This is a space for the Understanding Race Masters of Research Unit I run at Western Sydney University. The space will include my reflections on the texts we are reading as well as student blog posts.
In the age of Black Lives Matter, we have become accustomed to hearing concepts like ‘institutional’ and ‘systemic racism’ openly discussed. On one side, there are calls to recognise the extent to which race shapes experience, access and opportunity even in so-called ‘successful multicultural’ societies like…
The Masters of Research course I run at Western Sydney University is back, beginning on July 23. As usual if you want to come along (face-to-face only) or are along with us, you are welcome. Usually, the course has a special theme. In 2019 that was…
I was kindly invited by the Institute for Culture and Society at Western Sydney University to give a talk on postcolonial and decolonial thought for its Key Thinkers & Concepts series. I have posted in the slides and notes here. 1. I wish to acknowledgement the Darug people,…
Continuing our focus on racial capitalism, Understanding Race discussed the relationship between race and class with a focus on Race and the Undeserving Poor by Robbie Shilliam. Using the book Futures of Black Radicalism, and in particular the chapter by Nikhil Pal Singh, we explored the…
This is the text from this week’s lecture on Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition by Cedric Robinson. The presentation focuses on Chapter I of the book and some sections of Part II dealing with the invention of ‘The Negro’. This is the merge…
This week in Understanding Race, we are continuing our conversation of race, coloniality and property which began last week with a primary focus on the work of Cheryl Harris, in her seminal essay Whiteness as Property, and Patrick Wolfe’s discussion of the formation of race in…
W.E.B Du Bois’ famous question, ‘How Does it Feel to be a Problem?’ has long underpinned explorations of race as a lived experience. A similar question drives Frantz Fanon querying in Black Skin, White Masks. The answer given by Du Bois sheds light on the fact that…
You can You can download the syllabus for Understanding Race 2019 here.. Readings are contained in the folder and check back here for blogposts
Last year, the course I run at Western Sydney University as part of the Masters of Research degree, ‘Understanding Race’, was well received among a wide range of people because I posted the readings and the blogposts I wrote weekly online. This year, I am running it again…
The final session of this year’s Understanding Race course focuses on the ever-deepening intersections between race, digital technology and social media. Our main reading is Safiya U. Noble‘s Algorithms of Oppression which has made an important contribution to our understanding of the racialised nature of Internet search through her cogent…