Topics in Ethnicity, Migration and Nationalism

Description

What is ethnicity and how can we understand its manifestations, influences and social dynamics? This course provides an advanced introduction to the study of ethnicity in Aotearoa New Zealand and beyond, and focuses on related topics: the movement of people across national borders (and within nation states); the way population movement transforms categorization of people; and the cultural, economic and political dynamics around, and impacts of, such transformations. In particular, we explore ethnicity, race, racism, indigeneity, minority rights, migration, nationalism, multiculturalism and related phenomena in a range of different times and places. The concept of ethnicity is discussed both in relation to group rights in existing nation states and in relation to transnational, multilingual and multicultural communities in globalized world, and we will understand the contemporary social context of global migration. We will analyze the practical implications of an increasingly culturally, ethnically and linguistically diverse population in Aotearoa New Zealand and beyond, and we will examine what “diversity” means and how our society has responded to it.