GOVT 6776

The Problem with Rights

Course Description

Course information provided by the Courses of Study 2014-2015.

In June 2013, in the space of a week, the Supreme Court ruled on affirmative action, the legacy of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, and the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). While the first two decisions were perceived as a step back in the fight against racial discrimination, the repeal of DOMA was welcomed by mainstream LGBT-rights organizations as a decisive move towards equality. One of the goals of this seminar is to think these rulings together instead of treating them as separate entities. How did the struggle for sexual rights and the promotion of color blindness come to coexist so easily within the law? In order to understand how liberalism has operated historically and theoretically as a crucial site of regulation for sexuality and race, we will read texts from a wide range of contexts and disciplines including political theory, anthropology, literature, philosophy, history, and law. Readings will include "classic" critics of liberalism such as Marx, Nietzsche, Althusser, and Foucault, and contemporary authors such as Wendy Brown, Elizabeth Povinelli, Lisa Duggan, David Eng, Janet Halley, Katherine Franke, and Jasbir Puar, among others.

When Offered Spring.

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