Instructors: Alex Corey and Emily Pope-Obeda
Meeting time: Tuesday, 1-4
Syllabus: Canvas site
This course introduces students to methods for studying social movements. Situating U.S.-based movements within transnational contexts, we focus on three vibrant, overlapping areas of political activism since 1900: racial justice movements, immigration activism, and movements for gender and sexual equity. Throughout, we consider a series of debates in the field: how should concrete policy objectives be reconciled with quests for liberation and revolutions in consciousness? Who has the authority to name a movement’s geographic, temporal, and conceptual boundaries? How do movements operate across local, national, and transnational contexts? We will work with a range of materials, including but not limited to personal letters, visual art, literature, legal documents, music videos, journalistic video footage, organizational pamphlets, and academic scholarship.