Routledge 'Mixed Race' Studies: A Reader

Mixed race studies is one of the fastest growing, as well as one of the most important and controversial areas in the field of race and ethnic relations. Bringing together pioneering and controversial scholarship from both the social and the biological sciences, as well as the humanities, this reader charts the evolution of debates on 'race' and 'mixed race' from the nineteenth to the twenty-first century. The book is divided into three main sections: tracing the origins: miscegenation, moral degeneracy and genetics mapping contemporary and foundational discourses: 'mixed race', identities politics, and celebration debating definitions: multiraciality, census categories and critiques. This collection adds a new dimension to the growing body of literature on the topic and provides a comprehensive history of the origins and directions of 'mixed race' research as an intellectual movement. For students of anthropology, race and ethnicity, it is an invaluable resource for examining the complexities and paradoxes of 'racial' thinking across space, time and disciplines. Review 'Mixed Race Studies: A Reader isthe most exciting volume I have read on mixed race studies. Ifekwunigwe has produced the first volume of original historical works; she allows the scholar and student of mixed race studies to trace the thinking about this subject over several decades. In doing so, she documents the evolution of a field of study that has just become visible. Her volume captures the major thinkers and their critical examinations and conceptualizations of social and political racial ecologies. In surveying major contributions across fields, Ifekwunigwe also documents how critical it is for the student and scholar of mixed race studies to be informed by multidisciplinary thinking ... I have read this volume and will read it again, and again. The collection of works sets the stage for critical thinking about race, hierarchy, and human behavior.' - Maria P. P. Root, editor ofRacially Mixed People in America and The Multiracial Experience'Ifekwunigwe's reader is remarkably comprehensive, covering the field of multiracial studies from its history, through contemporary scholarship, and toward new ideas, identities and tensions in the ongoing politics of race.' - Naomi Zack, editor ofAmerican Mixed Race'This is the definitive anthology on the subject ... an intellectual feast and a strategic intervention in racial politics.' - Paul Spickard, author ofMixed Blood: Intermarriage and Ethnic Identity in Twentieth-Century America 'The most exciting volume I have read on mixed race studies... I have read this volume and will read it again, and again. The collection of works sets the stage for critical thinking about race, hierarchy, and human behavior.' - Maria P. P. Root, editor of Racially Mixed People in America and The Multiracial Experience'This is the definitive anthology on the subject ... an intellectual feast and a strategic intervention in racial politics.' - Paul Spickard, author of Mixed Blood: Intermarriage and Ethnic Identity in Twentieth-Century America