POLI 341 - Comparative Social Movements

Cross-Listed as LATI 341

Can the evolution of Occupy Wall Street help us anticipate the trajectory of the Movement for Black Lives? How did the Arab Spring and Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement deploy a similar tactical repertoire, yet provoke different outcomes? Did partisanship lead the peace movement to resist Bush’s “War on Terror” but shrug at Obama’s drone war? And does mobilization of identity explain how indigenous Bolivians ejected U.S. corporations and scored lasting victories against the white power structure? This advanced research seminar engages theories that explain the origins and development of movements struggling for subsistence rights, labor rights, gender and sexuality rights, social rights, and racial and ethnic rights. Students planning to conduct social movements research while studying away may write a research prospectus to launch that field research project. Prerequisite(s): Sophomore standing or permission of instructor. Alternate years. (4 Credits)