166-105 The Politics of Identity

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Subject Description

This subject aims to provide students with an introductory understanding of the principal ways in which issues of identity are thought about in contemporary debates. The subject will also discuss the claims that identities are political in nature, and with how identity impinges upon political struggles. It is largely concerned with the construction of our own identities: as subjects who are gendered, have ethnicities, community and national allegiances, and who live in times where many of the major referents of social and political life are open to contest. Students who complete this subject should possess: an introductory knowledge of some major approaches to the study of political identities; a grasp of the ways in which the politics of identity is central to both the new social movements and resurgent ethnic and national politics; an awareness of some major approaches to the influence of gender on notions of justice and responsibility; an awareness of some major approaches to the formation and enactment of gender identities; an acquaintance with some major approaches to understanding the psychological, cultural and social dimensions of the politics of racial, ethnic and national identities; an expanded notion of what constitutes the political, i.e. an understanding of the pervasiveness of politics beyond conventional political institutions.

Assessment

One project 1500 words (40%); one essay of 2500 words (50%); class participation (10%).