University of St Andrews

Key information

SCOTCAT credits : 30

ECTS credits : 15

Level : SCQF level 10

Semester: 1

Planned timetable: Thursday 12 noon - 1pm

This module will give students an opportunity to understand how 'race', caste and other forms of social hierarchy have been central to the shaping of the modern world. We will explore how macro historical processes such as colonialism (including settler colonialism), slavery, indentured labour and apartheid have produced forms of racial and caste stratification that continue to structure social and political relations today. We will also study how struggles against these processes of exploitation and subordination as well as their ongoing legacies have generated new forms of politics and cultures of resistance visible in renewed demands for decolonisation. The politics of memory will be a central theme of the module: how and why does the past acquire salience in the present? Geographically, the module will focus on Anglophone locations in the Americas, Europe, Africa and South Asia, thereby enabling comparative conversations about racial legacies and afterlives of the British Empire.

Relationship to other modules

Pre-requisite(s): Before taking this module you must pass IR2005 and pass IR2006

Learning and teaching methods and delivery

Weekly contact: 1 Lecture and 2 tutorial groups x 10 weeks

Scheduled learning hours: 52

Guided independent study hours: 250

Assessment pattern

As used by St Andrews: Coursework = 100%


Re-assessment: Examination = 100%

Personnel

Intended learning outcomes

• By the end of this module, students should be able to articulate how the constitution of the modern world was centrally shaped by social hierarchies structured around race and caste as well as struggles against these forms of subordination
• By the end of this module, students should be able to identify core elements of the Black radical tradition (broadly understood) as well as of Dalit thought in South Asia
• By the end of this module, students should be able to understand how racial and caste subordination are distinct from, but also intersect with, other forms of hierarchy based on class, gender, nationality, etc.
• By the end of this module, students should be able to identify and account for the afterlives of historical processes such as colonialism, slavery and apartheid in the politics of the present
• By the end of this module, students should be able to appreciate what theoretical issues are at stake in particular instances of social movement mobilisation against racial and caste supremacism
• By the end of this module, students should be able to apply the insights they have gained in this module to the range of academic, intellectual and professional pursuits that they will follow upon completion of their programme of study