Focusing on prejudice and discrimination, this course examines how people influence and are influenced by their social setting. In the context of European conquest the beginnings of a global racial order as well as ways of explaining the existence of human diversity was established, fostering a climate of prejudice and discrimination. The discourses on how Europe described differences between itself and others used European cultural categories, languages and ideas to represent the “other”. These Eurocentric, androcentric, exotic and evolutionary discourses will be examined where contemporary examples of certain others (marginalized people) show that the “logic” of colonialism is still an active force today. The course will discuss examples of following discriminations: ethnic, racial, gender, religious, sexual preference, as well as prejudice and discrimination of minorities, disabled people, immigrants and discriminations towards non-human species. Furthermore, the agency of people who are labeled different and marginalized will be portrayed. (3 credits)
Prerequisites:
Previous courses in sociology or anthropology are recommended, or approval of the instructor.
Learning outcomes:
After taking the course students will be able to:
• distinguish between the concepts prejudice and discrimination.
• recognize different approaches to these concepts.
• understand “the culture of prejudice” and detect its effects and its pervasiveness.
• examine the ways in which colonial discourse operates as an instrument of power.
• identify the role colonial discourse played/plays for categorizing & evaluating people.
• understand evolutionism, exoticism and ethnocentrism as powerful theoretical discourses that are used consciously as well as unconsciously to evaluate, pre-judge and discriminate certain “others” and recognize these influences in contemporary representations and statements about labeled “others” exp. (migrants, disabled, homosexuals etc.).
• recognize postcolonial theory as a framework that destabilizes dominant discourses in the West and that challenges “inherent” assumptions.
• identify various strategies in coping with prejudice and discrimination.
Method of presentation:
Presentations and discussions, video excerpts, case studies, field trips, and group work.
Field study:
• Mauthhausen Concentration Camp
• Dialoge im Dunklen: The blind and the sighted exchange roles for an hour in Dialog in the dark.
Blind guides lead visitors through everyday situations - in complete darkness
• HoSi – Wien
Required work and form of assessment:
The students are expected to prepare for and participate in classes. The course is graded as follows: midterm exam 20%, presentation in class 30%, class participation & journal 20%; final exam & written assignment 30%.
The midterm and the final exam are a combination of the following types of questions: essay and short answers. The written assignment is a research paper on a subject matter relevant to the course topic and is due the last week of class. The written assignment entails a list of references, a personal reflection, and a literature review for a total length of 10-12 pages. The presentation gives students the opportunity to present their research findings taken from the written assignment or the journal. The journal consists of short exercises assigned on a weekly basis. In the journal students are expected to personally reflect on subject matter discussed in class, including current issues on discrimination towards marginalized groups taken from the weekly readings/listening of serious online newspapers/radio programs (for example, The Vienna Review, The Austrian Times, Fm4 Radio) to keep up to date on current events in Austria. Students are also encouraged keep up with news in their local newspapers (online sources) and address current issues of prejudice and discrimination towards marginalized groups in their hometowns in the U.S. These findings will be discussed in class and will be counted as part of their class participation. Students will be asked to formulate their own opinions regarding topics. Class participation refers to the extent students are involved in class and are prepared when coming to class, as well as actively participating in discussions and attending fieldtrips.
content:
Part 1: Socio-cultural dimension of prejudice and discrimination
Week 1: Syllabus review & Introduction to concepts of prejudice and discrimination
The aims of the course will be introduced. Definitions and terms of prejudice and discrimination will be covered. Special attention will be given to socio-cultural dimensions of prejudice and discrimination.
Required reading:
• Plous, Scott. 2003. “The psychology of prejudice, stereotyping, and discrimination: An overview”,
in: Plous, Scott (ed.): Understanding prejudice and discrimination. New York: McGraw-Hill, 3-48.
• Giddens, Anthony. 2009. “Prejudice and Discrimination”, in: Sociology. Cambridge: Polity Press,
636-637.
• Kleinman, Arthur & Hall-Clifford, Rachel. 2009. “Stigma: A social, cultural and moral process”, in: Journal of Epidemiology and community Health. 1-6. URL.: http://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/2757548/Klienman_StigmaSocial... ce=2 [Retrieved 5.6.2011]
• Sorenson, John S. 2003. “Introduction”, in: Blackwell, Judith C./Smith, Murray E.G. and
Sorenson, John S. (eds.): Culture of Prejudice. Arguments in Critical Social Science. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
• Feagin, Joe. 1980. “Discrimination: Motivation, action, effects, and context”, in: Annual Review of
Sociology 6, 1-20. Recommended reading:
• Jandt, Fred E. 2010. “Stereotypes and Prejudice”, in: An introduction to Intercultural
Communication. Identities in a Global Community. Los Angeles: Sage, 86-93.
• Thomas, Alexander. 2006. „Die Bedeutung von Vorurteil und Stereotyp im interkulturellen
Handeln“, in: Interculture Journal 2/2006. Thüringen: Online-Journal.
URL.: http://www.interculture-journal.com/download/article/thomas_2006_02.pdf [Retrieved
5.6.2011]
Week 2: Colonialism: The European gaze - classifications, evolutionism, exoticism, Eurocentrism.
Colonial discourse and the discourse of Modernity will be represented as a system of statements that can
be made about the world that involve certain assumptions, prejudices, and insights, all of which have a historical provenance, but exclude other, possible equally valid, statements. These operated as an instrument of power, setting rules of inclusion and exclusion and implicating ideas of the centrality and superiority of Europe. The colonized subjects were characterized as the “other” through prevalent discourses such as primitivism and backwardness. The assumptions that underlie the “logic” of colonialism are still active forces today.
Required Reading:
• Sorenson 2003, 78-86.
• Schultz Emily A. & Lavenda Robert H. 2008. “Culture and the Human Condition”, in: Cultural
Anthropology. A perspective on the Human Condition. New York: Oxford University Press, 16-32.
• Schultz, Emily A./Lavenda, Robert H. 2008. “Anthropology in History and the explanation of Cultural Diversity”, in: Schultz, Emily A./Lavenda, Robert H. (eds.): Cultural Anthropology. A perspective on the Human Condition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 65-85.
• Ashcroft, Bill/Griffiths, Gareth & Tiffin, Helen. 2005. “Euro-centrism”, in: Post-Colonial Studies.
New York: Routledge, 90-92.
• Ashcroft, Bill/Griffiths, Gareth & Tiffin, Helen. 2005. “Colonialism”, in: Post-Colonial Studies. New
York: Routledge, 45-51.
• Ashcroft, Bill/Griffiths, Gareth & Tiffin, Helen. 2005. “Exotic/Exoticism”, in: Post-Colonial Studies.
New York: Routledge, 94-95.
• Ashcroft, Bill/Griffiths, Gareth & Tiffin, Helen. 2005. “Other/other”, in: Post-Colonial Studies. New
York: Routledge, 169-171.
Recommended reading:
• Wolf, Eric R. 1982. Europe and the People Without History. Berkeley: University of California
Press.
Week 3: Post-colonialism
Post - colonialism is introduced as a continuation of colonialism, albeit through different or new relationships concerning power and the control/production of knowledge. The critical nature of
postcolonial theory and its destabilizing ways of thinking will be highlighted where new ways are created
for the subaltern or marginalized groups to speak and produce alternatives to dominant discourses.
Required reading:
• Ashcroft, Bill/Griffiths, Gareth & Tiffin, Helen. 2005. “Discourse”, in: Post-Colonial Studies. New
York: Routledge, 70-73.
• Ashcroft, Bill/Griffiths, Gareth & Tiffin, Helen. 2005. “Modernism and Post-Colonialism”, in: Post- Colonial Studies. New York: Routledge, 143-147.
• Hall, Stuart. 2003. “The spectacle of the Other”, in: Representations. Cultural representations and signifying practices. London: Sage, 223-291.
