Why My Research Matters: Say Burgin

In the first of HWO’s new monthly series profiling the important historical work being done by early career researchers, we asked Say Burgin at the University of Leeds to reflect on the importance of her doctoral research both for the discipline of history and for the politics of race and ‘diversity’ in our contemporary world. Burgin’s doctoral thesis explored white anti-racist organising in the USA since the 1960s.

‘Diversity’ training is one of the great constants of neoliberal institutions in the United States of America and, increasingly, elsewhere. By ostensibly forming workforces that appreciate notions of difference, the introduction of such training is seen as important to the constitution of multicultural free market expansion. Diversity training is also the cornerstone of what Chandra Talpade Mohanty famously called the Race Industry: ‘an industry that is responsible for the management, commodification, and domestication of race’. While Mohanty was specifically interested in institutions of higher education, scholars now widely assume that race (along with other differences) has become ‘managed’ in large part through the advent of training across institutional locations. Doing so has become profitable – both for the institutions and for those working in the Race Industry. ResistingRacismAnActionGuide (more…)