Sociology of 'Race' and Ethnicities (SOCI30014)

This subject provides a sociological examination of the racialized underpinnings of Australian society. Focusing on how social forces such as colonisation, dispossession and the White Australia Policy have shaped understandings of racial difference, the subject will be concerned with the specific social consequences for Australia of such racialisation processes, which includes contemporary Australian expressions of racial inequalities and racism.  The subject also considers the impacts of the interplay between Australia and the global shifts that shape both the changing notions and experiences of ‘race’ and conceptualisations and experiences of ethnicity.  A sociological investigation of what decolonising knowledge means will also be explored through introducing some First Nation’s Australian knowledge and critical engagement with social theory.