Ethnic Prejudice, Racism and Nationalism

Course goals

The aim of the course is that based on literature, assignments, and class discussions, students acknowledge the new trends and discussions around the themes of prejudice, racism, and nationalism in present day Europe and beyond. Practical aspects, social and political realities of different countries and their forms of nationalistic movements as well as theoretical tools are transmitted through the course. Students should be able to be critical towards the various models, showing their understanding of all facets and all the factors that might contribute to, shape or influence the presence and manifestations of conflicts, prejudice, racism, and nationalism.
 

Content

In this course, we focus on a comparative analysis of the manifestations and causes of ethnic prejudice, racism, and nationalism across different nations and ethnic groups. We address these forms of ethnic conflicts from several theoretical angles to model the underlying individual and contextual conditions. We build on different disciplines such as sociology, social psychology, and political sciences to understand the nature and causes of prejudice, racism, and nationalism. Several explanations will be examined, such as realistic group conflict theory, social dominance orientation, right-wing authoritarianism, group-based guilt, and political factors. We will thereby examine individual and country-level explanations across various contexts, both within and outside of the European context. The central focus of the course will be on prejudice and discrimination among the majority population towards immigrants and ethnic minorities. We also examine how intergroup tensions and conflicts may be reduced or resolved.

With regard to academic skills, the focus will be on comparing, structuring, and synthesising different theories, critically assessing the merits of theoretical and empirical studies, posing new research questions and deducing testable hypotheses, and oral presentations and writing skills by means of a theoretical paper.