Race and Injustice - SOC00067H

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Module summary

In this module, you will think critically about understandings of race and racism, and the connections between racism and the state. You will explore how race has informed modern state formation, is used an important aspect of social stratification and experienced in everyday life and consider how we might move beyond racial structuration.

Module will run

Occurrence	Teaching period
A	Semester 1 2025-26

Module aims

Does a more racially, ethnically and culturally diverse Britain mean that race, and therefore racism, no longer matters? Drawing from key literatures in race and critical migration studies, this module critically explores race’s intersections with capitalism, border regimes and other systems of oppression (such as class, gender and sexuality). Our aim is to develop critical analyses of systemic, structural and institutional racisms as they manifest both in everyday lived realities and at the level of national and international governance. How can these literatures and analyses help us to make sense of violence, instability and enduring global inequities? Our focus is on both histories, policies and practices of racism in different geographical contexts, especially as they are shaped by migration, and on diverse communities’ resistance to and rejections of racial injustice.

Module learning outcomes

• Critically engage with the sociological and related disciplinary literatures on race, racisms and migration

• Articulate an understanding of systemic, structural and institutional racisms and reflect critically on racism’s intersections with capitalism and migration

• Critically analyse the theoretical race and migration literatures as it applies to empirical realities in different national contexts as well as globally

• Demonstrate and evaluate your understanding of the relationship between racism, border regimes and other systems of oppression as it manifests in different contexts

• Demonstrate your ability to synthesise and analyse complex information and communicate key points in a range of written and verbal formats

Module content

1. Introduction to key race, racisms and migration concepts

2. Slavery, empire and colonialism

3. Citizenship and belonging

4. Gender, sexuality and other intersections

5. Formative assessment session

Consolidation week

1. Summative assessment session

2. Technologies of race and migration

3. Borders and immigration control

4. Health and housing: policies of the hostile environment

5. Islamophobia

6. Family and resistance

Indicative assessment

Task	% of module mark
Essay/coursework	100.0

Special assessment rules

None

Indicative reassessment

Task	% of module mark
Essay/coursework	100.0

Module feedback

For the formative (co-written and peer-reviewed writing), students will receive written feedback on how to improve their skills in advance of the summative assessment. The formative assessment provides practice for the summative assessment (MLO 1 & 5).

For summative work (essay), students will receive an overall mark and grading according to clearly defined criteria for assessing the knowledge, skills and abilities in line with MLO 1-5. They will also receive written feedback showing areas in which they have done well, and those areas in which they need to improve that will contribute to their progress.

Indicative reading

• Goldberg, D.T. (2002) The Racial State, Oxford: Blackwell.
• Winant, H. (2004) The New Politics of Race, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
• Kundnani, A. (2007) The End of Tolerance, London: Pluto Press