• McLennan, Gregor. 2003. Sociology, Eurocentrism and Postcolonial Theory. European Journal of
Social Theory. London: Sage, 69-86.
• Ashcroft, Bill/Griffiths, Gareth & Tiffin, Helen. 2005. “Hybridity”, in: Post-Colonial Studies. New
York: Routledge, 118-121.
Recommended reading:
• Staszak, Jean-François. 2008. Other/otherness. Elsevier: International Encyclopedia of Human
Geography. URL.: http://www.unige.ch/ses/geo/collaborateurs/publicationsJFS/OtherOthernes... [Retrieved
5.6.2011]
• Gurminder, Bhambra K. 2007. “Sociology and Post-colonialism. Another missing revolution?”, in:
Sociology. Volume 41(5). New Dehli: Sage, 871-884.
• Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. 1988. "Can the Subaltern Speak?" in: Nelson, Cary/Grossberg, Lawrence (eds.). Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture. Urbana/Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 271-313.
• Pearson Higher Education: “Postcolonialism” URL.: http://www.pearsonhighered.com/assets/hip/us/hip_us_pearsonhighered/samp...
1697.pdf [Retrieved 5.6.2011]
Part 2: Discrimination
Week 3: Race/Racism
The origins of race and race theories will be highlighted. Biological racism, racism as ideology, structural racism and everyday racism will be discussed.
Required Reading:
• Essed, Philomena. 1991. “Knowlegde and Comprehension of Everyday Racism”, in: Stanfield,
John H. (ed.) Understanding Everyday Racism. An Interdisciplinary Theory. London: Sage, 72-
119.
• Sanjek, Roger. 2003. “Race”, in: Barnard, Alan/Spencer, Jonathan (eds.): Encyclopedia of Social and Cultural Anthropology. New York: Routledge, 462-465.
• Schultz, Emily A./Lavenda, Robert H. 2008. “Dimensions of inequality in the Contemporary World: Class, Caste, Race, Ethnicity, and Nationalism”, in: Schultz, Emily A./Lavenda, Robert H. (eds.): Cultural Anthropology. A perspective on the Human Condition. Oxford: Oxford University Press,
326-355.
• Harrison, Faye V. 1995. “The Persistent Power of "Race". The Cultural and Political Economy of Racism”, in: Annual Review of Anthropology, Vol. 24, 47-74. URL.: http://www33.homepage.villanova.edu/edward.fierros/pdf/harrison~power%20... [Retrieved 5.6.2011]
Recommended Reading:
• Winant, Howard. 2000. “Race and Race Theory”, in: Annual Review of Sociology 26, 169-185.
• Todorov, Tzvetan. 2000. “Race and Racism”, in: Back, Les/Solomos, John (eds.): Theories of
Race and Racism. A Reader. New York: Routledge, 64-71.
Week 4: The Orient/Orientalism/New Orientalism
The term “Orientalism” will be examined, which is understood to be a process by which the “Orient” was and continues to be constructed in European thinking. “The Orient” is discussed as not an inert fact of nature, but as a phenomenon that was established in order to make statements about it, ruling over and
having authority over the Orient. Furthermore, “new Orientalism” will be discussed, which is a populist construction of Islam as a threat to Western civic values. Media images from Austrian newspaper articles and slogans of contemporary political campaigns around "new Orientalism" will be discussed.
Required reading:
• Spencer, Jonathan. 2003. “Orientalism”, in: Barnard, Alan/Spencer, Jonathan (eds.):
Encyclopedia of Social and Cultural Anthropology. New York: Routledge, 407-408.
• Gingrich, Andre. 1998. “Frontier Myths of Orientalism. The Muslim World in Public and Popular Cultures of Central Europe”, in: Baskar, Bojan/Brumen, Borut (eds.): Mess: Mediterranean Ethnological Summer School, Piran, Pirano, Slovenia 1996 Vol. 2. Ljubljana: Inštitut za multikulturne raziskave, 99-127.
• Bunzl, Matti. 2005. “Between anti-Semitism and Islamophobia: Some thoughts on new Europe”, in: American Ethnologist 32/4, 499-508.
• Baumann, Gert. 2002. “Islam”, in: Barnard, Alan/Spencer, Jonathan (eds.): Encyclopedia of
Social and Cultural Anthropology. New York: Routledge, 305-307.
Recommended Reading:
• Said, Edward W. 1995 [1978]. Orientalism. Western conceptions of the Orient. London: Penguin
Books.
Week 5: Discrimination towards migrants
The representations of immigrants in contemporary Austrian public discourse are discussed and the racialization and exoticizingness of the (im)migrant “other” is explored. Portrayals of immigrants in newspapers, television and the internet are discussed. Current events and issues are addressed. Students will explore Austrian media images and compare them to current representations and images of immigrants in the United States.
Required reading:
• Silverstein, Paul A. 2005. “Immigrant Racialization and the New Savage Slot: Race, Migration,
and Immigration in the New Europe”, in: Annual Review of Anthropology 34, 363-384.
• Böse, Martina/Haberfellner, Regina/Koldas, Ayhan. 2001. A short Overview of Immigration to Austria in Mapping Minorities and their Media: The National Context. 10-25. URL.: https://www.zsi.at/attach/MinoritiesMedia_AT2001.pdf [Retrieved 5. 2.2011]
• Pettigrew, Thomas. 1998. “Reactions towards the New Minorities of Western Europe”, in: Annual
Review of Sociology 24, 77-103.
• Heath, Anthony/Rothan, Catherine/Kilpi, Elina. 2008. “The Second Generation in Western Europe: Education, Unemployment, and Occupational Attainment”, in: Annual Review of Sociology 34,
211-235.
• Ahmed, Sara. 2000. “Home and Away: Narratives of Migration and Estrangement”, in: Strange
Encounters. Embodied others in Post-coloniality. New York: Routledge, 75-95.
Week 6: Midterm exam
Week 7: Anti-Semitism - Remembering the Holocaust
In the Nationalist Socialist system, medicine took a new task in “weeding out” people designated as
“inferior”. There was no room for disabled, members of social fringe groups, or nonconformists.
Am Steinhof (today’s Otto Wagner-Spital), a former Viennese center for Nationalist Socialist medical murder, will be introduced which played a central role in persecuting and imprisoning Jewish patients. Many Jews became victims of euthanasia under the Nazi health policy.
Required reading:
• Moshman, D. 2007. “Us and them: Identity and genocide”, in: Identity: An International Journal of Theory and Research, 7(2), 115-135.
• Mosse, George L. 2000. “The Jews: Myth and Counter-Myth”, in: Back, Les/Solomos, John (eds.):
Theories of Race and Racism. A Reader. New York: Routledge, 195-206.
• Baumann, Zygmunt. 2000. “Modernity, Racism, Extermination”, in: Back, Les/Solomos, John
(eds.): Theories of Race and Racism. A Reader. New York: Routledge, 212-229.
• Plous, Scott (ed.). 2003. “Anti-Semitism” in: Understanding Prejudice and Discrimination.
London: McGraw-Hill, 273-326.
Recommended reading:
• Brustein, W.I., & King, R.D. 2004. “Anti-Semitism as a response to perceived Jewish power: The cases of Bulgaria and Romania before the Holocaust”, in: Social Forces 83(2), 691-708.
Guest Speaker: A surviving witness of the holocaust
Field Trip: Mauthhausen or/and the exhibiont in Viennas Otto Wagner Hospital Wien
Week 8: Health, illness and disability - discrimination towards disabled people
The medical, the minority, and the social model of disability will be introduced. The emphasis will lie on the systemic barriers, negative attitudes, and exclusion by society as factors in disabling people.
• Shakespeare, Tom. 2006. “Critiquing the social model”, in: Disability rights and wrongs. New
York: Routledge, 29-53.
• Davis, Lennard J. 1995. “Constructing Normalcy”, in: Enforcing Normalcy. Disability, Deafness, and the Body. London: Verso, 23-50.
