Howard Winant (born 1946)
is an American
sociologist and race theorist.
Winant is Distinguished Professor of
Sociology
Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of Empirical ...
at the
University of California, Santa Barbara
The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Barbara County, California, Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduate ...
. Winant is best known for developing the theory of ''racial formation'' along with
Michael Omi
Michael Omi (born 1951) is an American sociologist, writer, scholar, and educator. Omi has served on the faculty at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the Associate Director of the Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society. Omi i ...
. Winant's research and teachings revolve around race and racism, comparative historical sociology, political sociology, social theory, and human rights.
Education and career
Howard Winant was born in 1946 in the United States.
He received his B.A. degree from
Brandeis University
, mottoeng = "Truth even unto its innermost parts"
, established =
, type = Private research university
, accreditation = NECHE
, president = Ronald D. Liebowitz
, pro ...
in 1968; and Ph.D from the
University of California, Santa Cruz
The University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz or UCSC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Cruz, California. It is one of the ten campuses in the University of California syste ...
in 1980.
He has worked and taught in Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina.
Winant is Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara since 2002; where he is also affiliated with the Black Studies, Chicana/o Studies, and Asian American Studies departments.
''Racial Formation in the United States''
Winant's most influential work has been his ongoing collaboration with UC Berkeley Professor Michael Omi, ''Racial Formation in the United States'' (1986-2015). The theory draws upon
Gramsci's conception of
hegemony
Hegemony (, , ) is the political, economic, and military predominance of one State (polity), state over other states. In Ancient Greece (8th BC – AD 6th ), hegemony denoted the politico-military dominance of the ''hegemon'' city-state over oth ...
to describe the social construction of the
race
Race, RACE or "The Race" may refer to:
* Race (biology), an informal taxonomic classification within a species, generally within a sub-species
* Race (human categorization), classification of humans into groups based on physical traits, and/or s ...
concept in contemporary US society. Noting the concept's origins in European
settler colonialism
Settler colonialism is a structure that perpetuates the elimination of Indigenous people and cultures to replace them with a settler society. Some, but not all, scholars argue that settler colonialism is inherently genocidal. It may be enacted ...
and in the enslavement of Africans (see
Slavery in the United States
The legal institution of human chattel slavery, comprising the enslavement primarily of Africans and African Americans, was prevalent in the United States of America from its founding in 1776 until 1865, predominantly in the South. Sl ...
), Omi and Winant also follow Du Bois (see
W. E. B. Du Bois) in arguing that race has always operated as an organizing factor in society. In their account the meaning of race is constantly contested through political conflict that takes the form of
racial projects. Racial projects are at work throughout society, making race an unstable social category that is embedded in all identities and social structures. Taking the form of White Supremacy and shaped as well by ongoing resistance to it, race has been so foundational in the United States that it serves as a "template" for all social conflict. At key moments like the Civil War and Reconstruction period, and during the
Civil Rights Movement
The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional Racial segregation in the United States, racial segregation, Racial discrimination ...
, the meaning and sociopolitical structure of race has been transformed. Still, as both Gramsci and Du Bois would predict, the reforms secured during crisis periods like the Civil Rights era have contradictory effects: for democratic and egalitarian movements, they simultaneously represent both victory and defeat. Civil Rights, Black Power, Immigrants Rights, and other anti-racist movements have both extended democracy and demobilized resistance. Political project seeking racial equality and justice remain incomplete and are indeed threatened by racial reaction in numerous ways. Thus, the fundamental dynamics of race, such as institutional racism, nativism (anti-immigrant racism), heterophobia, and enforced inequality along
racialized
In sociology, racialization or ethnicization is a political process of ascribing ethnic or racial identities to a relationship, social practice, or group that did not identify itself as such. Racialization or ethnicization often arises out of th ...
lines remain formidable today, constantly subject to political struggle, according to Omi and Winant.
Racial formation has solidified as one of the primary paradigms of sociological understandings of race. While recognizing the importance of ethnicity- (culturally-based theories), class- (inequality-based theories), and nation- (peoplehood-based theories), race cannot be explained a manifestation of any of these three categories. Omi and Winant criticize any attempt to do so as inherently ''reductionist''. In their view race remains a fundamental dimension of social structure and signification, while simultaneously retaining its instability, contrariety, and openness, because it is always engulfed in the turmoil of political conflict.
University of California Center for New Racial Studies
Winant was the founder and director of th
University of California Center for New Racial Studies a multidisciplinary program that was active on all ten UC campuses of the UC from 2010 to 2015.
The UCCNRS was not renewed in 2015, for reasons that remain unclear.
Key publications
* "Pan-Americanism and Anti-Racism." In Hooker, Juliet, ed. ''Black and Indigenous Resistance in the Americas: From Multiculturalism to Racist Backlash''. Lexington Books, 2020.
* Paola Bacchetta, Sunaina Maira, and Howard Winant, editors. ''Global Raciality: Empire, Postcoloniality, Decoloniality''. Routledge, 2018.
* "World-Historical Du Bois." ''Ethnic and Racial Studies Review'', Vol. 40, no. 3 (February 2017).
*''Racial Formation In The United States,'' (co-author: Michael Omi) (Routledge 1986; 2nd ed. 1994; 3rd ed., 2015).
* "The Dark Matter: Race and Racism in the 21st-Century." ''Critical Sociology'', Vol 41, no. 2 (March 2015).
* "Interview: Howard Winant." In Katy Sian, ed. ''Conversations in Postcolonial Thought''. Palgrave/MacMillan, 2014.
* "The Dark Side of the Force: One Hundred Years of the Sociology of Race.” In Craig Calhoun, ed. ''Sociology in America: A History'' University of Chicago Press, 2007.
* "Race and Racism: Toward a Global Future." In ''Ethnic and Racial Studies,'' Vol. 29. no. 5 (Sept. 2006).
* "Teaching Race and Racism in the 21st Century: Thematic Considerations." In ''Souls: A Critical Journal of Black Politics, Culture, and Society'' (Institute for Research in African American Studies, Columbia University), Vol. 6, nos. 3-4 (2004).
*''The New Politics of Race''. University of Minnesota Press 2004.
*''The World Is a Ghetto: Race and Democracy Since World War II''. Basic Books 2001.
* "Race in the New Millennium," ''ColorLines: Race Culture, Action'' Vol. 3, no. 1 (Spring 2000).
* ''Racial Conditions: Politics, Theory, Comparisons''. University of Minnesota Press 1994.
* "Behind Blue Eyes: Contemporary White Racial Politics," ''New Left Review'' 225 (September–October 1997).
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Winant, Howard
American sociologists
Living people
University of California, Santa Barbara faculty
University of California, Santa Cruz alumni
1946 births