Uploaded December 2020 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
In this talk on multiracial Ireland and Irish-America, Kimberly McClain DaCosta (Associate Professor of Sociology, NYU Gallatin) considers emergent public discussion among those who identify as Black and Irish. Coming as it does in the midst of an international reckoning with anti-blackness and white supremacy, what does this conversation help us understand about contemporary racial dynamics in Ireland and the US?
Professor Kimberly McClain DaCosta is a sociologist interested in racial inequality and, in particular, the contemporary production of racial boundaries. Her book, Making Multiracials: State, Family, and Market in the Redrawing of the Color Line (Stanford University Press, 2007), explores the cultural and social underpinnings of the movement to create multiracial collective identity in the United States. She is currently writing on how interracial extended kin relationships speak to questions of interracial empathy, care and politics. She teaches courses on race in different societies, social mobility, consumerism, and the commercialization of intimate life. DaCosta served as Associate Dean of Students at NYU's Gallatin School for seven years and has been involved in NYU’s Prison Education Program since its inception in 2013, most recently as its Faculty Director.
In this talk on multiracial Ireland and Irish-America, Kimberly McClain DaCosta (Associate Professor of Sociology, NYU Gallatin) considers emergent public discussion among those who identify as Black and Irish. Coming as it does in the midst of an international reckoning with anti-blackness and white supremacy, what does this conversation help us understand about contemporary racial dynamics in Ireland and the US?
Professor Kimberly McClain DaCosta is a sociologist interested in racial inequality and, in particular, the contemporary production of racial boundaries. Her book, Making Multiracials: State, Family, and Market in the Redrawing of the Color Line (Stanford University Press, 2007), explores the cultural and social underpinnings of the movement to create multiracial collective identity in the United States. She is currently writing on how interracial extended kin relationships speak to questions of interracial empathy, care and politics. She teaches courses on race in different societies, social mobility, consumerism, and the commercialization of intimate life. DaCosta served as Associate Dean of Students at NYU's Gallatin School for seven years and has been involved in NYU’s Prison Education Program since its inception in 2013, most recently as its Faculty Director.
