| Course Name | Year | Term | Period | Faculty / Graduate School | All Instructors | Credits |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13080:[2025 Fall]IR18‐EE231 Race and Ethnicity in the Modern World (RB) § 13081:IR-ECS203 Race and Ethnicity in the Modern World (RB) § 13082:RUIR-2422 Race and Ethnicity in the Modern World(RB) | 2025 | Fall | Fri3 | College Of International Relations | TSUJIMOTO TOSHIKO | 2 |
Campus
Class Venue
Language
Course Outline and Method
This introductory course aims for students to understand how race and ethnicity -- the elusive markers classifying human beings into different social categories -- had contributed to shaping the historical ideologies and orders that distinguish human groups and individuals from “us” to “others.” The course comprises two-fold theoretical and empirical case studies to link theories with global concerns of race and ethnicity issues. It provides students with essential knowledge and debates on race and ethnicity studies to delve into various ongoing global phenomena and contentious issues of ethnic conflicts and territorial disputes. To bridge the Western-centred studies on race and ethnicity, I introduce specific case studies in Japan and other countries or regions to invigorate comparative views and expand the scope of analysis.
Specifically, the course will begin with the historical development of race and ethnicity and the intersections of two concepts based on different scholarly approaches and regional contexts. Second, we will examine how modern nation-building involves race and ethnicity by articulating the connections between modernization, nationalism, and ethnicity. We will also explore how contemporary nation-states address racially and ethnically heterogeneous populations under the government policies of multiculturalism. Lastly, we will focus on the bilateral effect of ethnicity, consolidating people under comradeship and shared identity. On the other hand, it generates conflicts between humans with different attributes and identities. We also address how ethnicity brings about divides and rivalry, illustrated by the separatist movements (secession), genocide, and ethnic cleansing in the final phase of the course.
Throughout the course, we explore how identities, mythologies, beliefs, and collective memories or traumas permeating race and ethnicity can impact real international politics and disputes in conjunction with ethnonational symbolism.
This course adopts a "students-centred learning" principle, combining a series of lectures and students' group discussions. I evaluate students' performance based on case study reports on race and ethnicity, class group discussions, reflection on lectures, and final research papers. Considering the expected class size, I cannot return feedback individually. Instead, I will provide feedback to the whole class every week by synthesizing the submitted reflections and discussions.
Student Attainment Objectives
1) understand and explain race and ethnicity concepts and their controversy within the historical development of human race ideologies in the West and its influence on other world regions in their respective contexts;
2) read and understand scholarly materials to summarize the contents in their words and express their views orally and in a written form while identifying meaningful questions for discussions;
3) develop a critical lens to explain the cause of a specific international incident, such as territorial disputes and ethnic conflicts, by adequately engaging with scholarly discussions of race and ethnicity studies;
4) explain the contact points of ethnicity and international relations by using scholarly concepts and frameworks;
5) complete a research paper at the end of the semester, which includes a coherent flow of problem setting and unravelling the complex racial and ethnic issues in a particular region or country supported by sufficient academic references.
Recommended Preparatory Course
Course Schedule
| Lecture/Instructor（When there are multiple instructors) | Theme |
|---|---|
| Keyword, References and Supplementary Information | |
| 1 |
Course Introduction
|
‧ Explaining the course overview and goals
|
|
| 2 | Race in the "Post-Racial" World--Students' Group Discussion ① |
‧ Globalization and human mobility, racialization in sport, us vs. others,
|
|
| 3 | Rethinking “Mixed Race” and “Pure Race” Ideology in the Global Contexts |
‧ Genetics and race, miscegenation and anti-miscegenation, “mixed-blood” or "mixed-raceness" as a historically constructed ideology, ethnicity and nationality as the elements of mixedness
|
|
| 4 | "Mixed Eace People" in Asia and Beyond |
‧ The contexts of "mixedness" in Asia or non-Atlantic model, The foreign military occupation as the consequence of "mixedness", marriage migration and the creation of "mixedness"
|
|
| 5 | Race and Ethnicity |
‧ Primordial, instrumental, and circumstantial accounts of ethnicity, race and ethnicity as the interchangeable variables?
|
|
| 6 | Ethnicity and Identities--Students' Group Discussion ② |
‧ Assimilation, acculturation, ethnic boundary, stereotyping
|
|
| 7 | Ethnicity and Nationalism |
‧ Modernism and primordialism approaches to a nation and nationalism, nationalism as political (civic) or ethnic consciousness and movement?
