The spectre of Japan

In a recently published article on race relations in the USA, Dr Kevin Yuill explores how, before 1905, most observers assumed the inferiority of Blacks and saw race conflict as the fault of African Americans. But a new possibility arose when the fate of African Americans was linked to the rising power of Japan, occurring after the defeat of Russia by Japan in 1904–5. Race conflict, in this new model, was a form of conflict between nations. Kevin's paper explores the thesis that a liberal perspective based on developments in contemporary international relations slowly changed the way race was regarded in the United States. From 1905 onwards, a new liberal paradigm sought to manage race conflict. It was this—rather than labour-based racial antipathies or commitment to racial equality—that shaped US race relations in the twentieth century.

Yuill, K. 2015. The spectre of Japan: the influence of foreign relations on race relations theory, 1905–24. Patterns of Prejudice 49(4): 317-342.

National Portrait Gallery lecture

William Gifford Palgrave
© National Portrait Gallery, London

Dr Geoff Nash will be giving the lunchtime lecture at the National Portrait Gallery on 21st January 2016 (1.15pm). Drawing on the Gallery’s current display, Geoff looks at the extraordinary life of the leading British explorer and scholar of the Middle East, William Gifford Palgrave (1826-1888). After serving for a time in the Indian army, Palgrave converted to Roman Catholicism and worked as a missionary in southern India until 1853. He began his long engagement with the Arab world in 1855 as a missionary in Syria, where he witnessed the persecution of Syrian Christians. Palgrave’s most notable achievement lay in exploring Arabia, which had for years been closed to Europeans. In 1862 and 1863 he became the first Westerner to cross Arabia by a diagonal route, from north-west to south-east, travelling in disguise and at great risk as a European. A deep interest in identity, whether racial, national and religious is made evident in Palgrave’s writings, his propensity for disguise and by his multiple name changes.

William Gifford Palgrave: Master of Disguise.

Tickets: £3 (£2 concessions and Gallery Supporters). Book online, or visit the Gallery in person.

How the right to die undermines autonomy

In an article published in the journal Ethics, Medicine & Public Health, Dr Kevin Yuill explicates the libertarian case against assisted dying. He argues that there is a broad discussion throughout many countries in the West about whether or not assisted suicide/dying will increase human happiness by decreasing suffering. Understandably, many of the articles address the issue from a medical standpoint but, at the same time, they assume that freedom will increase with legalization. Kevin's article is critical of that assumption and shows that the individual autonomy purportedly increased by assisted suicide will in fact decrease. This article stresses the dangers to general freedoms that will accompany a law that sets objective criteria for suicide, which is a subjective decision.

Yuill, K. 2015. The unfreedom of assisted suicide: How the right to die undermines autonomy.
Ethics, Medicine & Public Health 1(4): 494-502.