Not available in 2015/16
PS460      Half Unit
Inter-cultural Relations and Racism

This information is for the 2015/16 session.

Teacher responsible

Dr Caroline Howarth STC.365

Availability

This course is available on the MSc in Health, Community and Development, MSc in Organisational and Social Psychology, MSc in Social and Cultural Psychology and MSc in Social and Public Communication. This course is available as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

Course content

The course demonstrates the importance of a Social Psychological perspective for research into inter-cultural relations and racism, with a particular focus on national and community identities, acculturation, multiculturalism, political change and collaboration across difference. Lecturers aim to achieve a balance between theoretical and applied issues, in the interests of critically investigating the way in which conceptual tools can enhance our understanding of the concrete social world.

We use a range of psychological theories: acculturation, contact, social identity, social representations, intersectionality, orientalism and conscientization. We explore the social and ideological production of cultural difference, exclusion and prejudice in ways that both highlight the role of history and politics in the social psychology of intercultural relations and also reveal the possibilities for agency, resistance, collaboration and transformation in contexts of (constructed) difference. Hence we establish an account of intercultural relations that connects the social (the ideological, the contextual, the structural, the cultural) and the psychological (subjectivity, agency, identity and representation). We apply this critical social psychological account of production and consequences of cultural difference to the contexts of politics, community, education and everyday life in general.

Teaching

10 hours of lectures and 10 hours of seminars in the LT.

Indicative reading

Ali, S. (2003) Mixed-Race, Post-Race: Gender, New ethnicities and cultural practices. Oxford: Berg.

Augoustinos, M. and Reynolds, K. (2001) Understanding Prejudice, Racism and Social Conflict. London: Sage;

Bar-Tal, D. (2011) Intergroup conflicts and their resolution: A Social Psychological Perspective. Hove: Psychology Press.

Biko, S. (1996). I Write What I Like. London: Bowerdean;

Billig, M. (1995) Banal Nationalism. London: Sage;

Chryssochoou, X. (2004) Cultural Diversity: Its Social Psychology. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing;

Dixon, J and Levine, N. (2012) Beyond Prejudice: Extending the Social Psychology of Conflict, Inequality and Social Change. Cambridge: CUP ublishing;

Fanon, F. (1952). Black Skin, White Masks. London: Pluto Press;

Gates, H.G and Oliver, T.H (Eds) (1999). The Souls of Black Folk. W.E.B Du Bois. New York/London: W.W. Norton & Company;

Gilroy, P. (2004) After Empire: melancholia or convivial culture. London: Routledge

Hooks, B. (1992) Black Looks: race and representation South End Press; Cambrdige, US

Howitt, D. and Owsus-Bempah, J. (1994) The Racism of Psychology: Time for Change. Hemel Hempstead: Harvester Wheatsheaf;

Jovchelovitch, S. (2007) Knowledge in Context: Representations, Community and Culture. London: Routledge.

Moghaddam, F. (2008) Multiculturalism and Intergroup relations: psychological implications for democracy in global context. Washington DC: APA.

Pettgrew, T. and Tropp. L. (2011) When Groups Meet: The Dynamics of Intergroup contact. Hove: Psychology Press.

Reicher, S. and Hopkins, N. (2001) Self and Nation. London: Sage.

Richards, R. (1997) 'Race', Racism and psychology: Towards a Reflexive History. London: Routledge.

Said, E. (1978). Orientalism. London & New York: Penguin;

Taylor, S. (2010) Narratives of Identity and Place. Hove: Psychology Press.

Ware and Back (2003) Out of Whiteness: Color, Politics and culture. Chicago: Chicago University Press;

Wetherell, M., & Potter, J. (1992). Mapping the Language of Racism: discourse and the legitimation of exploitation. Hemel Hempstead: Harvester-Wheatsheaf.

Winston, A. (2004) Defining Difference: Race and racism in the history of psychology. Washington DC: APA.

Assessment

Essay (100%, 3000 words) in the ST.

Key facts

Department: Social Psychology

Total students 2014/15: Unavailable

Average class size 2014/15: Unavailable

Controlled access 2014/15: No

Value: Half Unit

Guidelines for interpreting course guide information