Violence, Systems, and Resistance (VSR)

Catalog description

This course will teach students how to recognize, understand, and resist three primary forms of power-based violence that are interrelated: (1) those perpetrated by individuals, e.g. sexual assault, partner violence, mass shootings; (2) those perpetrated by hate groups, e.g. lynching, bombing, violence against trans and non-binary people; and (3) those perpetrated by the state, e.g. war, police violence. Students will study multiple forms of violence to understand the root causes and dynamics of violence (how it happens); the effects on people, families, and communities (what is the cost); and personal, community, and national resistance methodologies (what can be done about it).