Brett St Louis BA MSc PhD
Staff details
Brett St Louis rejoined the department in 2005 having previously been at Goldsmiths in 1999-2000. In the intervening years, Brett was Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Bristol and Assistant Professor in Ethnic Studies at the University of California, San Diego.
Brett works in the area of race critical theory with a focus on racial eliminativism. His work traces the genealogy of racial scepticism and develops a critique of racial realism.
Brett co-convenes the MA Race, Media and Social Justice and welcomes applications from prospective postgraduate students interested in the applied critical study of race, racialization and racism.
Brett is also sociology undergraduate Admissions Tutor and is committed to widening participation and supporting the entrance of ‘non-traditional’ students with academic potential into higher education.
Academic qualifications
- PhD Sociology 1999
- MSc Race and Ethnic Relations 1994
- BA Politics and International Relations 1990
Research interests
Brett's work on racial eliminativism traces the genealogy of racial scepticism and develops an epistemological, ontological, methodological, ethical and political critique of racial realism. He is also working on a book project that combines this historical survey and critical analysis with a processural racial eliminativist theory that sets out an imaginative response to the postracial question.
Brett's recent research applies this racial eliminativist approach to various contemporary issues including renewed debates on racialism and the denial of racism and molecular racialization as a pernicious disciplining form of race as technology.
Publications and research outputs
Book
St Louis, Brett. 2007. Rethinking Race, Politics and Poetics: C. L. R. James's Critique of Modernity. Routledge. ISBN 0415957729
Edited Journal
Campbell, Kirsten and St Louis, Brett, eds. 2008. After ‘68: The Left and Twenty-First Century Politics, New Formations, 65.
Ang, Ien and St Louis, Brett, eds. 2005. The predicament of difference, Ethnicities, 5(3). 1468-7968
Book Section
St Louis, Brett. 2022. On “The Necessity and the ‘Impossibility’ of Identities”: The Politics and Ethics of “New Ethnicities”. In: Les Back and John Solomos, eds. Theories of Race and Racism: A Reader (Third Edition). Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 236-253. ISBN 9780367623678
St Louis, Brett. 2015. Can race be eradicated? The postracial problematic. In: Karim Murji and John Solomos, eds. Theories of Race and Ethnicity: Contemporary Debates and Perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 114-137. ISBN 9780521154260
St Louis, Brett. 2009. Post-Marxism, black Marxism and the politics of sport. In: Ben Carrington, ed. Marxism, Cultural Studies and Sport. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, pp. 109-129. ISBN 978-0-415-37541-2
St Louis, Brett. 2005. Racialization in the "zone of ambiguity". In: Karim and S. John, eds. Racialization: Studies in Theory and Practice. Oxford University Press, pp. 29-50. ISBN 0199257035
St Louis, Brett. 2000. Readings within a diasporic boundary: transatlantic black performance and the poetic imperative in sport. In: Barnor Hesse, ed. Un/settled Multiculturalisms: Diasporas, Entanglements, 'Transruptions'. London: Zed Books, pp. 51-72. ISBN 9781856495592
Article
St Louis, Brett. 2023. Race as injustice and the im/possibility of racial justice. Ethnicities, ISSN 1468-7968
St Louis, Brett. 2022. Race as technology and the carceral methodologies of molecular racialization. The British Journal of Sociology, 73(1), pp. 206-219. ISSN 0007-1315
McLennan, Gregor; Robbins, Bruce; McRobbie, Angela; St Louis, Brett and Hall, Catherine. 2021. Stuart Hall, a peerless mediator. Soundings: A Journal of Politics and Culture(79), pp. 51-77. ISSN 1362-6620
St Louis, Brett. 2021. Post-millennial local whiteness: racialism, white dis/advantage and the denial of racism. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 44(3), pp. 355-373. ISSN 0141-9870
St Louis, Brett. 2018. Post/colonial palimpsest and the place of ideas. Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power, 25(1), pp. 55-60. ISSN 1070-289X
Alexander, Claire; Kaur, Raminder and St Louis, Brett. 2012. Identities: New directions in uncertain times. Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power, 19(1), pp. 1-7. ISSN 1070-289X
St Louis, Brett. 2009. On the necessity and the impossibility of identities: the politics and ethics of "new ethnicities". Cultural Studies, 23(4), pp. 559-582. ISSN 0950-2386
Campbell, Kirsten and St Louis, Brett. 2008. After '68: The Left and Twenty-First Century Political Projects. New Formations, 65, pp. 7-18.
St Louis, Brett. 2007. The Vocation of Sport Sociology. Sociology of Sport Journal, 24(1), pp. 119-122. ISSN 7411235
St Louis, Brett. 2005. The difference sameness makes: Racial recognition and the 'narcissism of minor differences'. Ethnicities, 5(3), pp. 343-364. ISSN 14687968
Ang, Ien and St Louis, Brett. 2005. The predicament of difference. Ethnicities, 5(3), pp. 291-304. ISSN 1468-7968
St Louis, Brett. 2004. Sport and common‐sense racial science. Leisure Studies, 23(1), pp. 31-46. ISSN 0261-4367
St Louis, Brett. 2003. Sport, genetics and the `natural athlete': The resurgence of racial science. Body & Society, 9(2), pp. 75-95. ISSN 1357034X
St Louis, Brett. 2002. Post-race/post Politics? Activist-intellectualism and the reification of race. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 25(4), pp. 652-675. ISSN 0141-9870
St Louis, Brett. 2001. The Fall of “Race” and the Cosmopolitan Challenge: Paul Gilroy’s Between Camps. New Formations(45), pp. 189-199. ISSN 0950-2378
St Louis, Brett. 1999. The Perilous ‘Pleasures of Exile’: C. L. R. James, Bad Faith, and the Diasporic Life. Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies, 1(3), pp. 345-360. ISSN 1369-801X
Further profile content
Featured publications
2022:
Race as technology and the carceral methodologies of molecular racialization
Journal article
2021:
Post-millennial local whiteness: racialism, white dis/advantage and the denial of racism
Journal article
2015:
Can Race Be Eradicated? The Postracial Problematic
Book chapter
