Abolitionist University Studies
SOC 399M
Fall 2020 not offered
|
| Crosslisting:
AMST 270, FGSS 311 |
This course explores historical materialist theorizations of the practices and future possibilities of the U.S. university as a tool of social reproduction and space of potentially revolutionary thought. In so doing, the readings, assignments, and discussion will be inspired by Stefano Harney and Fred Moten's provocation to reinterpret abolitionism as "not so much the abolition of prisons but the abolition of a society that could have prisons, that could have slavery, that could have the wage, and therefore not abolition as the elimination of anything but abolition as the founding of a new society." Students will consider how conventional renderings of the university in higher education studies, critical university studies, and the popular cultural imaginary are predicated upon an often romanticized and fundamentally limited geographic and historical understanding of the work of colleges and universities. In response, the course cultivates a more capacious conceptualization of the historical and contemporary function of the university as a social form. In taking up abolitionism as both a method and critical analytic, the course will challenge students to imagine the revolutionary possibilities of an abolition university that aligns itself with movements beyond the institution, while reflecting on the particular importance and challenge of enacting such a vision in our current political moment. |
|
| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
SBS CHUM |
| Course Format: Seminar | Grading Mode: Graded |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
|
Fulfills a Requirement for: (EDST-MN)(EDST)(FGSS)(SOC) |
Major Readings:
Readings- Craig Steven Wilder, EBONY AND IVY; Stefano Harvey and Fred Moten, THE UNDERCOMMONS; Roderick Ferguson, WE DEMAND
|
Examinations and Assignments:
There will be a series of short papers and one longer final paper. |
Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
This course requires foundational work in American Studies, African American Studies, Feminist, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Sociology or Anthropology regarding the critical conceptualization of power, structures, and identity. In submitting your POI request, please write a short explananation of how you've encountered this type of thinking and scholarship as well as your interest in this course. |
| Drop/Add Enrollment Requests | | | | | |
| Total Submitted Requests: 0 | 1st Ranked: 0 | 2nd Ranked: 0 | 3rd Ranked: 0 | 4th Ranked: 0 | Unranked: 0 |
|
|