Throughout the world, the gap between rich and poor, gender inequality and homophobia, racism, anti-Semitism and Islamophobia seem to be on the rise rather than a vanishing phenomenon. To counter these trends, the EU celebrated the Year of Equal Opportunities for All in 2007 and passed a new charter of fundamental rights. Around the world, courts are confronted with complex conflicts around discrimination. In the course, we analyse the development of laws against discrimination dealing with material from different legal systems. We will discuss various theoretical approaches to issues around discrimination from legal, social and cultural sciences and gender studies, e.g. ?intimate citizenship?, or ?intersectionality?. Students will gain comparative competence, and develop a deeper understanding of what law against discrimination deals with, and how law shapes our understanding of gender, sexuality, race, class, age, or disability. Students will be encouraged to pursue their own research questions in their papers.
This class supplements Prof. MacKinnon?s Sex Equality class, adds European perspectives as well as some policy questions, e.g. on gender mainstreaming and diversity management, and on current theoretical challenges, e.g. pertaining to intersectionality and theories of gender regimes.