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Regular version of the site

Ethnicity, Religion and Politics

2019/2020
Academic Year
ENG
Instruction in English
4
ECTS credits
Course type:
Elective course
When:
3 year, 1, 2 module

Course Syllabus

Abstract

This elective course explores the relationship between ethnicity, nationalism, religion, and politics in the current world. We begin by analyzing ethnicity, nationhood, and religion conceptually and go on to explore why and how the ―management‖ of cultural differences played the crucial role in the history of XIX-XX century. We then examine multiculturalism, probing its theoretical foundations, practical manifestations, and limits. The second half of the course examines the contemporary forms of the politics of diversity and its failure, ethnic conflicts, migration policy and cultural diversity, as well as question of universalism and particularism of human rights.
Learning Objectives

Learning Objectives

  • The goal of this course is to explore the relationship between ethnicity, nationalism, religion, and politics in the current world
Expected Learning Outcomes

Expected Learning Outcomes

  • Student is introduced to basic concepts of ethnicity, religion and nation
  • Student is introduced to concepts of nationhood and religion
  • Student is introduced to notions of nation-building and identity politics
  • Student is introduced to multi-cultural societies and multiculturalism
  • Student is introduced to concepts of culture, nation and religion
  • Students are familiar with connection between religion and globalization
  • Students are introduced to notions of genocide and identity politics
  • the student is familiar with the notion of post-colonialism and its critique of identity politics
  • Student is familiar with notions of memory, nationalism and identity politics
  • Students are familiar with challenges of multi-culturalism
Course Contents

Course Contents

  • Ethnicity, Religion, Nation – basic concepts
    What is ethnicity, "ethnie, ethnic identity, and what is the difference between ethnic and national identity? Religion - definitions and (mis)understandings.
  • Nationhood and Religion
    Westphalian system and nation-building process in Europe. "Cuius regio eius religio". Nationhood from a different perspective.
  • Nation-building and Identity Politics
    Nation, State, and Politics of Recognition from the France Revolution to Franco-Prussian war (War 1870). Identity politics in education - history, and language. E. Hobsbawm "Invention of tradition"
  • Multi-cultural societies and multiculturalism
    Nation-states and its alternates. M. Walzer typology of culturally diverse states. W. Kymlicka multi-culturalism. Examples and controversies.
  • State, Nation, and Religion.
    Culture and Religion: religion as an asocial institute and "way of life". Two traditions of interrelation between State and Religion - Eastern Roman Empire vs Holy Roman Empire. Church and State: different models of co-existence. Secularism and secularization
  • Globalization and religion. New Age. Religion minorities in the modern world
    Religion revival in the XX century. Modern religion in the search of its place. Religious minorities and modern states
  • Genocide and identity politics. Holocaust. Radical nationalism and fundamentalism
    nation-building process in extreme: religious fundamentalism and radical nationalism.
  • Colonial system, racism, and post-colonialism.
    Globalization and nationalism. Post-colonialism and dispute on identities.
  • Historical politics, historical memory, and politics of identity
    Role of history in the creation of identity, "war of memories", contested memories. National vs ethnic history and the role of the state
  • Citizenship, identity politics, and migration
    Dramatical change in the current policy in identity politics, especially in the new frame of European citizenship, new waves of migration to Eurasia, and its implication to the crises of the nation-building process and national states
Assessment Elements

Assessment Elements

  • non-blocking Class participation
    An instructor grades the participation in discussions during seminars, answers to instructor’s questions and overall involvement in the in-class activities. The resulting grade for participation is an average of all the marks received by a student during the seminars.
  • non-blocking Tests
    There will be three short quizzes covering the material of the preceding lectures and seminars. The dates of the quizzes will be announced in advance
  • non-blocking Team project
    In the second half of the course students are to prepare a team project — a policy paper which analyzes how a country’s government came to a certain policy decision and/or why it succeeds or fails in its implementation. A paper presentation and a text of the paper are graded separately, the resulting grade is an average of these two grades.
  • non-blocking Exam
    The final exam is in a written form. The final exam is the written analyses of the different cases of ethnic, religious tensions.
Interim Assessment

Interim Assessment

  • Interim assessment (2 module)
    0.3 * Class participation + 0.3 * Exam + 0.3 * Team project + 0.1 * Tests
Bibliography

Bibliography

Recommended Core Bibliography

  • Brubaker, R. (DE-588)113664273, (DE-627)556780426, (DE-576)160448220. (1992). Citizenship and nationhood in France and Germany Rogers Brubaker. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edswao&AN=edswao.031059120
  • Nakamura, L. (2013). Cybertypes : Race, Ethnicity, and Identity on the Internet. Hoboken: Routledge. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=714731

Recommended Additional Bibliography

  • Güder, S. (2016). The Role of History and the Past in Discussions of Nationalism: A Comparative Analysis of the Theories of Eric J. Hobsbawm and Anthony D. Smith. Human & Society / İnsan ve Toplum, 6(2), 21–25. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=asn&AN=121018201