Black Political Thought

This course explores key texts in African American political thought from the 19th century to the present. Emphasizing the historical and theoretical stakes of Black freedom struggles, we examine questions of subjectivity, democracy, citizenship, race, and unfreedom. Authors include Du Bois, Douglass, Cooper, King, Angela Davis, and others. We ask: What is the African American political community? Can full inclusion in American democracy be achieved? What does freedom mean in a society shaped by slavery and its afterlives? The course is transdisciplinary, critically engaging philosophy, sociology, and Black Studies to rethink the meaning of political life in the Black experience.