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Semester 1

Anticolonial Political Thought (PLIT10164)

Subject

Politics

College

CAHSS

Credits

20

Normal Year Taken

3

Delivery Session Year

2023/2024

Pre-requisites

Visiting students must have completed 4 Politics courses at grade B or above. We will only consider University/College level courses, and we cannot consider interdisciplinary courses or courses without sufficient Politics/Government/International Relations focus. **Please see Additional Restrictions below**

Course Summary

This course introduces some of the key texts and figures of anticolonial political thought, and some of the major responses to this tradition. It is grounded in the global history of colonialism/imperialism and anticolonial resistance, in both theory and practice. It thereby provides students with the tools critically to to assess the engagement - and lack thereof - with this tradition across the Western human and social sciences.

Course Description

This course has three main strands. The first introduces conceptual approaches to the study of colonialism: topics may include liberal imperialism, civilization and empire, (settler) colonialism, etc. The second surveys practices and strategies of anticolonial resistance: topics may include Pan-Africanism, Négritude, anticolonial nationalism, revolutionary (non-) violence, the limits of formal decolonization, etc. The third critically assesses academic approaches to this tradition: topics here may include orientalism, subaltern studies, decoloniality, indigeneity, etc. Throughout, we will be concerned with the relevance and legacies of this tradition to contemporary political struggles: these may include indigenous land claims, climate colonialism, reparations for slavery, etc. The course prioritizes dialogical seminar engagement grounded in close, careful reading of classic texts of anticolonial political thought. Some sessions may be introduced by a brief theoretical overview or historical contextualization. But students primarily engage with difficult ideas and concepts directly through group exercises, moderated online discussions, and/or student-led discussions, rather than relying on clarificatory lectures from the instructor. This dialogical approach to classroom discussion is paired with a graduated system of seminar writing: students begin by writing a conceptual analysis of a single author/text for their mid-term essay before moving to comparison of (at least) two authors/texts for their final paper.

Assessment Information

Written Exam 0%, Coursework 80%, Practical Exam 20%

Additional Restrictions

Unless you are nominated on a Politics exchange agreement, visiting students are only permitted to enrol in one Politics course each, per semester, before the start of the relevant semester’s welcome period – and spaces on each course are limited so cannot be guaranteed for any student. Enrolment in a second Politics course will depend on whether there are still spaces available in the September Welcome Period, and cannot be guaranteed. It is NOT appropriate for students to contact staff within this subject area to ask for an exception to be made; all enquiries to enrol in these courses must be made through the CAHSS Visiting Student Office. This is due to the limited number of spaces available in this very popular subject area.

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