CTSJ 295 Topics in Critical Theory - Social Justice

This seminar will engage important topics and issues in Critical Theory and Social Justice. All CTSJ faculty will participate in order to facilitate an interdisciplinary engagement with complexities and nuances of these topics. Students from other CTSJ courses will be invited to participate in the construction of discourse around the topics. Topics might include: Whiteness Theory and Practice (Critical Theory and Social Justice) and Representation and Embodiment.

Soc. Movements/Representational Forms: 

In this course, we will examine the competing advocacy within social movements for documentary, fiction, journalism, lyric, abstraction, and other representational forms. For each social movement or political issue that we cover, students will compare multiple modes of representation, considering why they emerged, what their strengths and weaknesses were at each specific conjuncture, and what significance they have for future struggles. We will begin with some theoretical grounding and then proceed via a set of case studies. These may include: debates about realism vs. modernism in the Frankfurt school; testimonies in Latin America; confession vs. experimentation in feminist literature; reportage vs. the essay in journalism; and slogans, songs, and posters in queer activism.