Howard Winant
Encyclopedia
Howard Winant is an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 sociologist and race theorist. Professor Winant is best known for developing the theory of racial formation along with Michael Omi
Michael Omi
Michael Omi is an American sociologist. Professor Omi is best known for developing the theory of racial formation along with Howard Winant. Omi serves on the faculty at the University of California, Berkeley. Omi's work includes race theory, Asian American studies, and antiracist...

. Currently, Winant is Professor of Sociology
Sociology
Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...

 at the University of California, Santa Barbara
University of California, Santa Barbara
The University of California, Santa Barbara, commonly known as UCSB or UC Santa Barbara, is a public research university and one of the 10 general campuses of the University of California system. The main campus is located on a site in Goleta, California, from Santa Barbara and northwest of Los...

.
Winant's research and teachings revolve around race and racism, comparative historical sociology, political sociology, social theory, and human rights.

Education and career

Winant earned his Ph.D. in the History of Consciousness at the University of California, Santa Cruz
University of California, Santa Cruz
The University of California, Santa Cruz, also known as UC Santa Cruz or UCSC, is a public, collegiate university; one of ten campuses in the University of California...

. He was a professor of sociology at Temple University
Temple University
Temple University is a comprehensive public research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Originally founded in 1884 by Dr. Russell Conwell, Temple University is among the nation's largest providers of professional education and prepares the largest body of professional...

 from 1985 until moving to UC Santa Barbara in 2002.

Racial Formation in the United States

Winant's most influential work has been his 1986 collaboration with UC Berkeley Professor Michael Omi, Racial Formation in the United States. The theory draws upon Gramsci's conception of hegemony
Hegemony
Hegemony is an indirect form of imperial dominance in which the hegemon rules sub-ordinate states by the implied means of power rather than direct military force. In Ancient Greece , hegemony denoted the politico–military dominance of a city-state over other city-states...

 to describe the social construction of the race concept in contemporary US society. Omi and Winant argue that race emerged as an organizing factor in society due to political actions they call racial projects. These racial projects remain ongoing, making race an unstable social category that constantly changing, as evidenced by the changing nature of race relations as the result of political actions such as the Civil Rights Movement
Civil rights movement
The civil rights movement was a worldwide political movement for equality before the law occurring between approximately 1950 and 1980. In many situations it took the form of campaigns of civil resistance aimed at achieving change by nonviolent forms of resistance. In some situations it was...

. Still, as Gramsci would predict, the reforms secured during crisis moments like the Civil Rights era serve merely to incorporate resistance. The political project of racial equality remains incomplete. Thus, the fundamental dynamics of race including institutional racism and continued inequality along racialized lines remain in place today, according to Omi and Winant.

Racial formation has solidified as one of the primary paradigms of sociological understandings of race. Omi and Winant identify reductionist theories of race that identify race as epiphenomenal rather than durable as the chief competing theories of racial dynamics in contemporary sociology.

Current projects

One of Winant's current projects is the New Racial Studies Center, a multi-disciplinary think tank
Think tank
A think tank is an organization that conducts research and engages in advocacy in areas such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, and technology issues. Most think tanks are non-profit organizations, which some countries such as the United States and Canada provide with tax...

focusing on the dynamics of race and racism in the 21st Century.

Key publications

  • The New Politics of Race (2004)
  • The World Is a Ghetto: Race and Democracy Since World War II (2001)
  • "Race in the New Millennium," Colorlines: Race Culture, Action (2000)
  • "Behind Blue Eyes: Contemporary White Racial Politics," New Left Review (1997)
  • With Michael Omi, "Racial Formation In The United States," Routeledge (1986); Second Edition (1994).
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