School of Sociology and Social Policy

Centre for Ethnicity and Racism Studies

The Centre for Ethnicity and Racism Studies (CERS) is an interdisciplinary centre at the University of Leeds established in 1998. It has an established international reputation for theoretically-informed, policy relevant research on racism and ethnicity. Core staff are based in Sociology and Social Policy and current research includes work on the racialisation of communist and post-communist contexts (Law), whiteness, power and emotions (Hunter), impact of the 7/7 bombings (Bagguley and Hussain), global culture industries (Tzanelli), postcolonialism and ‘political Islam’ (Sayyid), black aesthetics (Tate), Sikh and Muslim experiences (Sian) and ethnic relations and housing (Harrison). 

MA Racism and Ethnicity Studies
A unique and innovatory postgrad programme combining 'leading edge' research-based teaching and systematic academic training in this interdisciplinary field.

Two major European research projects

TOLERACE, The Semantics of Tolerance and (Anti-) Racism in Europe: institutions and civil society in a comparative perspective, 2010-2013, UK team: S. Sayyid, Ian Law and Katy Sian http://www.ces.uc.pt/projectos/tolerace/pages/intro.php

Please click here to read a booklet containing the findings and recommendations from this project

EDUMIGROM, Ethnic Difference in Education and Diverging Prospects for Urban Youth in an Enlarged Europe, 2008-2011, UK team: Ian Law and Sarah Swann, http://www.edumigrom.eu/

Global Network

WUN White Spaces Network
New theoretical understandings of whiteness and white identities and ethnicities have been developed and debated in the US, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and more recently Europe, including the UK, academic lead Shona Hunter, http://www.wun.ac.uk/research/white-spaces-network

WUN Xeno-racism and Extremism and Muslim populations in North America and Europe
CERS partners: Yasmin Hussain and Paul Bagguley http://www.wun.ac.uk/research/xeno-racism-and-extremism

Ten recent books

  • Ian Law (2012) Red Racisms, racism in communist and post-communist contexts, London: Palgrave
  • Ian Law and Sarah Swann, (2011) Ethnicity and Education in England and Europe, gangstas, geeks and gorjas, Farnham: Ashgate
  • Rodanthi Tzanelli, (2011) Cosmopolitan Memory in Europe’s Backwaters, rethinking civility London: Routledge
  • Ian Law, (2010) Racism and Ethnicity: global debates, dilemmas, directions, London: Pearson Books.
  • S.Sayyid and AbdoolKarim Vakil, (eds.), (2010) Thinking Through Islamophobia, Global Perspectives, New York: Columbia University Press.
  • Shirely Tate (2009) Black Beauty, Aesthetics, Stylization, Politics, Farnham: Ashgate
  • Ian Law and Graham Huggan (eds), (2009) Racism, Postcolonialism, Europe, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press.
  • Rodanthi Tzanelli, (2008) Nation-Building and Identity in Europe: the dialogics of reciprocity, London: Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Paul Bagguley and Yasmin Hussain (2008) Riotous Citizens: ethnic conflict in multicultural Britain, Aldershot: Ashgate.
  • Yasmin Hussain and Paul Bagguley (2007) Moving on Up: South Asian Women and Higher Education, Stoke-on-Trent: Trentham Books.

Centre Director

Dr Shirley Tate
Centre for Ethnicity and Racism Studies
Telephone: 0113 343 4903
email: cers@leeds.ac.uk

Deputy Director

Professor Ian Law
Centre for Ethnicity and Racism Studies
University of Leeds
Telephone: 0113 343 4410
email: cers@leeds.ac.uk

Mapping Global Racisms Project

Anti-racism toolkit

Institutional Racism in Higher Education: building the anti-racist university.

Toolkit [PDF: 323KB]

Toolkit [DOC: 543KB]

The Culture Craft

The Culture Craft is the blog of CERS to develop interventions and commentaries on matters surrounding racism and ethnicity in its broadest sense



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