|
|
| 8 | Ethnonationalism, Immigration, and Xenophobia |
‧ Ethnic nationalism, the rise of far-right wing parties, anti-immigration sentiments
|
|
| 9 | Ethnicity and Race in Multicultural Societies |
‧ The myth of a homogenous nation-state, multiculturalism, liberalism, communitarianism, developmental model
|
|
| 10 | Challenges of Multicultural Societies in Asia and Beyond--Students' Group Discussion ③ |
‧ The rise of international labour migration and mixed marriage in East Asia, new formation of the hierarchies in nationhood and ethnicity
|
|
| 11 | Self-Determination as Collective Rights |
‧ Collective rights vs. individual rights, internal and external elements of self-determination, self-determination of indigenous people and immigrants
|
|
| 12 | Ethnic Consolidation and Conflicts |
‧ Ethnicity as the cause of conflicts? instrumental and “the myth-symbol complex”
|
|
| 13 | Ethnic Cleansing and Ethnonational Symbolism--Students' Group Discussion ④ |
‧ The creation and dissolution of the former federation of Yugoslavia, Ethno-symbolic and instrumental reasons for ethnic cleansing
|
|
| 14 | Peer-Review on the Final Research Paper--Students' Group Discussion ⑤ |
‧ Students will submit the memo of the Final Research Paper on Manaba before the class. |
Class Format
Recommendations for Private Study
Grade Evaluation Method
| Kind | Percentage | Grading Criteria etc. |
|---|---|---|
| Final Examination (Written) | 0 | |
| Report Examination (A report to be submitted by the unified deadline) |
0 | |
| Exams and/or Reports other than those stated above, and Continuous Assessment (Evaluation of Everyday Performance in Class) |
100 | ‧ Reflection comments (15%; approximately 200-300 words per posting)
|
Grade Evaluation Method （Note）
* Students absent from two-thirds of the group discussion classes will automatically fail the course.
* Students' Final Research Papers will be assessed by the systematic criteria or rubric (i.e., selecting an appropriate topic, the paper's focus, logical organization, fair use of scholarly resources and engaging & coherent in-depth discussions, etc.). Please remember that I will check the originality of all Final Research Papers through the online program. If your paper is found to significantly overlap with others' writings without adequate citations or reuse the previous term papers submitted to other courses (ex., both papers' contents are almost identical), and your paper is detected to using Chat GPT or other AI programs, you will fail this course. Students must know what acts can constitute academic misconduct on their responsibility.
Advice to Students on Study and Research Methods
Textbooks
Textbooks （Frequency of Use, Note）
Reference Books
| Title | Author | Publisher | ISBN Code | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Race and Ethnicity: Culture, Identity and Representation (Second Edition) | Spencer, Stephen | Routledge | 9781134086597 | We will use it for several classes. Available as an e-book form. |
| Ethnicity and Race: Making Identities in a Changing World (Second Edition) | Ethnicity and Race: Making Identities in a Changing World (Second Edition) | Pine Forge Press | 9781412941105 | We will use as a reference text. |
| "Mixed-Race" Studies: A Reader | "Mixed-Race" Studies: A Reader | Routledge | 9780203643617 | Reference reading text for Week 5. |
| Ethnicity and Nationalism: Anthropological Perspectives | Eriksen, Thomas Hylland | Pluto Press | 9780745330433 | We will use it for several classes. Available as an e-book form. |
| Statehood and Self-Determination: Reconciling Tradition and Modernity in International Law | French, Duncan (ed.) | Cambridge University Press | 9781139248952 | We will use it for several classes. Available as an e-book form. |
| Multiculturalism in East Asia | Iwabuchi, Koichi, Kim, Hyun Mee, Hsia, Hsiao-Chuan (eds.) | Rowman & Littlefield Publishers | 9781783484997 | We will use it for the Week 11 class. Available as an e-book form. |
| Routledge Handbook of Ethnic Conflict | Cordell, Karl, and Wolff, Stefan (eds.) | Routledge | 9780203845493 | We will use it for several classes. Available as an e-book form. |
Reference Books （Frequency of Use, Note）
Web Pages for Reference
How to Communicate with the Instructor In and Out of Class(Including Instructor Contact Information)
Other Comments
URL:https://secure.ritsumei.ac.jp/students/pathways-future/course/curriculum.html/