Oppression: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives

Catalog description

What is oppression? Does it define a subjective experience or a structural condition? Should we understand it in terms of a restriction on freedom? Or equality? Or our ability to fully express our agency? And how can it be resisted? The course aims to explore these questions through the reading and discussion of the work of philosophers and critical theorists who have addressed them in the past and continue to address them today. We will thus attempt to get a clearer idea of what oppression is, how it works, and how it can be resisted. We will also discuss its difference vis-à-vis and relation with other concepts such as power, domination, submission, exploitation, and alienation.