Recommended reading:
• Shapiro, Joseph P. 2003. “No Pity: People with Disabilities forging a new civil rights movement”,
in: Plous, Scott (ed.): Understanding Prejudice and Discrimination. London: McGraw-Hill, 68-75.
• UNESCO/UNAIDS Research report. HIV/AIDS Stigma and Discrimination: An Anthropological Approach
URL.: http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0013/001307/130756e.pdf [Retrieved 5. 2.2011]
• Tremain, Shelley Lynn (ed.). 2005. Foucault and the Government of Disability. Ann Arber: University of Michigan Press.
Fieldtrip: Dialoge im Dunklen:
Week 9 Heteronormativity
Heteronormativity is recognized as a privileging set of life-style norms which assume that people fall into the complementary and distinct genders of woman and man, with natural roles in life. Ideas challenging this “heteronormative culture” and questioning heterosexuality as being something natural and normal will be highlighted. Critics of heteronormative attitudes will be introduced who argue that the effects of heteronormativity are the stigmatization and marginalization as well as discrimination of deviant forms of gender and sexuality, making any other expression that does not conform to the norm difficult.
Required reading:
• Simoni, J.M., & Walters, K.L. 2001. “Heterosexual identity and heterosexism: Recognizing
privilege to reduce prejudice”, in: Journal of Homosexuality, 41(1), 157-172.
• Giddens, Anthony. 2009. “Sexuality and Gender”, in: Sociology. Cambridge: Polity Press, 578-
595.
• Halley, Janet E. 1994. “The construction of heterosexuality”, in: Warner, Michael (ed.): Fear of a
Queer Planet. Queer Politics and Social theory. Minneapolis. University of Minnesota Press, 82-
105.
Week 10: Speciesism/Anthropocentrism – Violence against other species
The historical and contextual specificity of any particular human-animal relationship will be discussed and of how categories, including those of “human” and “animal,” are not inevitable or universal but shaped in particular contexts and in different ways by actors with often contradicting perspectives and interests.
Required reading:
• Plous, Scott (ed.). 2003. “Is there Such a Thing as Prejudice Towards animals?”, in:
Understanding Prejudice and Discrimination. London: McGraw-Hill, 509-537.
• Noske, Barbara. 1997. “The devaluation of Nature”, in: Beyond Boundaries. Humans and Animals.
Montreal: Black Rose Books, 40-80.
• Sanders, Clinton. 2009. “Close relationship between Humans and Nonhuman Animals”, in: Arluke, Arnold/Sanders, Clinton (eds.): Between the Species. Readings in Human-Animal Relations. Boston: Pearson AandB, 45-52.
• Agnew, Robert. 2009. “The Causes of Animal Abuse”, in: Arluke, Arnold/Sanders, Clinton (eds.):
Between the Species. Readings in Human-Animal Relations. Boston: Pearson AandB, 76-90.
Recommended reading:
• Cavalerie, Paula. 2009. The death of the Animal. A Dialogue. New York: Columbia University
Press.
Part 3: Reducing and coping with prejudice and discrimination
Introducing different approaches in reducing and coping with prejudice and discrimination
Week 11: Individual approaches in coping with prejudice and discrimination
In order to reduce and cope with prejudice and discrimination, individual approaches will be discussed. This section examines individual and group strategies aimed at prejudice reduction. Strategies of
maximizing the public expression of strong anti-racist opinions and minimizing the expression of discriminatory and insensitive behavior are introduced. Furthermore, we will take a closer look at the concept of empathy, in order to improve intergroup relations.
Required reading:
• Plous, Scott (ed.). 2003. “Reducing the Expression of Racial Prejudice” in: Understanding
Prejudice and Discrimination. London: McGraw-Hill, 467-474.
• Zimbardo, P. (2007). The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil. NY: Random
House Trade Paperbacks. Ch.11
• Plous, Scott (ed.). 2003. “The Role of Empathy in Improving intergroup Relations” in:
Understanding Prejudice and Discrimination. London: McGraw-Hill, 481-491.
• Plous, Scott (ed.). 2003. “Martin Luther King Explains Nonviolent Resistance” in: Understanding
Prejudice and Discrimination. London: McGraw-Hill, 500-507
Week 12: Sociocultural approaches in coping with prejudice and discrimination
The main focus lies on subaltern social groups that subvert the authority of those who have hegemonic power and can speak through their own actions. These groups use local knowledge to create new spaces of opposition and alternative futures. Examples of subaltern groups will be depicted. Furthermore, by considering queer theory, identities are identified which are not fixed which cannot be categorized and/or labeled.
Required reading:
• Galfarsoro, Imanol. 2007. The notion of the subaltern. Critical Stew. http://criticalstew.org/?p=43
• Butler, Judith. 2000. “Restaging the Universal: Hegemony and the Limits of Formalism” in J.
Butler, E. Laclau and S. Zizek. (eds.): Contingency, Hegemony, Universality: Comtemporary
Dialogues on the Left. New York: 11-43
Week 13: Final exam/Written assignment due
Guest speakers:
• Guest presentation by a member of the organization ZARA: “Civil Courage and Anti-Racism
Work.”
• A surviving witness of the Holocaust
• Guest presentation by a member of the vegan community in Austria.
Required readings:
• Agnew, Robert. 2009. “The Causes of Animal Abuse”, in: Arluke, Arnold/Sanders, Clinton (eds.): Between the Species. Readings in Human-Animal Relations. Boston: Pearson AandB, 76-90.
• Ahmed, Sara. 2000. “Home and Away: Narratives of Migration and Estrangement”, in: Strange Encounters. Embodied others in Post-coloniality. New York: Routledge, 75-95.
• Baumann, Gert. 2002. “Islam”, in: Barnard, Alan/Spencer, Jonathan (eds.): Encyclopedia of Social and Cultural Anthropology. New York: Routledge, 305-307.
• Baumann, Zygmunt. 2000. “Modernity, Racism, Extermination”, in: Back, Les/Solomos, John (eds.): Theories of Race and Racism. A Reader. New York: Routledge, 212-229.
• Böse, Martina/Haberfellner, Regina/Koldas, Ayhan. 2001. A short Overview of Immigration to Austria in Mapping Minorities and their Media: The National Context. 10-25. URL.: https://www.zsi.at/attach/MinoritiesMedia_AT2001.pdf [Retrieved 5. 2.2011]
• Bunzl, Matti. 2005. “Between anti-Semitism and Islamophobia: Some thoughts on new Europe”, in: American Ethnologist 32/4, 499-508.
• Butler, Judith. 2000. “Restaging the Universal: Hegemony and the Limits of Formalism” in J. Butler, E. Laclau and S. Zizek. (eds.): Contingency, Hegemony, Universality: Comtemporary Dialogues on the Left. New York: 11-43
• Davis, Lennard J. 1995. “Constructing Normalcy”, in: Enforcing Normalcy. Disability, Deafness, and the Body. London: Verso, 23-50.
• Essed, Philomena. 1991. “Knowlegde and Comprehension of Everyday Racism”, in: Stanfield, John H. (ed.) Understanding Everyday Racism. An Interdisciplinary Theory. London: Sage, 72- 119.
• Feagin, Joe. 1980. “Discrimination: Motivation, action, effects, and context”, in: Annual Review of Sociology 6, 1-20.
• Gingrich, Andre. 1998. “Frontier Myths of Orientalism. The Muslim World in Public and Popular Cultures of Central Europe”, in: Baskar, Bojan/Brumen, Borut (eds.): Mess: Mediterranean Ethnological Summer School, Piran, Pirano, Slovenia 1996 Vol. 2. Ljubljana: Inštitut za multikulturne raziskave, 99-127.
• Hall, Stuart. 2003. “The spectacle of the Other”, in: Representations. Cultural representations and signifying practices. London: Sage, 223-291.
• Halley, Janet E. 1994. “The construction of heterosexuality”, in: Warner, Michael (ed.): Fear of a Queer Planet. Queer Politics and Social theory. Minneapolis. University of Minnesota Press, 82- 105.
