Seth Racusen, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Criminal Justice
(508) 849-3373
Office: Trinity 210
Education:
Master of Education, Harvard University
Doctor of Philosophy, Political Science, MIT
Biography:
Professor Racusen is a tenured associate professor of political science and criminal justice with over ten years of experience teaching US politics, American government, law, sociology, and other social science courses. Many students in his classes have successfully gone on to law school. His research interests in race, law and public policy are primarily comparative and strongly overlap the public law sub-discipline in political science and the broader interdisciplinary interests of the Law and Society Association. He is a recognized authority on Brazilian racial discrimination law and affirmative action policy. Important inter-American jurisprudence and legal reports have cited his publications extensively: a 2006 decision of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights condemning Brazil’s failure to prosecute racial discrimination, the Simone Diniz case, and the 2004 Justice Studies Center of the Americas (CEJA) report to the OAS in support of an Inter-American Convention on Racial Discrimination. He secured two Fulbright Awards and a Visiting Fellowship at the Institute for the Study of Society and Politics at the State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ). His current book project, Improvising Citizenship: Afro Brazilian Responses to Racial Discrimination, examines how civil society and state institutions shape how victims become citizens and navigate a relatively inaccessible legal system.
Courses Taught at Anna Maria:
Introduction to Politics
Introduction to Sociology
Politics of Terrorism
Law and Society
Genocide Studies
US Foreign Policy
International Relations
Research Interests:
Race and racism, law and society, comparative law, transitional justice.
Publications:
“Kabengele Munanga”, in Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Franklin K. Knight (eds.), Dictionary of Caribbean and Afro-Latin American Biography, Oxford University Press, 2016
“The Ideology of the Brazilian Nation and the Brazilian Legal Theory of Racial Discrimination.” In Angela P. Harris (ed), Race and Equality Law, Ashgate, 2013.
“The Grammar of Color Identity in Brazil” in Bernd Reiter and Kimberly Eison Simmons (ed), Re-Examining the Black Atlantic: Afro-Descendants and Development, Michigan State University Press, 2012.
“Fictions of Identity and Brazilian Affirmative Action’, in National Black Law Journal, Columbia Law School, Vol. 21: No. 3, 2010. (0896-0194)
“Making the ‘Impossible’ Determination: Flexible Identity and Targeted Opportunity in Contemporary Brazil.” Connecticut Law Review. Vol. 36: No. 3. Pages 787-829. Spring. 2004.
Master of Education, Harvard University
Doctor of Philosophy, Political Science, MIT
Biography:
Professor Racusen is a tenured associate professor of political science and criminal justice with over ten years of experience teaching US politics, American government, law, sociology, and other social science courses. Many students in his classes have successfully gone on to law school. His research interests in race, law and public policy are primarily comparative and strongly overlap the public law sub-discipline in political science and the broader interdisciplinary interests of the Law and Society Association. He is a recognized authority on Brazilian racial discrimination law and affirmative action policy. Important inter-American jurisprudence and legal reports have cited his publications extensively: a 2006 decision of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights condemning Brazil’s failure to prosecute racial discrimination, the Simone Diniz case, and the 2004 Justice Studies Center of the Americas (CEJA) report to the OAS in support of an Inter-American Convention on Racial Discrimination. He secured two Fulbright Awards and a Visiting Fellowship at the Institute for the Study of Society and Politics at the State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ). His current book project, Improvising Citizenship: Afro Brazilian Responses to Racial Discrimination, examines how civil society and state institutions shape how victims become citizens and navigate a relatively inaccessible legal system.
Courses Taught at Anna Maria:
Introduction to Politics
Introduction to Sociology
Politics of Terrorism
Law and Society
Genocide Studies
US Foreign Policy
International Relations
Research Interests:
Race and racism, law and society, comparative law, transitional justice.
Publications:
“Kabengele Munanga”, in Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Franklin K. Knight (eds.), Dictionary of Caribbean and Afro-Latin American Biography, Oxford University Press, 2016
“The Ideology of the Brazilian Nation and the Brazilian Legal Theory of Racial Discrimination.” In Angela P. Harris (ed), Race and Equality Law, Ashgate, 2013.
“The Grammar of Color Identity in Brazil” in Bernd Reiter and Kimberly Eison Simmons (ed), Re-Examining the Black Atlantic: Afro-Descendants and Development, Michigan State University Press, 2012.
“Fictions of Identity and Brazilian Affirmative Action’, in National Black Law Journal, Columbia Law School, Vol. 21: No. 3, 2010. (0896-0194)
“Making the ‘Impossible’ Determination: Flexible Identity and Targeted Opportunity in Contemporary Brazil.” Connecticut Law Review. Vol. 36: No. 3. Pages 787-829. Spring. 2004.
