IN 421 - Key Contemporary Thinkers: Fanon

Credits: 4
Fifty years after the publication of The Wretched of the Earth and the death of its author, Frantz Fanon remains one of the most influential decolonial thinkers of the 20th century. Over the past 25 years, Fanon has become a canonical thinker in a number of academic fields including postcolonial studies and critical race theory and his ideas continue to animate some of the most compelling theoretical innovation in Africana studies more generally. And yet, at the same time he continues to be a source of ideas for grassroots social movements. Rather than providing intellectual contextualization (which itself could be a course on Hegel, Marx, Sartre, Freud, Lacan, and others) the course gives students an opportunity to engage with Fanon’s key writings as well as some of the important critical literature developed in response to his work. The major work in the course consists of close readings of Fanon’s writings and critical discussions of recent work premised upon his thought with the goal of thinking about how Fanon could possibly speak to our own intellectual, political, and creative practices.

Course Restrictions: Junior standing
Liberal Arts Perspective(s): Interdisciplinary, Global Diversity and Justice