• Heath, Anthony/Rothan, Catherine/Kilpi, Elina. 2008. “The Second Generation in Western Europe: Education, Unemployment, and Occupational Attainment”, in: Annual Review of Sociology 34, 211-235.
• McLennan, Gregor. 2003. Sociology, Eurocentrism and Postcolonial Theory. European Journal of Social Theory. London: Sage, 69-86.
• Moshman, D. 2007. “Us and them: Identity and genocide”, in: Identity: An International Journal of Theory and Research, 7(2), 115-135.
• Mosse, George L. 2000. “The Jews: Myth and Counter-Myth”, in: Back, Les/Solomos, John (eds.): Theories of Race and Racism. A Reader. New York: Routledge, 195-206.
• Noske, Barbara. 1997. “The devaluation of Nature”, in: Beyond Boundaries. Humans and Animals. Montreal: Black Rose Books, 40-80.
• Pettigrew, Thomas. 1998. “Reactions towards the New Minorities of Western Europe”, in: Annual Review of Sociology 24, 77-103.
• Plous, Scott (ed.). 2003. “Anti-Semitism” in: Understanding Prejudice and Discrimination. London: McGraw-Hill, 273-326.
• Plous, Scott (ed.). 2003. “Is there Such a Thing as Prejudice Towards animals?” in: Understanding Prejudice and Discrimination. London: McGraw-Hill, 509-537.
• Plous, Scott. 2003. “The psychology of prejudice, stereotyping, and discrimination: An overview”, in: Plous, Scott (ed.): Understanding prejudice and discrimination. New York: McGraw-Hill, 3-48.
• Plous, Scott (ed.). 2003. “The Role of Empathy in Improving intergroup Relations” in: Understanding Prejudice and Discrimination. London: McGraw-Hill, 481-491.
• Plous, Scott (ed.). 2003. “Martin Luther King Explains Nonviolent Resistance” in: Understanding Prejudice and Discrimination. London: McGraw-Hill, 500-507
• Plous, Scott (ed.). 2003. “Reducing the Expression of Racial Prejudice” in: Understanding Prejudice and Discrimination. London: McGraw-Hill, 467-474.
• Sanders, Clinton. 2009. “Close relationship between Humans and Nonhuman Animals”, in: Arluke, Arnold/Sanders, Clinton (eds.): Between the Species. Readings in Human-Animal Relations. Boston: Pearson AandB, 45-52.
• Sanjek, Roger. 2003. “Race”, in: Barnard, Alan/Spencer, Jonathan (eds.): Encyclopedia of Social and Cultural Anthropology. New York: Routledge, 462-465.
• Schultz, Emily A./Lavenda, Robert H. 2008. “Anthropology in History and the explanation of Cultural Diversity”, in: Schultz, Emily A./Lavenda, Robert H. (eds.): Cultural Anthropology. A perspective on the Human Condition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 65-85.
• Schultz Emily A. & Lavenda Robert H. 2008. “Culture and the Human Condition”, in: Cultural Anthropology. A perspective on the Human Condition. New York: Oxford University Press, 16-32.
• Schultz, Emily A./Lavenda, Robert H. 2008. “Dimensions of inequality in the Contemporary World: Class, Caste, Race, Ethnicity, and Nationalism”, in: Schultz, Emily A./Lavenda, Robert H. (eds.): Cultural Anthropology. A perspective on the Human Condition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 326-355.
• Shakespeare, Tom. 2006. “Critiquing the social model”, in: Disability rights and wrongs. New York: Routledge, 29-53.
• Silverstein, Paul A. 2005. “Immigrant Racialization and the New Savage Slot: Race, Migration, and Immigration in the New Europe”, in: Annual Review of Anthropology 34, 363-384.
• Simoni, J.M., & Walters, K.L. 2001. “Heterosexual identity and heterosexism: Recognizing privilege to reduce prejudice”, in: Journal of Homosexuality, 41(1), 157-172.
• Sorenson, John S. 2003. “Introduction”, in: Blackwell, Judith C./Smith, Murray E.G. and Sorenson, John S. (eds.): Culture of Prejudice. Arguments in Critical Social Science. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
• Sorenson, John S. 2003. “Third World Poverty is a result of traditional values. First World conceits about ‘backward societies’”, in: Blackwell, Judith C./Smith, Murray E.G. and Sorenson, John S. (eds.): Culture of Prejudice. Arguments in Critical Social Science. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 78-86.
• Spencer, Jonathan. 2003. “Orientalism”, in: Barnard, Alan/Spencer, Jonathan (eds.): Encyclopedia of Social and Cultural Anthropology. New York: Routledge, 407-408.
Recommended readings:
• Brustein, W.I., & King, R.D. 2004. “Anti-Semitism as a response to perceived Jewish power: The cases of Bulgaria and Romania before the Holocaust”, in: Social Forces 83(2), 691-708.
• Cavalerie, Paula. 2009. The death of the Animal. A Dialogue. New York: Columbia University Press.
• Gurminder, Bhambra K. 2007. “Sociology and Post-colonialism. Another missing revolution?”, in: Sociology. Volume 41(5). New Dehli: Sage, 871-884.
• Jandt, Fred E. 2010. “Stereotypes and Prejudice”, in: An introduction to Intercultural Communication. Identities in a Global Community. Los Angeles: Sage, 86-93.
• Said, Edward W. 1995 [1978]. Orientalism. Western conceptions of the Orient. London: Penguin Books.
• Shapiro, Joseph P. 2003. “No Pity: People with Disabilities forging a new civil rights movement”, in: Plous, Scott (ed.): Understanding Prejudice and Discrimination. London: McGraw-Hill, 68-75.
• Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. 1988. "Can the Subaltern Speak?" in: Nelson, Cary/Grossberg, Lawrence (eds.). Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture. Urbana/Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 271-313.
• Winant, Howard. 2000. “Race and Race Theory”, in: Annual Review of Sociology 26, 169-185.
• Wolf, Eric R. 1982. Europe and the People Without History. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Brief Biography of Instructor:
Katharina Klettermayer earned her M.A in social and cultural anthropology at the University of Vienna. Her research interests are the anthropology of development, gender studies, migration studies as well as medical anthropology. She has been working for the Romano Centro in Vienna, an Austrian NPO that supports Roma and Sinti living in Vienna for several years. Furthermore, she is a member of Fair Trade Austria, which aims to help producers in development countries improve trading conditions and promote sustainability. Her research experience in various fields, her international background and her extensive travels to Asia, Africa, Europe and the United States have strengthened her interest in working and exchanging with people from all parts of the globe.
Focusing on prejudice and discrimination, this course examines how people influence and are influenced by their social setting. In the context of European conquest the beginnings of a global racial order as well as ways of explaining the existence of human diversity was established, fostering a climate of prejudice and discrimination. The discourses on how Europe described differences between itself and others used European cultural categories, languages and ideas to represent the “other”. These Eurocentric, androcentric, exotic and evolutionary discourses will be examined where contemporary examples of certain others (marginalized people) show that the “logic” of colonialism is still an active force today. The course will discuss examples of following discriminations: ethnic, racial, gender, religious, sexual preference, as well as prejudice and discrimination of minorities, disabled people, immigrants and discriminations towards non-human species. Furthermore, the agency of people who are labeled different and marginalized will be portrayed. (3 credits)
Previous courses in sociology or anthropology are recommended, or approval of the instructor.
After taking the course students will be able to:
• distinguish between the concepts prejudice and discrimination.
• recognize different approaches to these concepts.
• understand “the culture of prejudice” and detect its effects and its pervasiveness.
• examine the ways in which colonial discourse operates as an instrument of power.
• identify the role colonial discourse played/plays for categorizing & evaluating people.
• understand evolutionism, exoticism and ethnocentrism as powerful theoretical discourses that are used consciously as well as unconsciously to evaluate, pre-judge and discriminate certain “others” and recognize these influences in contemporary representations and statements about labeled “others” exp. (migrants, disabled, homosexuals etc.).
