Conceptions of race and ethnicity shape political attitudes, behavior, institutions, and ideas and are central to power relations. The Race, Ethnicity and Politics (REP) subfield places these conceptions, their origins, and consequences, at the center of their research. Scholars specializing in REP study political identity, attitudes and behavior, public policy and law, inequality and criminal justice, political institutions, among other topics, and explore theoretical approaches to conceptions of race and ethnicity in relation to gender, citizenship, immigration, empire and colonialism.
Faculty
Nikol Alexander-Floyd (Women & Politics)
Elena Gambino (Political Theory)
Stacey Greene (American)
Yalidy Matos (American, Women & Politics)
Lisa L. Miller (Public Law)
Kira Sanbonmatsu (Women & Politics)
Paru Shah (Women & Politics, American)
Curriculum
Formal Requirements
. Students who opt for the REP first minor must do their second minor in one of the Department’s subfields: American politics, Comparative politics, International Relations, Political Theory, Women and Politics, Public Law, Methods. Students electing REP as a first minor field must take the required pro-seminar in addition to two REP electives. Both courses must be selected from the REP courses offered by the Department of Political Science. A comprehensive exam is required for students who elect REP as a first minor. Students who choose REP as a second minor must complete three courses as well but do not have to take a written exam.
Required course:
16:790:636 Race, Theory, and Methods in Political Science
This course examines the concepts of race and ethnicity methodologically and provides an overview of the major theories and empirical approaches to the study of race, ethnicity, and politics. In this course, the objectives are to understand and analyze major theories of intergroup attitudes; identify different methodological approaches to the study of race and ethnicity; and critically analyze and recognize the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches given your own research questions. Areas of research design, measurement, and analytical approaches serve as the focal points of the course design. What does it mean to choose a census racial and ethnicity box? Are there other methodological ways of getting at race and ethnicity and ultimately what it means for people? What role does the researcher’s race/ethnicity play in research design and analysis? How does the social construction of race and ethnicity influence how researchers measure race and ethnicity? What are the appropriate methodological choices given your own research question(s)?
Electives:
16:790:637 Immigration Politics and Policy
The Politics of Belonging: US Immigration Politics and Policy Immigration in the United States has been and continues to be about delineations of boundaries, of belonging. By definition, immigration delimits American national identity; however, it does so by defining it as a cultural notion. American-ness is a cultural identity, one that is explicitly descriptive about who belongs and who does not belong. Immigration not only defines the boundaries of American citizenship racially, but it also defines it in relation to the boundaries of the American nation-state.
16:790:638 Race/ethnicity, Gender, and the U.S. Party System
This course examines party scholarship related to race/ethnicity and gender.
It asks how U.S. political parties are implicated in the creation and reproduction of race/ethnicity, gender, and their intersection and asks whether party research is sufficiently attentive to inequality.
16:790:660 Intersectional Political Theories: Race, Gender, and Sexuality
This course situates the specific theoretical paradigm of “intersectionality” within and among currents in political theory more broadly. By encouraging conversation between intersectional writings and currents in the broader context of feminist political theory, we will explore the ways that intersectionality has been claimed, transposed, broadened, and appropriated by a wide variety of political thinkers beyond its “origins” in Black and Third World feminisms.
Additional Electives:
16:790: Inter-Racial Politics in the United States (Greene)
16:790: Race and American political Institutions (Miller)
16:790: Black Women in Politics (Alexander-Floyd)
