Race, Ethnicity and Migration in Culture and the Arts, 7.5 credits

Main field of study

Course level

Advancement level

Entry requirements

• 180 ECTS credits passed including 90 ECTS credits in one of the following subjects:
  • humanities
  • fine arts
  • social sciences
  • behavioural sciences
  • health sciences
  • natural sciences
    or equivalent qualifications
• English corresponding to the level of English in Swedish upper secondary education (Engelska 6)
  Exemption from Swedish

Intended learning outcomes

After completion of the course the student shall on an advanced level be able to: 
- account for the ways in which cultural and aesthetic expressions have sustained notions of race and ethnicity in European history;
- analyze how aesthetic narratives and images problematize and question stereotypical accounts of racial and ethnic groups, migrants, and migration;
- make historically informed assessments of the principle of free speech in relation to discursive violence in the context of contemporary depictions of race, ethnicity, and gender.

Course content

The course deals with the relation of cultural and aesthetic expressions – such as literary narratives, visual arts, photography, cinema, and the performing arts – to race, ethnicity and migration. The premise of the course is that cultural and aesthetic expressions provide specific ways of understanding crucial aspects of ethnicity and migration, for instance, the stereotyping of minorities, intercultural encounters, and conditions of exile and diaspora. Aesthetic tendencies and genres in which race and ethnicity seems particularly prevalent, such as caricature, primitivism, travel writing, and war journalism, are examined in the course. Students will make in-depth observations of contemporary debates in which art and culture serve as an arena for new forms of racialization as well as new forms of anti-racism. In this context, attention is given to the ways in which contemporary depictions of race, ethnicity and migration may be analysed in relation to principles of free speech, on the one hand, and prohibitions against hate speech, on the other. The course employs an intersectional approach to ethnicity and migration.

Teaching and working methods

The course offers a combination of lectures, seminars, individual assignments and group assignments. Students are expected to be well prepared for lectures and to have completed assigned preparations for seminars. Language of instruction: English

Examination

The course is examined through active seminar participation and written assignments. Detailed information about the examination can be found in the course’s study guide.

If special circumstances prevail, and if it is possible with consideration of the nature of the compulsory component, the examiner may decide to replace the compulsory component with another equivalent component.

If the LiU coordinator for students with disabilities has granted a student the right to an adapted examination for a written examination in an examination hall, the student has the right to it.

If the coordinator has recommended for the student an adapted examination or alternative form of examination, the examiner may grant this if the examiner assesses that it is possible, based on consideration of the course objectives.

An examiner may also decide that an adapted examination or alternative form of examination if the examiner assessed that special circumstances prevail, and the examiner assesses that it is possible while maintaining the objectives of the course.

Students failing an exam covering either the entire course or part of the course twice are entitled to have a new examiner appointed for the reexamination.

Students who have passed an examination may not retake it in order to improve their grades.

Grades

Other information

Planning and implementation of a course must take its starting point in the wording of the syllabus. The course evaluation included in each course must therefore take up the question how well the course agrees with the syllabus. 

The course is conducted in such a way that there are equal opportunities with regard to sex, transgender identity or expression, ethnicity, religion or other belief, disability, sexual orientation and age.

If special circumstances prevail, the vice-chancellor may in a special decision specify the preconditions for temporary deviations from this course syllabus, and delegate the right to take such decisions.

Department