POL 207 - Contemporary Social and Political Thought

This course covers an important thinker, school of thought, or issue in contemporary social and political theory. Specific topics will shift from term to term but might include, for example, the role of the state in capitalist societies, current debates in democratic theory, current debates in postcolonial and decolonial theory, the role and place of political protest in contemporary society, an examination of the meaning of liberty in complex societies, the renewal of nationalism and critiques of cosmopolitanism, the persistence of political violence, or the work and influence of a particular theorist: for example, Arendt, Gramsci, Marcuse, Foucault, Habermas, Rawls to name a few.