News Release
Race Issue Takes Centre Stage at Magee
23rd December 2003
Dr Noel Ignatiev, known for his controversial views on race and politics, will present a lecture at the University of Ulster’s Magee campus.
His lecture, which is presented by the Academy for Irish Cultural Heritages, will argue that the question of race must be placed at the centre of the political stage.
Ignatiev worked in steel mills and factories for more than twenty years before going to Harvard, where he later gained his PhD. He currently teaches History in the Department of Critical Studies at the Massachusetts College of Art.
In his book ‘How the Irish Became White’ (1995) Ignatiev explored the similarities between Irish Catholic immigrants and African Americans in America in the mid nineteenth century. In it he argues that both races missed a potentially significant opportunity to create a biracial proletariat, capable of breaking the chains of both chattel and wage slavery.
His controversial work on ‘whiteness’, typified in his essay "Abolish the White Race", has won him both widespread acclaim and condemnation.
The lecture will take place in Aberfoyle House, Magee campus on Friday 9 January at 3pm.
For further details on this event please contact the Academy for Irish Cultural Heritages on 028 7137 5785.
For further information, please contact:
Press Office Department of Communication and Development
Telephone: 028 9036 6178
Email: pressoffice@ulster.ac.uk
