The past decade has witnessed a renaissance in antisemitic and racist thought and discourse in mainstream politics across the globe. This itself is puzzling, as the end of the Cold War brought expectations from scholars that the emerging consensus on liberal democracy and secular humanism would constitute the “end of history.” Why have antisemitism and racism – along with a renewed insistence on traditional masculinity – reemerged at a time when universal human rights are widely accepted? Answering that question constitutes the core aim of this course.

This eight-week course will survey a series of important bodies of literature, spanning  human rights, political psychology, and comparative politics. Students will be challenged to move beyond traditional Western-centric conceptions of race and ethnicity, looking instead to broader bodies of literature that explore inter-group relations around the globe.