LECTURE 1
Who Are You?: The Dilemmas of Racial Classification
Speaker: Professor Michael Omi
University of California, Berkeley
The attempt by states and institutions to categorise people by race is a process often fraught with confusion, contradiction, and unintended consequences. Any clear definition of race has historically proven to be ephemeral as social boundaries shift, slippages occur, and new names and collectivities emerge. How do individuals and groups embrace, challenge, and negotiate different racial categories and identities? Drawing upon the theory of racial formation, the system of racial classification in the US Census will be examined and its broader meaning considered.
About the speaker
Professor Michael Omi
University of California, Berkeley
Professor Michael Omi is Professor Emeritus of Ethnic Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the co-author, with Howard Winant, of Racial Formation in the United States (Third Edition, 2015), a groundbreaking work that transformed how we understand the social and historical forces that give race its changing meaning over time and place. Professor Omi is a recipient of UC Bereley’s Distinguished Teaching Award --- an honour bestowed on only 272 Berkeley faculty members since the award’s inception in 1959.
Discussion panel
Professor Hue Ming Tak, Professor, EdUHK
Dr Daphnee Lee, Associate Professor, EdUHK
Dr Jan Gube, Assistant Professor, EdUHK
Ms Phyllis Cheung, Executive Director, Hong Kong Unison