• recognize postcolonial theory as a framework that destabilizes dominant discourses in the West and that challenges “inherent” assumptions.
• identify various strategies in coping with prejudice and discrimination.
Presentations and discussions, video excerpts, case studies, field trips, and group work.
• Mauthhausen Concentration Camp
• Dialoge im Dunklen: The blind and the sighted exchange roles for an hour in Dialog in the dark.
Blind guides lead visitors through everyday situations - in complete darkness
• HoSi – Wien
The students are expected to prepare for and participate in classes. The course is graded as follows: midterm exam 20%, presentation in class 30%, class participation & journal 20%; final exam & written assignment 30%.
The midterm and the final exam are a combination of the following types of questions: essay and short answers. The written assignment is a research paper on a subject matter relevant to the course topic and is due the last week of class. The written assignment entails a list of references, a personal reflection, and a literature review for a total length of 10-12 pages. The presentation gives students the opportunity to present their research findings taken from the written assignment or the journal. The journal consists of short exercises assigned on a weekly basis. In the journal students are expected to personally reflect on subject matter discussed in class, including current issues on discrimination towards marginalized groups taken from the weekly readings/listening of serious online newspapers/radio programs (for example, The Vienna Review, The Austrian Times, Fm4 Radio) to keep up to date on current events in Austria. Students are also encouraged keep up with news in their local newspapers (online sources) and address current issues of prejudice and discrimination towards marginalized groups in their hometowns in the U.S. These findings will be discussed in class and will be counted as part of their class participation. Students will be asked to formulate their own opinions regarding topics. Class participation refers to the extent students are involved in class and are prepared when coming to class, as well as actively participating in discussions and attending fieldtrips.
Part 1: Socio-cultural dimension of prejudice and discrimination
Week 1: Syllabus review & Introduction to concepts of prejudice and discrimination
The aims of the course will be introduced. Definitions and terms of prejudice and discrimination will be covered. Special attention will be given to socio-cultural dimensions of prejudice and discrimination.
Required reading:
• Plous, Scott. 2003. “The psychology of prejudice, stereotyping, and discrimination: An overview”,
in: Plous, Scott (ed.): Understanding prejudice and discrimination. New York: McGraw-Hill, 3-48.
• Giddens, Anthony. 2009. “Prejudice and Discrimination”, in: Sociology. Cambridge: Polity Press,
636-637.
• Kleinman, Arthur & Hall-Clifford, Rachel. 2009. “Stigma: A social, cultural and moral process”, in: Journal of Epidemiology and community Health. 1-6. URL.: http://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/2757548/Klienman_StigmaSocial... ce=2 [Retrieved 5.6.2011]
• Sorenson, John S. 2003. “Introduction”, in: Blackwell, Judith C./Smith, Murray E.G. and
Sorenson, John S. (eds.): Culture of Prejudice. Arguments in Critical Social Science. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
• Feagin, Joe. 1980. “Discrimination: Motivation, action, effects, and context”, in: Annual Review of
Sociology 6, 1-20. Recommended reading:
• Jandt, Fred E. 2010. “Stereotypes and Prejudice”, in: An introduction to Intercultural
Communication. Identities in a Global Community. Los Angeles: Sage, 86-93.
• Thomas, Alexander. 2006. „Die Bedeutung von Vorurteil und Stereotyp im interkulturellen
Handeln“, in: Interculture Journal 2/2006. Thüringen: Online-Journal.
URL.: http://www.interculture-journal.com/download/article/thomas_2006_02.pdf [Retrieved
5.6.2011]
Week 2: Colonialism: The European gaze - classifications, evolutionism, exoticism, Eurocentrism.
Colonial discourse and the discourse of Modernity will be represented as a system of statements that can
be made about the world that involve certain assumptions, prejudices, and insights, all of which have a historical provenance, but exclude other, possible equally valid, statements. These operated as an instrument of power, setting rules of inclusion and exclusion and implicating ideas of the centrality and superiority of Europe. The colonized subjects were characterized as the “other” through prevalent discourses such as primitivism and backwardness. The assumptions that underlie the “logic” of colonialism are still active forces today.
Required Reading:
• Sorenson 2003, 78-86.
• Schultz Emily A. & Lavenda Robert H. 2008. “Culture and the Human Condition”, in: Cultural
Anthropology. A perspective on the Human Condition. New York: Oxford University Press, 16-32.
• Schultz, Emily A./Lavenda, Robert H. 2008. “Anthropology in History and the explanation of Cultural Diversity”, in: Schultz, Emily A./Lavenda, Robert H. (eds.): Cultural Anthropology. A perspective on the Human Condition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 65-85.
• Ashcroft, Bill/Griffiths, Gareth & Tiffin, Helen. 2005. “Euro-centrism”, in: Post-Colonial Studies.
New York: Routledge, 90-92.
• Ashcroft, Bill/Griffiths, Gareth & Tiffin, Helen. 2005. “Colonialism”, in: Post-Colonial Studies. New
York: Routledge, 45-51.
• Ashcroft, Bill/Griffiths, Gareth & Tiffin, Helen. 2005. “Exotic/Exoticism”, in: Post-Colonial Studies.
New York: Routledge, 94-95.
• Ashcroft, Bill/Griffiths, Gareth & Tiffin, Helen. 2005. “Other/other”, in: Post-Colonial Studies. New
York: Routledge, 169-171.
Recommended reading:
• Wolf, Eric R. 1982. Europe and the People Without History. Berkeley: University of California
Press.
Week 3: Post-colonialism
Post - colonialism is introduced as a continuation of colonialism, albeit through different or new relationships concerning power and the control/production of knowledge. The critical nature of
postcolonial theory and its destabilizing ways of thinking will be highlighted where new ways are created
for the subaltern or marginalized groups to speak and produce alternatives to dominant discourses.
Required reading:
• Ashcroft, Bill/Griffiths, Gareth & Tiffin, Helen. 2005. “Discourse”, in: Post-Colonial Studies. New
York: Routledge, 70-73.
• Ashcroft, Bill/Griffiths, Gareth & Tiffin, Helen. 2005. “Modernism and Post-Colonialism”, in: Post- Colonial Studies. New York: Routledge, 143-147.
• Hall, Stuart. 2003. “The spectacle of the Other”, in: Representations. Cultural representations and signifying practices. London: Sage, 223-291.
• McLennan, Gregor. 2003. Sociology, Eurocentrism and Postcolonial Theory. European Journal of
Social Theory. London: Sage, 69-86.
• Ashcroft, Bill/Griffiths, Gareth & Tiffin, Helen. 2005. “Hybridity”, in: Post-Colonial Studies. New
York: Routledge, 118-121.
Recommended reading:
• Staszak, Jean-François. 2008. Other/otherness. Elsevier: International Encyclopedia of Human
Geography. URL.:
http://www.unige.ch/ses/geo/collaborateurs/publicationsJFS/OtherOthernes... [Retrieved
5.6.2011]
• Gurminder, Bhambra K. 2007. “Sociology and Post-colonialism. Another missing revolution?”, in:
Sociology. Volume 41(5). New Dehli: Sage, 871-884.
• Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. 1988. "Can the Subaltern Speak?" in: Nelson, Cary/Grossberg, Lawrence (eds.). Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture. Urbana/Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 271-313.
• Pearson Higher Education: “Postcolonialism” URL.:
http://www.pearsonhighered.com/assets/hip/us/hip_us_pearsonhighered/samp...
1697.pdf [Retrieved 5.6.2011]
Part 2: Discrimination
Week 3: Race/Racism
The origins of race and race theories will be highlighted. Biological racism, racism as ideology, structural racism and everyday racism will be discussed.
Required Reading:
• Essed, Philomena. 1991. “Knowlegde and Comprehension of Everyday Racism”, in: Stanfield,
John H. (ed.) Understanding Everyday Racism. An Interdisciplinary Theory. London: Sage, 72-
119.
