Sadiya Akram & Ben Richardson | Race and racism in contemporary political studies

In recent years we have seen greater acknowledgement of the fact that race and racism are relatively neglected across the disciplines of politics and international studies. What can, and might, be done about this? This research seminar brings together two scholars who have sought to engage seriously in their own work with these issues: Sadiya Akram (in the field of British Politics) and Ben Richardson (in International Political Economy). Each will discuss how they have addressed such questions and what an agenda for a more pluralistic scholarship might look like.

About the speakers

 Sadiya Akram is Associate Professor in Sociology at the University of Birmingham. Her research has explored race-rioting, the politics of the incarcerated, and Muslim women’s experience of racism. She has also written about the implications of a long-standing neglect of racism in both the discipline and practice of British politics, notably in her recent article: Dear British politics—where is the race and racism?

Ben Richardson is Professor in International Political Economy at the University of Warwick. His research encompasses trade and development, global governance of labour and land rights, and the political economy of agriculture, food and diet. His recent writing has considered how imperialism is reproduced as an institutionalised social order, in the paper: Middle England’s empire.