Juliet Hooker

This course explores the variety of feminisms developed by women of color and non-western women to critique the racism and ethnocentrism of white-dominated systems and practices, including feminism. Its overall concern is with the contemporary re-conceptualizations of feminism in light of "difference" as a result of the critical perspectives developed by women of color. We begin by examining the dominant approaches to feminist theory that emerged in the United States and Europe, such as liberal, Marxist, and radical feminism, as well as feminist epistemology and post-modern feminist analyses. We will then focus on the critiques of these traditions developed by women of color and their insistence on the need to address the intersections of race, gender, sexuality, and class.  Finally, we will examine recent debates regarding the politics of sexuality, the role of men in feminism, the relationship between race, gender and sexuality, and Arab feminism.

Grading Policy

Grades will be assessed based on class participation, 2 short essays, and a final paper. 

Despite the current trend towards the study of comparative political theory, the work of Latin American political thinkers, which has been tremendously influential in their own region, remains marginal to the canon of Western political thought. Likewise, the work of U.S. African-American political thinkers is an important yet often overlooked strand of [U.S.] American political thought. This course is an an introduction to the history of these two traditions, and a comparative effort to understand the main thematics in each and the similarities and differences between them. It examines the answers U.S. African-American and Latin American thinkers have given to some of the fundamental preoccupations of political theory, as well as to other questions that have sometimes been viewed as marginal, such as: What is justice? What is freedom? What are the conditions of possibility for democratic politics? How should we theorize race? How should we conceive racial identity? What form should anti-racist politics take? The course will introduce students to some of the most influential figures in U.S. African-American and Latin American political thought, including: Domingo F. Sarmiento, José Martí, José Vasconcelos, Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. DuBois, as well as to contemporary thinkers and debates about racial justice and black, latino, and indigenous politics in the U.S. and Latin America. The aim of the course is to identify the contours and substantive problematics of U.S. African-American and Latin American political thought, particularly as they relate to questions of racial justice. 

STUDY ABROAD COURSE

Course Description

This course will examine the politics of race, culture, nation, and political mobilization among Afro-Caribbean communities on Central America’s Caribbean Coast. It will discuss the historical process by which these communities were formed in the region during the colonial era, different periods of labor migration, the emergence of anti-Black mestizo nationalism, and contemporary struggles for racial justice. Students will learn how Afro-Caribbean populations have drawn from their Caribbean roots to navigate and resist persistent patterns of racial, gender, and economic inequality and have challenged the racially defined limits of citizenship and national belonging within mestizo nation-states. The course will provide students with a foundation for understanding larger racial formation patterns in Central America and ground this analysis in historical and ethnographic studies of Afro-Caribbean populations in Nicaragua, Honduras, Costa Rica, Panama, and Belize.

Despite the current trend towards the study of comparative political theory, the work of Latin American political thinkers, which has been tremendously influential in their own region, remains marginal to the canon of Western political thought. Likewise, the work of U.S. African-American political thinkers is an important yet often overlooked strand of [U.S.] American political thought. This course is an an introduction to the history of these two traditions, and a comparative effort to understand the main thematics in each and the similarities and differences between them. It examines the answers U.S. African-American and Latin American thinkers have given to some of the fundamental preoccupations of political theory, as well as to other questions that have sometimes been viewed as marginal, such as: What is justice? What is freedom? What are the conditions of possibility for democratic politics? How should we theorize race? How should we conceive racial identity? What form should anti-racist politics take? The course will introduce students to some of the most influential figures in U.S. African-American and Latin American political thought, including: Domingo F. Sarmiento, José Martí, José Vasconcelos, Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. DuBois, as well as to contemporary thinkers and debates about racial justice and black, latino, and indigenous politics in the U.S. and Latin America. The aim of the course is to identify the contours and substantive problematics of U.S. African-American and Latin American political thought, particularly as they relate to questions of racial justice.

This course explores the variety of feminisms developed by women of color and non-western women to critique the racism and ethnocentrism of white-dominated systems and practices, including feminism. Its overall concern is with the contemporary re-conceptualizations of feminism in light of "difference" as a result of the critical perspectives developed by women of color. We begin by examining the dominant approaches to feminist theory that emerged in the United States and Europe, such as liberal, Marxist, and radical feminism, as well as feminist epistemology and post-modern feminist analyses. We will then focus on the critiques of these traditions developed by women of color and their insistence on the need to address the intersections of race, gender, sexuality, and class.  Finally, we will examine recent debates regarding the politics of sexuality, the role of men in feminism, the relationship between race, gender and sexuality, and Arab feminism.

This course explores the variety of feminisms developed by women of color and non-western women to critique the racism and ethnocentrism of white-dominated systems and practices, including feminism. Its overall concern is with the contemporary re-conceptualizations of feminism in light of "difference" as a result of the critical perspectives developed by women of color. We begin by examining the dominant approaches to feminist theory that emerged in the United States and Europe, such as liberal, Marxist, and radical feminism, as well as feminist epistemology and post-modern feminist analyses. We will then focus on the critiques of these traditions developed by women of color and their insistence on the need to address the intersections of race, gender, sexuality, and class.  Finally, we will examine recent debates regarding the politics of sexuality, the role of men in feminism, the relationship between race, gender and sexuality, and Arab feminism.

Grades will be assessed based on class participation, 3 short essays, and a final paper.

Description: In spite of the tremendous influence that Latin American political thinkers have had in their own region, their work remains marginal to the canon of Western political theory. This course is an overview of the various traditions in the history of Latin American political thought. It examines the answers Latin American thinkers have given to some of the fundamental preoccupations of political theory from the perspective of the region’s social and political realities, such as: What is justice? What is the nature of the human? Under what conditions is popular sovereignty possible? What is the relationship between aesthetics and politics? What should be the relationship between religion and politics? How do we theorize culture and race? The course will introduce students to some of the most influential figures in Latin American political thought, including Bartolomé de las Casas, Simón Bolivar, Domingo F. Sarmiento, José Enrique Rodó, José Martí, José Vasconcelos, José Carlos Mariátegui, Ernesto ‘Ché’ Guevara, Gustavo Gutiérrez, as well as contemporary thinkers such as Walter Mignolo and Enrique Dussel. It will use this engagement with the history of political thought in Latin America to ask the following questions: To what extent can we say that there is a tradition of Latin American political thought? If so, what are its contours? What are the main problematics and principles of this tradition? To what extent does it reflect concerns specific to Latin America? To what extent does it speak to central questions in the canon of western political theory? How does it challenge the conceptual and methodological boundaries of that canon? And what, if any, is the difference between Latin American philosophy and Latin American political thought?

Grading Policy/Course Requirements:
Students will write three short (4 page) critical response essays about the readings.  
Students will also make one in-class presentation on the readings.
Final grades will be assessed based on three critical response essays (22% each for a total of 66%), in class presentation (18%), and class participation (16%).

Required Texts
1. Domingo F. Sarmiento, Facundo: Or, Civilization and Barbarism (Penguin Classics, 1998).
2. José Vasconcelos, The Cosmic Race (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997).
3. José Enrique Rodó, Ariel (University of Texas Press, 1998).
4. José Carlos Mariátegui, The Heroic and Creative Meaning of Socialism: Selected Essays of Jose Carlos Mariátegui (Humanity Books, 1996).
5. Gustavo Gutiérrez, A Theology of Liberation: History, Politics and Salvation (Orbis Books, 1998).
6. Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth (Grove Press, 2005).
Additional readings will be available through blackboard.