Identity

Catalog description

"What does it mean to say "You be you"? What is an identity? Does everyone have one? Is it strictly a human phenomenon, or do other entities have them? Where does an identity come from, how is it formed, how permanent is it? A gathering of notable thinkers, taking varied approaches, will address many aspects of identity. Among other issues to be addressed will be whether identities differ across time and/or space; how broad social formations such as nation, religion, race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality might contribute to identity; how identity relates to family and kinship; and how different identities, perhaps in the same individual, relate to one another. And turning to current events: how can we think about identity in relation to global and personal experiences of the pandemic? How can different identities relate to anti-racist movements? Each week students enrolled in this course will participate in two sessions on a specific approach to such questions about identity. Each session will consist of a forty-five minute pre-recorded lecture that may be viewed at any time followed by a moderated discussion on a platform such as Slack. In order to contribute to these sessions, each student will be expected to contribute a one paragraph question/response statement to eight of the total of fourteen lectures."