THINK ABOUT A COURSE THAT YOU ARE CURRENTLY MOST EXCITED ABOUT TEACHING. WHY IS THIS AN IMPORTANT COURSE? HOW DOES IT DEEPEN ONE’S UNDERSTANDING OF THE WORLD?
I am lucky enough to be teaching a final year unit on my research interests called ‘the rise of the far right’. In it, we seek to offer students a critical toolkit to understand the rise of reactionary politics in the west in particular. Therefore, we aim to go beyond mere electoral politics and try and deconstruct why certain ideas rise. We look in depth at the evolution of racism, the uses and misuses of populism, terminology, gender and the process of mainstreaming and normalisation. As such, this course in my opinion is about politics in general, rather than simply the far right.
WHAT ARE THE FIVE MOST SALIENT MATERIALS FROM YOUR COURSE, AND WHY IS EACH IMPORTANT?
White logic, White methods: Racism and methodology by Tukufu Zuberi & Eduardo Bonilla-Silva: it provides an excellent basis to start on a more critical scholarly journey.
Why Race Still Matters by Alana Lentin: it is a great book to understand the evolution of racism
Dean, Jonathan & Maiguashca, Bice. 2020. ‘Did somebody say populism? Towards a renewal and reorientation of populism studies’, Journal of Political Ideologies: great problematisation of the concept of populism!
After the Fact? The Truth about Fake News by Marcus Gilroy-Ware: very engaging and critical analysis of the role of the media in the rise of reaction
Reactionary Democracy: How racism and the populist far right became mainstream by Aaron Winter and myself: not to toot my own horn, but because this unit and my students had a real impact on the development of the book and helped me test and sharpen many concepts and ideas.
WHAT IS A DREAM COURSE THAT YOU’D BE INTERESTING IN TEACHING IN THE FUTURE?
After spending years teaching and researching reactionary politics, I would like to teach on emancipatory ideas and projects – this is also a turn I am considering for my research!
WHAT IS A BOOK THAT CHANGED YOUR LIFE AS A HIGH SCHOOLER?
Tricky… I wasn’t that big a reader when I was in high school and in fact only started reading assiduously in my mid-20s. It’s then that I read Rancière’s The Ignorant Schoolmaster which set me on the path I am now.
WHAT IS A PIECE OF ADVICE THAT YOU’D GIVE TO NEW TEACHERS?
Be critical, reflective, keep learning and always strive to help students emancipate themselves through knowledge rather than impose it in a top-down manner.