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Dr Ali Meghji

Dr Ali Meghji is an Assistant Professor in Social Inequalities, having completed a research fellowship at Sidney Sussex College, a visiting fellowship at Harvard’s Weatherhead Centre, and a PhD, MPhil, and BA in sociology at Cambridge. He is the director for the MPhil in marginality and exclusion, the course organiser for SOC12 Empire, colonialism, imperialism, and the chair of 'Decolonising sociology'.

Currently, Ali’s predominant research interests lie in bridging the epistemological, methodological, and empirical divergences between critical race theory and decolonial thought. Through this research, Ali intends to balance the study of national racialized social systems with the global process of coloniality.

Given his research interests, Ali is available to supervise graduate students in Critical race theory; Empire and imperialism; and decolonial approaches in social theory and the sociology of knowledge.

Research Interests

Decolonial thought; critical race theory; sociology of knowledge; social theory.

Teaching

Courses:

SOC1: Introduction to Sociology

SOC2: Social Theory

SOC4: Concepts and Arguments 

SOC6: Advanced Social Theory

SOC11: Racism, race and Ethnicity

SOC12: Empire, Colonialism, Imperialism (course organiser)

MPhil: Sociology (Co-ordinator for the marginality and exclusion pathway)

Graduate Supervision:

Ali is available to supervise graduate students working in the area of:
Critical race theory; Empire and imperialism; decolonial approaches in social theory and the sociology of knowledge. 

Key Publications - Books

Meghji, A. (2022/3). Race, decoloniality, world crises. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.

Meghji, A. (2021). The racialized social system: critical race theory as social theory. Cambridge: Polity.

Meghji, A. (2020) Decolonizing Sociology. Cambridge: Polity.

Meghji, A. (2019). Black middle class Britannia: identities, repertoires, cultural consumption. Racism, resistance and social change (series edited by John Solomos, Satnam Virdee, and Aaron Winter). Manchester: Manchester University Press.

Key Publications - Book Chapters

Meghji, A. (2019) ‘Post-racialism’. SAGE Encyclopaedia of Research Methods. London: SAGE.

Meghji, A. (Forthcoming). 'Race relations'. Routledge Encyclopaedia of Race and Racism. London: Routledge.

Key Publications - Journal Articles

Meghji, A. and Niang, S. M. (2021) ‘Between Post-Racial Ideology and Provincial Universalisms: Critical Race Theory, Decolonial Thought and COVID-19 in Britain’, Sociology. 

Meghji, A. (2020). Towards a theoretical synergy: Critical race theory and decolonial thought in Trumpamerica and Brexit Britain. Current Sociology.

Meghji, A. (2020). What can the sociology of race learn from the histories of anti-colonialism? Ethnicities.

Meghji, A. (2020). ‘Just what is critical race theory, and what is it doing in British sociology? From ‘BritCrit’ to the racialized social system approach’. British Journal of Sociology.

Meghji, Ali. 2019. 'White power, racialised regimes of truth, and (in)validity’ Sentio.

Meghji, A. 2019. ‘Contesting Racism: How Do the Black Middle-Class Use Cultural Consumption for Anti-Racism?’ Identities 0 (0): 1–19.

Meghji, A. (2018) 'Activating controlling images in the racialized interaction order: black middle-class interactions and the creativity of racist action'. Symbolic Interaction, Online First, 1-21.

Meghji, A. and Saini, R. (2018). Rationalising Racial Inequality: Ideology, Hegemony, and Post-Racialism among the Black and South Asian Middle-Classes. Sociology, 52(4), pp. 671–687.

Meghji, A. (2017). Encoding and decoding Black and White Cultural Capitals: Black Middle-Class Experiences. Cultural Sociology, Vol 13, Issue 1, 2019, Online First, pp. 1-17.

Meghji, A. (2017). Positionings of the black middle-classes: understanding identity construction beyond strategic assimilation. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 40(6), 1007–1025.

Meghji, A. (2017). A relational study of the Black middle classes and globalised White hegemony: Identities, interactions, and ideologies in the United States, United Kingdom, and South Africa. Sociology Compass, 11(9), 1-13.

Key Publications - Other

Meghji, A. (2017). Politics then and now: the enduring legacy of Stuart Hall. Cultural Studies, 31(6), 1-3.

Grants and Projects

Meghji, A. (PI) A new Black consciousness? Anti-racism among the Black elite in South Africa and the United States. Cambridge Humanities Research Grants Scheme (2019): £13,657.20

The Global roots of Black sociology, Cambridge Humanities Research Grants Scheme (£1425).

Research Groups & Affiliations

Decolonise Sociology 

 

Job Title:
Assistant Professor in Social Inequalities, Magdelene College
Dr Ali Meghji
Contact Information:
am2059@cam.ac.uk
Academia.edu Profile

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