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Magdalene Fellow - Ali Meghji

Dr Ali Meghji

Dr Ali Meghji is a Lecturer in Social Inequalities at the Department of Sociology, and Director of Studies in Human, Social, and Political Sciences (Part I, and Part II Sociology) at Magdalene College.

Prior to starting his lectureship, Ali worked as a Research Fellow in Sociology at Sidney Sussex College, and had a Visiting Fellowship at the Weatherhead Centre, Harvard University. He studied for his BA, MPhil, and PhD (all in sociology) at the University of Cambridge. Ali’s predominant research interests lie in critical race theory and decolonial thought. On the one hand, he is interested in the dynamics underlying contemporary racism through the investigation of national racialised social systems, and on the other hand, he is interested in analysing the ongoing presence of coloniality in the world system. Given his research interests, Ali also has a keen interest in cultural sociology and social theory.

Research Interests

Critical race theory; decolonial and postcolonial thought; cultural sociology; social theory.

Qualifications

PhD, MPhil, BA

Professional Affiliations

British Sociological Association; Co-convenor of British Sociological Association ‘Postcolonial and decolonial transformations’ sub group.

American Sociological Association; Society for the Study of Social Problems.

Selected Publications

Books

Meghji, A (2023) A critical synergy: race, decoloniality, and world crises. Temple University Press.

Meghji, A (2022) The racialized social system: critical race theory as social theory. Polity Press.

Meghji, A (2020) Decolonizing Sociology. Polity Press.

Meghji, A (2019) Black middle-class Britannia: identities, repertoires, capital. Manchester University Press.

Peer-reviewed journal articles

Meghji, A. (forthcoming). Between post-racial ideology and provincial universalisms: critical race theory, decolonial thought, and COVID-19 in Britain.

Meghji, A. (2020). Towards a theoretical synergy: critical race theory and decolonial thought in Brexit Britain and TrumpAmerica. 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, Online First, pp. 1-17.

Meghji, A. (2017). Positionings of the black middle-classes: understanding identity construction beyond strategic assimilation. Ethnic and Racial Studies40(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.

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.