136-257 Identities in Conflict: Social Theory and the Politics of Identity

Note

Available as 136-357 at 3rd-year level.

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Subject Description

This subject investigates identities in conflict by studying witchcraft accusations, Nazi doctors, Malcolm X, the bonds of love, formations of violence, ethnic and racial conflict, gender relations and everyday life in high or post modernity. These settings highlight the social, cultural and psychological processes involved in the ongoing politics of identity and provide the context within which a series of social-theoretical issues are raised regarding the relationship between the subjective and the social. Theories of ideology, discourse, agency, structuration, violence, intersubjectivity and subjectivity are drawn upon to analyse the centrality of individual and group identities to the organisation of social and political relations. Students completing this subject should develop a recognition of the ways in which social theory can provide both a range of approaches and a series of concepts for the analysis of the politics of identity, along with a critical perspective on standard approaches to identities in conflict.

Assessment

Essay work totalling 5000 words and an oral class presentation.