha Stoddard Holmes

A Besieged Tribe"?: Nostalgia, White Cultural Identity and the Role of Rugby in a changing South Africa

by John Nauright

Published in International Review for the Sociology of Sport (1996).

South African society has been in a state of tremendous changes in recent years. These changes have been seen by many... more South African society has been in a state of tremendous changes in recent years. These changes have been seen by many whites as a threat to their society and "way of life". South African rugby success through its national team, the Springboks, has been one of the most potent sites for the demonstration of white power and cultural identity. This paper explores actions of white rugby fans on South Africa's return to international rugby against their arch-rivals the New Zealand All Blacks in 1992 in the context of white cultural retreat into nostalgic representations of the past in resisting cultural assimilation within a black dominated new South Africa.

White man’s burden revisited: race, sport and reporting the Hansie Cronje cricket crisis in South Africa and beyond.

by John Nauright

Published in Sport History Review. 35:1 (2005), 61-75.

Betting scandals shook the world of international cricket during the
1990s with players from Australia, India,... more Betting scandals shook the world of international cricket during the
1990s with players from Australia, India, Pakistan, South Africa, and Sri
Lanka being implicated or indeed involved. The most notable case was
that of then South African national team captain Hansie Cronje, who was
to that point noted for his competitive but clean and gentlemanly approach
to the game.

This article examines South African and international media responses
to the crisis as it unfolded, focusing on the themes of the historically constructed “purity” of cricket, the supposed morality and “purity” of white
Western athletes, and then, as the truth was revealed, “shock and horror”
that this “purity” was betrayed as Cronje confessed. Press reports from
South Africa, Australia, and England were examined for their coverage of
the scandal as international and national issues overlapped. The article
discusses the ways in which the scandal was framed as it unfolded, then
briefly explores the beginnings of Cronje’s rehabilitation, his subsequent
death in a plane crash in 2002, and his “resurrection” to cricketing immortality.

Flying the flag for England? Citizenship, religion and cultural identity among British Pakistani Muslims

by Paul Bagguley

SLAVERY AT A CROSSROADS: STATE, RELIGION, RACE AND LAW IN MUSLIM WEST AFRICA

by Chris Gratien

DRAFT ONLY

This paper examines one of the earliest intellectual works to directly address the intersecting issues of race and... more This paper examines one of the earliest intellectual works to directly address the intersecting issues of race and slavery that emerged with the rise of a global capitalist economy based on slave labor and the plantation system that took root in the early modern Atlantic. I examine the works of a Muslim scholar, Ahmad Baba al-Tinbukti, who himself was enslaved, and I examine his use of scholarly traditions and innovative thoughts on the origins of race by Muslim scholars such as Ibn Khaldoun to author a resounding critique of not just race-based slavery but the entire practice of enslavement as he experienced it in the realms of the Moroccan caliphate of Ahmad al-Mansur.

“Passing” for White to Get Into Harvard? By Grace Yia-Hei Kao

by Feminism and Religion

Originally published on Feminism and Religion project

Asian Americans and Harvard University have been in the news and on my mind recently. The bigger story has been about... more Asian Americans and Harvard University have been in the news and on my mind recently. The bigger story has been about the “Linsanity” surrounding (Harvard grad) New York Knicks player Jeremy Lin who continues to take the NBA by storm.

The smaller story, though one that also made national headlines in  early February, is of the recent decision by the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights to investigate a complaint that Harvard and Princeton Universities discriminate against Asian Americans in admissions.

According to Daniel Golden of the Bloomberg News who first broke the story:

“Like Jews in the first half of the 20th century, who faced quotas at Harvard, Princeton, and other Ivy League schools, Asian-Americans are over-represented at top universities relative to their population, yet must meet a higher standard than other applicants based on measures such as test scores and high school grades, according to several academic studies.”

An African-American football pioneer in Iowa: Theatrece Gibbs of Dubuque

by John Nauright

Published in Gridiron Greats

Discusses the first African American high school football captain known to date, Theatrece Gibbs of Dubuque High... more Discusses the first African American high school football captain known to date, Theatrece Gibbs of Dubuque High School in Iowa. The paper is a shorter version of a longer work examining race and sport in Iowa in the 1930s.

Chin, Christina, Meera E. Deo, Jenny J. Lee, Noriko Milman, and Nancy Wang Yuen. 2007. "Without a Trace: Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in Prime Time Television," Chapter 24 in Contemporary Asian America: A Multidisciplinary Reader. Second Edition. Edited by Min Zhou and J. V. Gatewood. New York: New York University Press.

by Nancy Yuen