Global Studies B.A. Courses

*Co/pre-requisite with GLBL 381.

There is no doubt that the present is characterized by unprecedented crises— economic, environmental, social, and political. Some have described this moment as one of impasse in which none of the political and theoretical frameworks with which we are accustomed to thinking and acting are sufficient. As a result, traditional paradigms of change— based around movements, revolutions, resistance, etc. —are themselves no longer adequate. However, around the world people, movements and projects—ranging from indigenous communities to ecological initiatives, to less articulate change projects — are developing and experimenting with alternative visions of change. Many of these require fundamental shifts in levels we don’t often think about when it comes to social change, namely epistemology and ontology, or the forms of knowing, being and doing, we use in or inform the forms and frameworks of action and future making. These projects eschew the universalizing and colonizing tendencies of past frameworks and promote a form of knowing and doing with and through uncertainty— what the Zapatistas term “walking while questioning,” care and autonomy. Many of these projects describe themselves as transformational. They place an emphasis on relationships or relationality, community and collectivity, and many have mindfulness and other spiritual practices at their core.

We are living in an era of uncertainties. However, this course departs from the premise that uncertainty is not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, it provides opportunities to re-evaluate, elaborate and create other concepts and perspectives about the relationship between theory and the politics of change. Uncertainty poses the possibility of practices and forms of knowing that are more dynamic, reflexive and multiple — eschewing the universalizing, anthropocentric, and colonizing tendencies of the dominant epistemological frameworks under-girding Liberal, Marxist, poststructuralist, and most critical visions available in the academy at present. This course will explore a variety of practices and imaginaries currently being elaborated and developed by social movements and other social actors engaged in social change work.

*In particular, we explore the work of current projects that can be considered to fall into this nontraditional vision of social change. We will work together to create a resource tool for others grappling with this time and the larger period of crisis and re-orientation the present moment is a part of.

*Honors version available.