2013-2014 Academic Catalog

Feb 18, 2025

2013-2014 Academic Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

HS 204 - Freedom Dreams: Global Freedom Struggles from Decolonization to the Present

The contemporary philosopher and activist Slavoj Zizek has recently said that “we feel free because we lack the very language to articulate our unfreedom.” This course examines the global freedom struggle against colonialism, white supremacy, and European hegemony from the 1930s to the present. Students will explore political struggles against colonial powers, as well as the ways in which artists, writers, and entertainers used creative expression in order to counter the constrictive institutions, laws, and cultural practices that helped shape and articulate the European colonial order. We will take as a point of departure discussions of freedom and “unfreedom” in the intellectual movements of the Enlightenment era during the 18th century, and then focus our attention on critiques of freedom in African-American and non-European contexts in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. In disparate movements such as a the struggle for racial equality and civil rights, the emergence of “third world” nations from the colonial rule, and the recent rebellions of the Arab Spring, the notion of freedom is subject to radical critiques and creatively reimagined. Working from an interdisciplinary perspective, our discussions will draw on the history of social movements, the writings of “third-world” intellectuals, and various genres of art and literature.

Prerequisites: None

Corequisites: None

Program of Liberal Studies (PLS) Designation: N/A

Anticipated Terms Offered: N/A