Gender, Race and Diversity

This course provides foundational knowledge to students in the MINT track on Gender, Race and Diversity. Divided into three parts, it includes 1. an introduction to theorizing identity and difference, and to methodologies that look at the world from the margins, 2. an overview of the knowledges that have emerged from various positionalities and of epistemes reflecting different locations, and 3. a discussion of the promises and pitfalls of political interventions to address sexism, racism and other forms of oppression. The class seeks to familiarize students with key writings from feminist, queer, indigenous, disability, decolonial and critical race studies. The purpose is to provide an understanding of the way intersecting dimensions of difference and power - such as gender, race, sexuality, ability, and class - structure international realities and often reproduce inequalities and exclusion based on the hierarchisation of difference. The course seeks to offer students theoretical and methodological tools to guide their studies as they deepen their knowledge in other courses offered in the specialization. The class combines lectures with seminar-style discussion. It focuses on (a) providing a broad overview of pertinent literature and (b) deepening understandings of the literature through reading and discussion of exemplary texts. At the end of the class students will - Have acquired theoretical knowledge and learned about understandings of the world that emerge from non-hegemonic positions; - Have gained methodological skills to help them identify and analyse intersecting power relations; - Have developed practical knowledge useful for guiding action in world-changing projects.