• Sanjek, Roger. 2003. “Race”, in: Barnard, Alan/Spencer, Jonathan (eds.): Encyclopedia of Social and Cultural Anthropology. New York: Routledge, 462-465.
• Schultz, Emily A./Lavenda, Robert H. 2008. “Dimensions of inequality in the Contemporary World: Class, Caste, Race, Ethnicity, and Nationalism”, in: Schultz, Emily A./Lavenda, Robert H. (eds.): Cultural Anthropology. A perspective on the Human Condition. Oxford: Oxford University Press,
326-355.
• Harrison, Faye V. 1995. “The Persistent Power of "Race". The Cultural and Political Economy of Racism”, in: Annual Review of Anthropology, Vol. 24, 47-74. URL.: http://www33.homepage.villanova.edu/edward.fierros/pdf/harrison~power%20... [Retrieved 5.6.2011]
Recommended Reading:
• Winant, Howard. 2000. “Race and Race Theory”, in: Annual Review of Sociology 26, 169-185.
• Todorov, Tzvetan. 2000. “Race and Racism”, in: Back, Les/Solomos, John (eds.): Theories of
Race and Racism. A Reader. New York: Routledge, 64-71.
Week 4: The Orient/Orientalism/New Orientalism
The term “Orientalism” will be examined, which is understood to be a process by which the “Orient” was and continues to be constructed in European thinking. “The Orient” is discussed as not an inert fact of nature, but as a phenomenon that was established in order to make statements about it, ruling over and
having authority over the Orient. Furthermore, “new Orientalism” will be discussed, which is a populist construction of Islam as a threat to Western civic values. Media images from Austrian newspaper articles and slogans of contemporary political campaigns around "new Orientalism" will be discussed.
Required reading:
• Spencer, Jonathan. 2003. “Orientalism”, in: Barnard, Alan/Spencer, Jonathan (eds.):
Encyclopedia of Social and Cultural Anthropology. New York: Routledge, 407-408.
• Gingrich, Andre. 1998. “Frontier Myths of Orientalism. The Muslim World in Public and Popular Cultures of Central Europe”, in: Baskar, Bojan/Brumen, Borut (eds.): Mess: Mediterranean Ethnological Summer School, Piran, Pirano, Slovenia 1996 Vol. 2. Ljubljana: Inštitut za multikulturne raziskave, 99-127.
• Bunzl, Matti. 2005. “Between anti-Semitism and Islamophobia: Some thoughts on new Europe”, in: American Ethnologist 32/4, 499-508.
• Baumann, Gert. 2002. “Islam”, in: Barnard, Alan/Spencer, Jonathan (eds.): Encyclopedia of
Social and Cultural Anthropology. New York: Routledge, 305-307.
Recommended Reading:
• Said, Edward W. 1995 [1978]. Orientalism. Western conceptions of the Orient. London: Penguin
Books.
Week 5: Discrimination towards migrants
The representations of immigrants in contemporary Austrian public discourse are discussed and the racialization and exoticizingness of the (im)migrant “other” is explored. Portrayals of immigrants in newspapers, television and the internet are discussed. Current events and issues are addressed. Students will explore Austrian media images and compare them to current representations and images of immigrants in the United States.
Required reading:
• Silverstein, Paul A. 2005. “Immigrant Racialization and the New Savage Slot: Race, Migration,
and Immigration in the New Europe”, in: Annual Review of Anthropology 34, 363-384.
• Böse, Martina/Haberfellner, Regina/Koldas, Ayhan. 2001. A short Overview of Immigration to Austria in Mapping Minorities and their Media: The National Context. 10-25. URL.: https://www.zsi.at/attach/MinoritiesMedia_AT2001.pdf [Retrieved 5. 2.2011]
• Pettigrew, Thomas. 1998. “Reactions towards the New Minorities of Western Europe”, in: Annual
Review of Sociology 24, 77-103.
• Heath, Anthony/Rothan, Catherine/Kilpi, Elina. 2008. “The Second Generation in Western Europe: Education, Unemployment, and Occupational Attainment”, in: Annual Review of Sociology 34,
211-235.
• Ahmed, Sara. 2000. “Home and Away: Narratives of Migration and Estrangement”, in: Strange
Encounters. Embodied others in Post-coloniality. New York: Routledge, 75-95.
Week 6: Midterm exam
Week 7: Anti-Semitism - Remembering the Holocaust
In the Nationalist Socialist system, medicine took a new task in “weeding out” people designated as
“inferior”. There was no room for disabled, members of social fringe groups, or nonconformists.
Am Steinhof (today’s Otto Wagner-Spital), a former Viennese center for Nationalist Socialist medical murder, will be introduced which played a central role in persecuting and imprisoning Jewish patients. Many Jews became victims of euthanasia under the Nazi health policy.
Required reading:
• Moshman, D. 2007. “Us and them: Identity and genocide”, in: Identity: An International Journal of Theory and Research, 7(2), 115-135.
• Mosse, George L. 2000. “The Jews: Myth and Counter-Myth”, in: Back, Les/Solomos, John (eds.):
Theories of Race and Racism. A Reader. New York: Routledge, 195-206.
• Baumann, Zygmunt. 2000. “Modernity, Racism, Extermination”, in: Back, Les/Solomos, John
(eds.): Theories of Race and Racism. A Reader. New York: Routledge, 212-229.
• Plous, Scott (ed.). 2003. “Anti-Semitism” in: Understanding Prejudice and Discrimination.
London: McGraw-Hill, 273-326.
Recommended reading:
• Brustein, W.I., & King, R.D. 2004. “Anti-Semitism as a response to perceived Jewish power: The cases of Bulgaria and Romania before the Holocaust”, in: Social Forces 83(2), 691-708.
Guest Speaker: A surviving witness of the holocaust
Field Trip: Mauthhausen or/and the exhibiont in Viennas Otto Wagner Hospital Wien
Week 8: Health, illness and disability - discrimination towards disabled people
The medical, the minority, and the social model of disability will be introduced. The emphasis will lie on the systemic barriers, negative attitudes, and exclusion by society as factors in disabling people.
Required Reading:
• Giddens, Anthony. 2009. “Health, Illness and disability” in: Sociology. Cambridge: Polity Press,
384-427.
• Shakespeare, Tom. 2006. “Critiquing the social model”, in: Disability rights and wrongs. New
York: Routledge, 29-53.
• Davis, Lennard J. 1995. “Constructing Normalcy”, in: Enforcing Normalcy. Disability, Deafness, and the Body. London: Verso, 23-50.
Recommended reading:
• Shapiro, Joseph P. 2003. “No Pity: People with Disabilities forging a new civil rights movement”,
in: Plous, Scott (ed.): Understanding Prejudice and Discrimination. London: McGraw-Hill, 68-75.
• UNESCO/UNAIDS Research report. HIV/AIDS Stigma and Discrimination: An Anthropological Approach
URL.: http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0013/001307/130756e.pdf [Retrieved 5. 2.2011]
• Tremain, Shelley Lynn (ed.). 2005. Foucault and the Government of Disability. Ann Arber: University of Michigan Press.
Fieldtrip: Dialoge im Dunklen:
Week 9 Heteronormativity
Heteronormativity is recognized as a privileging set of life-style norms which assume that people fall into the complementary and distinct genders of woman and man, with natural roles in life. Ideas challenging this “heteronormative culture” and questioning heterosexuality as being something natural and normal will be highlighted. Critics of heteronormative attitudes will be introduced who argue that the effects of heteronormativity are the stigmatization and marginalization as well as discrimination of deviant forms of gender and sexuality, making any other expression that does not conform to the norm difficult.
Required reading:
• Simoni, J.M., & Walters, K.L. 2001. “Heterosexual identity and heterosexism: Recognizing
privilege to reduce prejudice”, in: Journal of Homosexuality, 41(1), 157-172.
