University of Manchester Sociology Department

02/06/2025

Please join us for the next CoDE seminar:

🗣The making of pragmatist feminism in Arab American women cultural productions - Dr Roaa Ali

1-2.30pm, Thurs 19 June 2025
Room 5.207, University Place, University Manchester or online (see events link in bio for full details and zoom link)

Roaa Ali (University of Manchester) explores the emergence of pragmatist feminism within the cultural productions of Arab American women playwrights, particularly in the context of post-9/11 theatre. In this talk, Ali investigates the complex interplay of feminism, activism, and pragmatism in the works of Arab American women playwrights. Ali argues that the increased demand for Arab American theatre voices after 9/11 stemmed from two main factors: the exploitation of narratives around terrorism and oppression for market gain, and the progressive liberal response to racial backlash against Arab Americans. However, this supposed support was complicated by neoliberal and neo-Orientalist influences within cultural production. In this context, Arab women, often wrongly assumed to be Muslim, find themselves in a position where their voices are shaped by white-led “empowerment” initiatives, limiting their agency.

This talk argues that these women artists skilfully engage with the politics of representation, using their art to contest the reductionist portrayals of Arab women as passive victims, while negotiating the racial and gendered dynamics of the American cultural industry. Through a lens of pragmatist feminism, the talk highlights how Arab American women playwrights assert their voices and reshape narratives of gender, culture, and identity, while simultaneously engaging with the limitations imposed by their social and political contexts.



https://events.manchester.ac.uk/event/event:g1y7-m8h9ru3v-2zen9c

21/05/2025

📌REPORT

Counting on Everyone: Profiling the Christian population in England

See link in bio to our NEWS page to download the report.

We were commissioned by the Church of England to produce a demographic profile of the Christian population in England from the 2021 census. The Counting on Everyone report uses 2021 census data to profile the demographic changes in the population in England, with a special focus on religion and ethnicity.

Key findings:

* There was a significant fall in the Christian population, from 37.3 million (72%) in 2001 to 26.2 million (46%) in 2021.

* At the same time the number of Muslims (1.5 million to 3.8 million), Hindus (0.5 million to 1 million) and those with no religion (7.2 million to 20.7 million) has more than doubled.

* There has been a significant drop in the percentage of White British, White Irish and mixed ethnicity groups (e.g. in 2001 82% of White British respondents identified as Christian compared with 49% in 2021). Most other ethnic categories saw a more gradual decline.

* Across most ethnic categories, younger people are less likely to say they are Christian.

* Looking at migration history, some ethnic categories (White British, White other, Indian, Asian other and black African and Caribbean, recent arrivals are more likely to be Christian than those born in the UK)

* Migration has contributed to the growth in the Christian population recently with 1.2 million Christians migrating to the UK between 2001 and 2011 and 1.9 million between 2011 and 2021 compared to only 0.4 million between 1991 and 2001. The majority of Christian migrants between 2011 and 2021 came from Europe.

The report is written by Nigel de Noronha

The University of Manchester School of Social Sciences

https://www.manchester.ac.uk/about/news/counting-on-everyone-profiling-the-christian-population-in-england/

19/05/2025

WORKSHOP:

Working with Qualitative Interview Data: Themes and Beyond
2-5pm, Thurs 29 May 2025

This workshop explores ways of analysing qualitative data in creative, curious ways.

Free, all welcome - see Events link in bio for more details and how to register.

14/04/2025

📺Recording now available of our latest seminar:

📌‘Unhelpful & redundant’? Identity, inequality & the BAME controversy

🗣Brett St Louisbsky.social

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QHx9wIXJFw

02/04/2025

📝The body as a canvas: Memory, tattoos and the Holocaust

Alice Bloch on children and grandchildren of Auschwitz survivors who choose to replicate concentrate camp numbers in their own tattoos, in The Sociological Review.

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/00380261231205423

This article explores the decision amongst the children and grandchildren of Auschwitz survivors to replicate the concentration camp number of their survivor fa...

31/03/2025

EVENT: Against Definitions - Alana Lentin (Western Sydney University)
📆 1.30-3pm, Tues 22 April 2025 (Manchester/online)
🎫Register on Eventbrite (see link below)

Alana Lentin on why defining anti-semitism will not bring us closer to anti-racism.

Speaker
Alana Lentin is Professor of Cultural and Social Analysis at Western Sydney University and a member of its Institute for Culture and Society.

