Time Schedule:
S. Charusheela
BCULST 593
Bothell Campus
Explores in depth specific historical, political, or social aspects of cultural practice, such as digital humanities, the culture and the environment, or arts as cultural studies, and links this analysis to the varied processes of producing these types of cultural work. Offered: AWSpS.
Class description
SPRING 2012: Rethinking Marxism.
This course is taught in conjunction with the Simpson Center for the Humanities. One aim of the course is to enable graduate students’ development of their own scholarly outputs. Thus, while not required, students will have the opportunity to develop their papers for this course via support from the editorial board of the journal, Rethinking Marxism, and present their work at a Rethinking Marxism conference hosted by the Simpson Center in Fall 2012.
This course views Marxism as constituted through diverse knowledge projects that self-consciously identify the writings of Karl Marx as a source. We will spend the first two-thirds of the quarter reading Marx’s writings, starting with Young Marx and working our way through to the Later Marx of Capital. Along the way, we will pick out key themes in Marx’s writings that have become central to contemporary scholarship in a variety of fields, as a way to ground the different traditions of Marxian thought. The last third of the quarter will provide an introduction to key scholarly trajectories within contemporary Marxian thought. Throughout the course, students will develop their own readings of Marxian thought with an eye to developing their own scholarly outputs.
The course will be taught by Dr. S. Charusheela (Charu), Associate Professor, UWB-IAS. Charu is the Editor of Rethinking Marxism, and serves on the Executive Committee of the Cultural Studies Association (U.S.). The course and the opportunity to develop scholarly outputs and constitute networks it provides takes advantage of her editorship of the journal, enabling students to get mentoring from members of the journal’s editorial board.
Student learning goals
Develop facility with the approaches and vocabularies of Marxian scholarly traditions.
Engage with diverse readings of Marxism to develop own research agendas.
General method of instruction
The course will use a combination of seminar discussion and writing, along with intensive out-of-class mentoring.
Recommended preparation
No background necessary, just a willingness to ask questions and critically engage with the course materials. NOTE: This is a course that requires a willingness to read extensively from primary and secondary sources.
Class assignments and grading
Formal and informal written work, class participation.
