What is freedom? How have people repurposed the language or liberty for protest or weaponized it to achieve their goals? How does freedom shape belonging and community development? From the ways incarcerated people build a sense of freedom for themselves to the ways transnational feminists theorize and practice it; and from the 19-century experience of freedom to the ways African Americans have moved through natural landscapes across American history, this cluster explores the ways people imagine, seek, and construct freedom.
This cluster will be offered throughout 2022-24.
Instructor: Christopher Bonner
What does it mean to be free in the United States? The concept of freedom was embedded in the nation’s political culture in the Declaration of Independence, and it has remained a cherished and contested ideal. We can interrogate this concept through the life and times of Frederick Douglass (1818-1895), who dreamed eloquently of freedom, thought carefully about its limits, and worked ardently to build a firmer freedom for a broader population. With Douglass as our guide, we will examine the survival of slavery in a nation built on freedom, images of the expanding United States as a land of opportunity, and the complex meanings and tremendous costs of freedom during the nineteenth century. This history will push you to think critically about the contested concepts that shape our lives, and to consider both the values and the perils of a society that positions freedom as its highest ideal.
GenEd: SCIS, DSHS
Offered in: Fall 2022, Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Spring 2024
Required/Optional: Required
Instructor: Alexandra Harlig
Free speech, free press, free porn… What does it mean for something to be ‘free’ online and how does our participation in that economy liberate and constrain our intersectional identities? In this class we’ll talk about the economics, politics, and culture of the internet to assess how value and values get made and circulated within its technologies. We’ll focus on the many ways the term ‘free’ operates in this context, notably, around the ability to create, distribute, and access information. Centered on the US with a comparative eye on the global internet ecosystem, this seminar asks: Where do the rights and responsibilities for a “free internet” come from, and to whom do they apply? What are the choices individuals, platforms, and governments must make to determine the future of the internet and the freedom of the people who build and use it?
GenEd: –
Offered in: Fall 2023, Spring 2024
Required/Optional: Optional
Instructor: Verónica Zebadúa-Yáñez
“I’m the one that’ll make you pay.” So goes one verse of what has become a Latin American feminist hymn, “Canción sin miedo” (“Fearless Song,” by Vivir Quintana). Transnationally, feminists today—particularly in the Global South—are on fire: militant, unafraid, angry, and, above all, driven by a desire to build a world where the promise of freedom for all is finally fulfilled. But what is freedom? Is freedom an abstract concept or a lived experience? Is it individual or collective? What is the meaning of ‘feminist freedom’? These questions will be gauged by discussing, analyzing, and interpreting texts in feminist theory; decolonial and transnational feminist approaches; and feminist film, documentary, performance, and protest. At the end of the course, you will have learned that there is not one feminism, but many, become familiar with feminist theory and practice, and be equipped to live your own version of a feminist life.
GenEd: DSHU
Offered in: Fall 2022, Spring 2023
Required/Optional: Optional
Instructor: Jennifer Roberts
From the antebellum plantation slave, who used uncultivated land as a place of deliverance, healing and route to freedom, to the Central Park bird watcher, whose green space presence was perceived as a threat to White physical safety, black bodies have a vexed relationship to green space. This course critically examines how systemic racism has shaped the experience, connection, and relationship to nature among Black Americans. Students will conduct in-depth analysis, critical thinking, and discussion on topics ranging from slavery and nature; The Great Migration; and Jim Crow, segregation, and parks; to green space inequity and “Moving While Black” (Treyvon to Ahmaud). While some environments (built, natural, virtual) within the United States have represented the essence of anti-Black racism and indignity, this course will further explore how many Black Americans still regarded nature as a space of freedom, humanity, and spirituality.
GenEd: TBA
Offered in: Fall 2022, Fall 2023
Required/Optional: Optional
Instructor: Robert Stewart
What does freedom mean if you’re incarcerated? How is freedom, citizenship, and social membership mediated through the power of the state? What are the implications of punishment on how freedom is constructed, understood, and experienced? The United States purports to be a beacon of freedom while simultaneously incarcerating more people than any other country in the world. Throughout the course, we will discuss the writings of scholars, theorists, historians, and–most importantly–incarcerated people to interrogate the concept of “freedom” from the vantage point of the prison. Students will use these insights to analyze the complex tensions and relationships between social ideals and practice.
GenEd: DSHS (Submitted for approval)
Offered in: Spring 2023, Spring 2024
Required/Optional: Optional
