21st Century Authoritarianism

Catalog description

This course offers an anthropological perspective on the global rise of authoritarianism, in the context of growing inequality, racism, misogyny, nationalism, genocide and war. In particular, it links macro-scale and historical theories regarding global processes (e.g., "world systems," "globalization"), on the one hand, and the closer correlates of these macro forces shaping individual experience, on the other. Drawing from anthropology as well as from cognate disciplines (history, psychology, political economy), the course surveys case studies from the US, Germany, China, and other countries, on topics such as the self-delusion of the oppressed, the narcissism of dictators, the politics of gender, as well as how the remaking of social identities relate to world economic cycles. Course readings highlight how fantasy, imagination, fear and hope, as well as propaganda and AI, intervene in the contemporary global trends.