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 also explore theoretical approaches to conceptions of race and ethnicity in relation to gender, citizenship, immigration, empire and colonialism.

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.

Race, Ethnicity, and Politics Courses

Faculty 

Nikol Alexander-Floyd (Women & Politics)

Cynthia Daniels (Women & Politics)

Elena Gambino (Political Theory)

Stacey Greene (American)

Yalidy Matos (American)

Lisa L. Miller (Public Law)

Kira Sanbonmatsu (W&P)  

 

Curriculum

Formal Requirements

Students who wish to pursue a first minor in REP must complete the following requirements:

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)?

790:637 Immigration Politics:

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. From its inception, the

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.

Students are required to take two additional REP courses:

EXISTING COURSES

Introduction to Race and Ethnic Politics in the United States – Greene/Matos [Am Pol]

Immigration in American Politics – Matos [ Am Pol]

Gender, Race, and Parties – Sanbonmatsu [ W&P]

Black Feminist Theory – Alexander-Floyd [ W&P}

Inter-Racial Politics in the United States

Race and American political Institutions

Race, crime, and punishment in American Politics