• Giddens, Anthony. 2009. “Sexuality and Gender”, in: Sociology. Cambridge: Polity Press, 578-
595.
• Halley, Janet E. 1994. “The construction of heterosexuality”, in: Warner, Michael (ed.): Fear of a
Queer Planet. Queer Politics and Social theory. Minneapolis. University of Minnesota Press, 82-
105.
Recommended reading:
• Butler, Judith. 1990. Gender Trouble. Routledge
Week 10: Speciesism/Anthropocentrism – Violence against other species
The historical and contextual specificity of any particular human-animal relationship will be discussed and of how categories, including those of “human” and “animal,” are not inevitable or universal but shaped in particular contexts and in different ways by actors with often contradicting perspectives and interests.
Required reading:
• Plous, Scott (ed.). 2003. “Is there Such a Thing as Prejudice Towards animals?”, in:
Understanding Prejudice and Discrimination. London: McGraw-Hill, 509-537.
• Noske, Barbara. 1997. “The devaluation of Nature”, in: Beyond Boundaries. Humans and Animals.
Montreal: Black Rose Books, 40-80.
• Sanders, Clinton. 2009. “Close relationship between Humans and Nonhuman Animals”, in: Arluke, Arnold/Sanders, Clinton (eds.): Between the Species. Readings in Human-Animal Relations. Boston: Pearson AandB, 45-52.
• Agnew, Robert. 2009. “The Causes of Animal Abuse”, in: Arluke, Arnold/Sanders, Clinton (eds.):
Between the Species. Readings in Human-Animal Relations. Boston: Pearson AandB, 76-90.
Recommended reading:
• Cavalerie, Paula. 2009. The death of the Animal. A Dialogue. New York: Columbia University
Press.
Part 3: Reducing and coping with prejudice and discrimination
Introducing different approaches in reducing and coping with prejudice and discrimination
Week 11: Individual approaches in coping with prejudice and discrimination
In order to reduce and cope with prejudice and discrimination, individual approaches will be discussed. This section examines individual and group strategies aimed at prejudice reduction. Strategies of
maximizing the public expression of strong anti-racist opinions and minimizing the expression of discriminatory and insensitive behavior are introduced. Furthermore, we will take a closer look at the concept of empathy, in order to improve intergroup relations.
Required reading:
• Plous, Scott (ed.). 2003. “Reducing the Expression of Racial Prejudice” in: Understanding
Prejudice and Discrimination. London: McGraw-Hill, 467-474.
• Zimbardo, P. (2007). The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil. NY: Random
House Trade Paperbacks. Ch.11
• Plous, Scott (ed.). 2003. “The Role of Empathy in Improving intergroup Relations” in:
Understanding Prejudice and Discrimination. London: McGraw-Hill, 481-491.
• Plous, Scott (ed.). 2003. “Martin Luther King Explains Nonviolent Resistance” in: Understanding
Prejudice and Discrimination. London: McGraw-Hill, 500-507
Week 12: Sociocultural approaches in coping with prejudice and discrimination
The main focus lies on subaltern social groups that subvert the authority of those who have hegemonic power and can speak through their own actions. These groups use local knowledge to create new spaces of opposition and alternative futures. Examples of subaltern groups will be depicted. Furthermore, by considering queer theory, identities are identified which are not fixed which cannot be categorized and/or labeled.
Required reading:
• Galfarsoro, Imanol. 2007. The notion of the subaltern. Critical Stew. http://criticalstew.org/?p=43
• Butler, Judith. 2000. “Restaging the Universal: Hegemony and the Limits of Formalism” in J.
Butler, E. Laclau and S. Zizek. (eds.): Contingency, Hegemony, Universality: Comtemporary
Dialogues on the Left. New York: 11-43
Week 13: Final exam/Written assignment due
Guest speakers:
• Guest presentation by a member of the organization ZARA: “Civil Courage and Anti-Racism
Work.”
• A surviving witness of the Holocaust
• Guest presentation by a member of the vegan community in Austria.
• Agnew, Robert. 2009. “The Causes of Animal Abuse”, in: Arluke, Arnold/Sanders, Clinton (eds.): Between the Species. Readings in Human-Animal Relations. Boston: Pearson AandB, 76-90.
• Ahmed, Sara. 2000. “Home and Away: Narratives of Migration and Estrangement”, in: Strange Encounters. Embodied others in Post-coloniality. New York: Routledge, 75-95.
• Ashcroft, Bill/Griffiths, Gareth & Tiffin, Helen. 2005. Post-Colonial Studies. New York: Routledge.
• Baumann, Gert. 2002. “Islam”, in: Barnard, Alan/Spencer, Jonathan (eds.): Encyclopedia of Social and Cultural Anthropology. New York: Routledge, 305-307.
• Baumann, Zygmunt. 2000. “Modernity, Racism, Extermination”, in: Back, Les/Solomos, John (eds.): Theories of Race and Racism. A Reader. New York: Routledge, 212-229.
• Böse, Martina/Haberfellner, Regina/Koldas, Ayhan. 2001. A short Overview of Immigration to Austria in Mapping Minorities and their Media: The National Context. 10-25. URL.: https://www.zsi.at/attach/MinoritiesMedia_AT2001.pdf [Retrieved 5. 2.2011]
• Bunzl, Matti. 2005. “Between anti-Semitism and Islamophobia: Some thoughts on new Europe”, in: American Ethnologist 32/4, 499-508.
• Butler, Judith. 2000. “Restaging the Universal: Hegemony and the Limits of Formalism” in J. Butler, E. Laclau and S. Zizek. (eds.): Contingency, Hegemony, Universality: Comtemporary Dialogues on the Left. New York: 11-43
• Davis, Lennard J. 1995. “Constructing Normalcy”, in: Enforcing Normalcy. Disability, Deafness, and the Body. London: Verso, 23-50.
• Essed, Philomena. 1991. “Knowlegde and Comprehension of Everyday Racism”, in: Stanfield, John H. (ed.) Understanding Everyday Racism. An Interdisciplinary Theory. London: Sage, 72- 119.
• Feagin, Joe. 1980. “Discrimination: Motivation, action, effects, and context”, in: Annual Review of Sociology 6, 1-20.
• Galfarsoro, Imanol. 2007. The notion of the subaltern. Critical Stew. http://criticalstew.org/?p=43[Retrieved 10.6.2011]
• Giddens, Anthony. 2009. “Health, Illness and disability” in: Sociology. Cambridge: Polity Press, 384-427.
• Giddens, Anthony. 2009. “Prejudice and Discrimination”, in: Sociology. Cambridge: Polity Press, 636-637.
• Giddens, Anthony. 2009. “Sexuality and Gender”, in: Sociology. Cambridge: Polity Press, 578- 595.
• Gingrich, Andre. 1998. “Frontier Myths of Orientalism. The Muslim World in Public and Popular Cultures of Central Europe”, in: Baskar, Bojan/Brumen, Borut (eds.): Mess: Mediterranean Ethnological Summer School, Piran, Pirano, Slovenia 1996 Vol. 2. Ljubljana: Inštitut za multikulturne raziskave, 99-127.
• Hall, Stuart. 2003. “The spectacle of the Other”, in: Representations. Cultural representations and signifying practices. London: Sage, 223-291.
• Halley, Janet E. 1994. “The construction of heterosexuality”, in: Warner, Michael (ed.): Fear of a Queer Planet. Queer Politics and Social theory. Minneapolis. University of Minnesota Press, 82- 105.
• Harrison, Faye V. 1995. “The Persistent Power of "Race". The Cultural and Political Economy of Racism”, in: Annual Review of Anthropology, Vol. 24, 47-74. URL.: http://www33.homepage.villanova.edu/edward.fierros/pdf/harrison~power%20... [Retrieved 5.6.2011]
• Heath, Anthony/Rothan, Catherine/Kilpi, Elina. 2008. “The Second Generation in Western Europe: Education, Unemployment, and Occupational Attainment”, in: Annual Review of Sociology 34, 211-235.
