PSCI 430
What Should Political Theory Be Now? Spring 2017
Division II
This is not the current course catalog

Class Details

How can theorists best engage politics today? What political problems most demand or resist theorization—and is “theory” even the right genre for critical intellectual work on politics now? This course takes up such questions by considering how key recent or contemporary theorists have sketched the defining features of their political worlds. With each reading, our dual aim will be to confront pressing issues or controversies and to ask whether the works in question offer ways of thinking and writing that we should pursue ourselves. Topics may include neoliberalism and democracy; sovereignty and biopower; pluralism, individuality, and justice; technology and the specter of ecological catastrophe; the problem of evil in politics; white supremacy; and contemporary struggles over gender and sexuality. Readings will be drawn from such authors as Adorno, Allen, Arendt, Berlant, Brown, Butler, Connolly, Dean, Foucault, Galli, Honig, Latour, Moten, Rancière, Rawls, Sen, and Sexton.
The Class: Format: seminar
Limit: 15
Expected: 11
Class#: 3681
Grading: no pass/fail option, no fifth course option
Requirements/Evaluation: based on class participation and the writing of 7 glow posts (about 1.5 pages) and one 15-page final paper
Extra Info: may not be taken on a pass/fail basis; not available for the fifth course option
Prerequisites: juniors or senior standing and two or more theory courses or consent of instructor. Non-majors with theory interests and backgrounds are welcome
Enrollment Preferences: concentrators in Political Theory, followed by other Political Science majors
Distributions: Division II
Attributes: AMST Critical and Cultural Theory Electives
PSCI Political Theory Courses

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