WGSS 300 - Worlds Upside Down: Revolutions in Theories and Practices

Are we living in revolutionary times? How do we know? This course takes a journey through the last 50 years of some large upheavals across the world-in language, politics, economics, culture, and media-to find some answers of how we are similar and different. It uncovers how and why the struggles, in theories and practices, for power and representation have created the conditions in which we exist today. We travel through all kinds of ‘post’ and ‘neo’-liberalism, humanism, feminism, nationalism, and colonialism-and how they intertwine in our own lived experiences. Some topics: protest against gender, sexual, race, economic, and linguistic bio-regimes, revolts of the colonized and marginalized, and resistant/ liberatory creations in art, technology, and media. Authors include Linda Tuhiwai Smith, Michel Foucault, Theresa Cha, Silvia Federici, Noam Chomsky, Ta-Nehisi Coates, bell hooks, Chela Sandoval, and Gayatri Spivak, among others. At the end of the course, we will all know a little more about where we stand. People from all disciplines welcome.

Prerequisite(s): Sophomore or junior standing or permission of instructor, and at least one course in the department (core course recommended, cross-listed accepted). Every year. (4 Credits)