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.
Teaching
Brett has extensive experience of coordinating undergraduate admissions and is committed to widening participation and supporting the entrance of ‘non-traditional’ students with academic potential into higher education. Brett is currently Director of Undergraduate Programmes within the department and teach on all three years of undergraduate study and contributes to the first year courses ‘Critical Readings: The Emergence of the Sociological Imagination’ and ‘Modern Knowledge/Modern Power’, co-convene the second year core course unit ‘Philosophy and Methodology of the Social Sciences’, and convene the third year option ‘“Race”, Racism and Social Theory’. Brett also teaches an MA option, ‘Race, Politics and Ethics’.
Areas of supervision
Brett St Louis welcomes applications from prospective MPhil/PhD students in any of his teaching and research areas.
Research Interests
Race, ethnicity and racism; black/postcolonial radical intellectualism; sport in relation to race and racism and culture and aesthetics.
Brett St Louis' research interests crystallise around three intellectual agendas: the conceptual and practical status of race, especially in relation to the epistemological, ontological, political and ethical formations of racial eliminativism; the possibilities of progressive left politics with regard to building affirmative, emancipatory political projects; sociology of sport in relation to i) the methodologies of bio-cultural racial description and explanation as articulated through a rhetoric of culturalist racism and ii) the cultural and aesthetic significance of sport as an enchanted popular art form.
Brett is an editorial board member of new formations and Ethnic and Racial Studies journals.
Publications
Book
Rethinking Race, Politics and Poetics: C. L. R. James's Critique of Modernity
St Louis, Brett. 2007. Rethinking Race, Politics and Poetics: C. L. R. James's Critique of Modernity. Routledge. ISBN 0415957729
Edited Journal
After ‘68: The Left and Twenty-First Century Politics
Campbell, Kirsten and St Louis, Brett, eds. 2008. After ‘68: The Left and Twenty-First Century Politics, New Formations, 65.
Book Section
Can race be eradicated? The postracial problematic
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
Post-Marxism, black Marxism and the politics of sport
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
Racialization in the "zone of ambiguity"
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
Article
On the necessity and the impossibility of identities: the politics and ethics of "new ethnicities"
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
After '68: The Left and Twenty-First Century Political Projects
Campbell, Kirsten and St Louis, Brett. 2008. After '68: The Left and Twenty-First Century Political Projects. New Formations, 65, pp. 7-18.
The Vocation of Sport Sociology
St Louis, Brett. 2007. The Vocation of Sport Sociology. Sociology of Sport Journal, 24(1), pp. 119-122. ISSN 7411235
The difference sameness makes: Racial recognition and the 'narcissism of minor differences'
St Louis, Brett. 2005. The difference sameness makes: Racial recognition and the 'narcissism of minor differences'. Ethnicities, 5(3), pp. 343-364. ISSN 14687968
Sport, genetics and the `natural athlete': The resurgence of racial science
St Louis, Brett. 2003. Sport, genetics and the `natural athlete': The resurgence of racial science. Body & Society, 9(2), pp. 75-95. ISSN 1357034X