Race and Caste

In recent years, race and caste as categories of social hierarchy have increasingly been brought into conversation with one another. Dalit activists in South Asia and elsewhere have long looked to Black civil rights movements for models of emancipation. Caste has been invoked as a category with which to better understand ‘race’ relations. Despite a history of borrowing, comparison and, sometimes, mutual misunderstanding, race and caste have rarely been brought into conversation with one another in a systematic fashion. This module gives students an opportunity to study forms of hierarchy and social injustice based on race, caste and descent. Rather than thinking of these categories as opposing each other, the focus will be on trying to investigate and understand their connections. Geographically, the module will focus on Anglophone locations in the world, enabling conversations about the legacies and afterlives of the British Empire and the social and political struggles that they continue to create.