• Kleinman, Arthur & Hall-Clifford, Rachel. 2009. „Stigma: A social, cultural and moral process”, in: Journal of Epidemiology and community Health. 1-6. URL.: http://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/2757548/Klienman_StigmaSocial... ce=2 [Retrieved 5.6.2011]
• McLennan, Gregor. 2003. Sociology, Eurocentrism and Postcolonial Theory. European Journal of Social Theory. London: Sage, 69-86.
• Moshman, D. 2007. “Us and them: Identity and genocide”, in: Identity: An International Journal of Theory and Research, 7(2), 115-135.
• Mosse, George L. 2000. “The Jews: Myth and Counter-Myth”, in: Back, Les/Solomos, John (eds.): Theories of Race and Racism. A Reader. New York: Routledge, 195-206.
• Noske, Barbara. 1997. “The devaluation of Nature”, in: Beyond Boundaries. Humans and Animals. Montreal: Black Rose Books, 40-80.
• Pettigrew, Thomas. 1998. “Reactions towards the New Minorities of Western Europe”, in: Annual Review of Sociology 24, 77-103.
• Plous, Scott (ed.). 2003. “Anti-Semitism” in: Understanding Prejudice and Discrimination. London: McGraw-Hill, 273-326.
• Plous, Scott (ed.). 2003. “Is there Such a Thing as Prejudice Towards animals?” in: Understanding Prejudice and Discrimination. London: McGraw-Hill, 509-537.
• Plous, Scott. 2003. “The psychology of prejudice, stereotyping, and discrimination: An overview”, in: Plous, Scott (ed.): Understanding prejudice and discrimination. New York: McGraw-Hill, 3-48.
• Plous, Scott (ed.). 2003. “The Role of Empathy in Improving intergroup Relations” in: Understanding Prejudice and Discrimination. London: McGraw-Hill, 481-491.
• Plous, Scott (ed.). 2003. “Martin Luther King Explains Nonviolent Resistance” in: Understanding Prejudice and Discrimination. London: McGraw-Hill, 500-507
• Plous, Scott (ed.). 2003. “Reducing the Expression of Racial Prejudice” in: Understanding Prejudice and Discrimination. London: McGraw-Hill, 467-474.
• Sanders, Clinton. 2009. “Close relationship between Humans and Nonhuman Animals”, in: Arluke, Arnold/Sanders, Clinton (eds.): Between the Species. Readings in Human-Animal Relations. Boston: Pearson AandB, 45-52.
• Sanjek, Roger. 2003. “Race”, in: Barnard, Alan/Spencer, Jonathan (eds.): Encyclopedia of Social and Cultural Anthropology. New York: Routledge, 462-465.
• Schultz, Emily A./Lavenda, Robert H. 2008. “Anthropology in History and the explanation of Cultural Diversity”, in: Schultz, Emily A./Lavenda, Robert H. (eds.): Cultural Anthropology. A perspective on the Human Condition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 65-85.
• Schultz Emily A. & Lavenda Robert H. 2008. “Culture and the Human Condition”, in: Cultural Anthropology. A perspective on the Human Condition. New York: Oxford University Press, 16-32.
• Schultz, Emily A./Lavenda, Robert H. 2008. “Dimensions of inequality in the Contemporary World: Class, Caste, Race, Ethnicity, and Nationalism”, in: Schultz, Emily A./Lavenda, Robert H. (eds.): Cultural Anthropology. A perspective on the Human Condition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 326-355.
• Shakespeare, Tom. 2006. “Critiquing the social model”, in: Disability rights and wrongs. New York: Routledge, 29-53.
• Silverstein, Paul A. 2005. “Immigrant Racialization and the New Savage Slot: Race, Migration, and Immigration in the New Europe”, in: Annual Review of Anthropology 34, 363-384.
• Simoni, J.M., & Walters, K.L. 2001. “Heterosexual identity and heterosexism: Recognizing privilege to reduce prejudice”, in: Journal of Homosexuality, 41(1), 157-172.
• Sorenson, John S. 2003. “Introduction”, in: Blackwell, Judith C./Smith, Murray E.G. and Sorenson, John S. (eds.): Culture of Prejudice. Arguments in Critical Social Science. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
• Sorenson, John S. 2003. “Third World Poverty is a result of traditional values. First World conceits about ‘backward societies’”, in: Blackwell, Judith C./Smith, Murray E.G. and Sorenson, John S. (eds.): Culture of Prejudice. Arguments in Critical Social Science. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 78-86.
• Spencer, Jonathan. 2003. “Orientalism”, in: Barnard, Alan/Spencer, Jonathan (eds.): Encyclopedia of Social and Cultural Anthropology. New York: Routledge, 407-408.
• Brustein, W.I., & King, R.D. 2004. “Anti-Semitism as a response to perceived Jewish power: The cases of Bulgaria and Romania before the Holocaust”, in: Social Forces 83(2), 691-708.
• Cavalerie, Paula. 2009. The death of the Animal. A Dialogue. New York: Columbia University Press.
• Gurminder, Bhambra K. 2007. “Sociology and Post-colonialism. Another missing revolution?”, in: Sociology. Volume 41(5). New Dehli: Sage, 871-884.
• Jandt, Fred E. 2010. “Stereotypes and Prejudice”, in: An introduction to Intercultural Communication. Identities in a Global Community. Los Angeles: Sage, 86-93.
• Pearson Higher Education: “Postcolonialism” URL.: http://www.pearsonhighered.com/assets/hip/us/hip_us_pearsonhighered/samp... 1697.pdf [Retrieved 5.6.2011]
• Said, Edward W. 1995 [1978]. Orientalism. Western conceptions of the Orient. London: Penguin Books.
• Shapiro, Joseph P. 2003. “No Pity: People with Disabilities forging a new civil rights movement”, in: Plous, Scott (ed.): Understanding Prejudice and Discrimination. London: McGraw-Hill, 68-75.
• Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. 1988. "Can the Subaltern Speak?" in: Nelson, Cary/Grossberg, Lawrence (eds.). Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture. Urbana/Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 271-313.
• Staszak, Jean-François. 2008. Other/otherness. Elsevier: International Encyclopedia of Human Geography. URL.: http://www.unige.ch/ses/geo/collaborateurs/publicationsJFS/OtherOthernes... [Retrieved 5.6.2011]
• Thomas, Alexander. 2006. „Die Bedeutung von Vorurteil und Stereotyp im interkulturellen Handeln“, in: Interculture Journal 2/2006. Thüringen: Online-Journal. URL.: http://www.interculture-journal.com/download/article/thomas_2006_02.pdf [Retrieved 5.6.2011]
• Todorov, Tzvetan. 2000. “Race and Racism”, in: Back, Les/Solomos, John (eds.): Theories of Race and Racism. A Reader. New York: Routledge, 64-71.
• Tremain, Shelley Lynn (ed.). 2005. Foucault and the Government of Disability. Ann Arber: University of Michigan Press.
• UNESCO/UNAIDS Research report. HIV/AIDS Stigma and Discrimination: An Anthropological Approach URL.: http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0013/001307/130756e.pdf [Retrieved 5. 2.2011]
• Winant, Howard. 2000. “Race and Race Theory”, in: Annual Review of Sociology 26, 169-185.
• Wolf, Eric R. 1982. Europe and the People Without History. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Katharina Klettermayer earned her M.A in social and cultural anthropology at the University of Vienna. Her research interests are the anthropology of development, gender studies, migration studies as well as medical anthropology. She has been working for the Romano Centro in Vienna, an Austrian NPO that supports Roma and Sinti living in Vienna for several years. Furthermore, she is a member of Fair Trade Austria, which aims to help producers in development countries improve trading conditions and promote sustainability. Her research experience in various fields, her international background and her extensive travels to Asia, Africa, Europe and the United States have strengthened her interest in working and exchanging with people from all parts of the globe.