This book grew out of four lectures that Professor Appiah gave for BBC Radio. His aim was to provide a broad audience with a comprehensive understanding of social identities, drawing on philosophy, history, literature and the social sciences. In his original lectures he examined four specific identities: religion, nationality, race and culture, adding the category of class in the book. In his lecture at the BCDSS, Appiah will focus on the status of what the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution defines as "race, color, or previous condition of servitude."
Appiah's lecture at the BCDSS is part of a lecture series that is co-organized by the BCDSS, the English Department at the University of Cologne and the Cologne-based literary non-profit organization stimmen afrikas. Find out more information on these three further events organized by stimmen afrikas and the University of Cologne respectively:
26 June: "Political Identity" - Public Lecture at the University of Cologne