About the event
If you are attending in person, please join us from 1.15pm for tea, coffee and pastries.
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/against-definitions-tickets-1292465281449?aff=oddtdtcreator

24/03/2025

In our next seminar, Brett St Louis shares his research on the contentious issue of labelling ethnic categories.

‘Unhelpful & redundant’? Identity, inequality & the BAME controversy
🗣Brett St Louis
📆1pm, Thurs 10 April 2025 (Manchester/online)
🎫 Register on Eventbrite

The BAME (black, Asian and minority ethnic) acronym has proved highly contentious, facing criticism from varied sectors of civil society mainly as homogenizing ethnic diversity and disregarding cultural specificity. This paper focuses on two issues. First, I explicate the significance of calls to stop using BAME as coming from across the political spectrum, including the Conservative government, major broadcasters and voluntary organizations. Second, I evaluate arguments for retaining BAME as an important collective category that can be used to substantiate ethnic discrimination and inequality. In conclusion, the paper suggests a need for reflection on the conceptualization of ethnic categories in relation to designated analytical and practical commitments.

Speaker
Dr Brett St Louis is Senior Research Fellow in Sociology at The University of Manchester.

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/unhelpful-and-redundant-identity-inequality-and-the-bame-controversy-tickets-1264227842509?aff=oddtdtcreator

21/03/2025

📚🎉BOOK LAUNCH:

'Families' by Vanessa May
4.30-7.30pm, Thurs 3 April 2025
Anthony Burgess Foundation, Manchester

'Families' by Vanessa May offers a timely intervention into current debates within family studies, discussing the shape of mainstream family studies today, and suggesting avenues of investigation that deserve further attention. Alongside broad social developments such as (post)colonialism and austerity and their connections with changing family patterns, the book engages with interdisciplinary work on time, embodiment and materiality in order to offer a multidimensional perspective on the day-to-day lives of families.

The event will feature a conversation between Vanessa May and Jennifer Mason. Together, they will explore the themes, inspirations, and creative processes behind the book.The conversation will be followed by a drinks reception with some light refreshments.

If you would like to attend, please sign up via the registration form link by 4 pm on 26 March 2025.

(We think there may be some gremlins in the registration form, so if you are struggling to access it then please just send your name, email and any access requirements/allergies etc to [email protected] )

The University of Manchester School of Social Sciences

University home Events Home Bicentenary events and activities Exhibitions Conferences Lectures and seminars Performances Events for prospective students Sustainability events Family events All Events Book launch: 'Families' by Vanessa May Dates:3 April 2025 Times:16:30 - 19:30 What is it:Book launch...

18/03/2025

📌How anti-semitism became a battleground

🗣 Rachel Shabi in conversation with Gary Younge

📆6.30pm Tues 25 March 2025 (Doors 6pm)

As claims of antisemitism continue to distort our politics at home and abroad, it has become almost impossible to talk about constructively, even in private. Instead, we find ourselves in a storm of misinformation, political mudslinging and bad-faith accusations.

Rachel Shabi’s book, 'Off White' offers an urgent analysis of one of the most divisive issues of our time. In this conversation they discuss how our the current debate around anti-semitism does a disservice both to the Jewish communities and the left and how to chart a path towards more hopeful and inclusive solidarities with other minorities and progressives.

All welcome - register on Eventbrite for a free place. Please share 🙏🏾

Creative Manchester University of Manchester School of Social Sciences
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/how-anti-semitism-became-a-battleground-tickets-1244869872299?aff=oddtdtcreator

18/03/2025

The next seminar from CoDE - Centre on the Dynamics of Ethnicity is this Thursday - still time to register:

📌Exploring carceral intersections of race, class & disability
🗣 Margarita Aragon (Birkbeck)
📆12pm Thurs 20 March 2025 (Manchester/online)

In this seminar, Dr Margarita Aragon will explore the incarceration of those perceived to be intellectually disabled in the early 20th century as an important practice in the making of race and class in Britain. This context helps illuminate the inextricable imbrication of racism and ableism that has fundamentally shaped disciplinary institutions in the UK and beyond. I will ask how the surveillance and confinement of disabled people facilitated through the 1913 Mental Deficiency Act has shaped today’s racialized carceral landscapes.

All welcome - register for a free ticket to attend in person or online.

Margarita Aragon on processes of race- & class-making in the incarceration of people perceived as mentally deficient in early 20thC Britain.