LPINT5238 Foundations of Critical Thought Course Descriptor subject to approval

Course Overview

This course offers a thematic approach to the study of critical theory. The course explores key fields, ktexts and thinkers that have contributed to the development of social and political thought, with a particular emphasis on contributions that foreground the interlocking dimensions of coloniality, race, gender, sexuality and resistance. To what extent has traditional Western political theory privileged Eurocentric, masculine ideals? How does foregrounding a politics of location change the contents of knowledge? And to what extent is resistance built into the constitution of political theory and action?

Over the course of the term, students will develop skills in analyzing and applying conceptual, methodological, and theoretical frameworks of critical political thought to pressing political issues. Students will practice in-depth and sophisticated textual analysis and gain competencies in both written and verbal communication.

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

Knowledge and Understanding

Subject Specific Skills

Transferable and Professional Skills

Teaching and Learning

This course has a dedicated Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) page with a syllabus and range of additional resources (e.g. readings, question prompts, tasks, assignment briefs, discussion boards) to orientate and engage students in their studies.

The scheduled teaching and learning activities for this course are:

Lectures and seminars

40 scheduled hours – typically including induction, consolidation or revision, and assessment activity hours.

• Version 1: all sessions in the same sized group

OR

• Version 2: most of the sessions in larger groups; some of the sessions in smaller groups

Faculty hold regular ‘office hours’, which are opportunities for students to drop in or sign up to explore ideas, raise questions, or seek targeted guidance or feedback, individually or in small groups. 

Students are to attend and participate in all the scheduled teaching and learning activities for this course and to manage their directed learning and independent study.

Indicative total learning hours for this course: 150 hours

Assessment

Both formative and summative assessment are used as part of this course, with purely formative opportunities typically embedded within interactive teaching sessions, office hours, and/or the VLE.

Summative

The assessments will require students to analyse key texts in the tradition of critical political thought and to utilise the arguments from these diverse traditions to critically reflect on contemporary political, social, and policy debates:

Further information about the assessments can be found in the Course Syllabus.

Feedback

Students will receive formative and summative feedback in a variety of ways, written (e.g. marked up on assignments, through email or the VLE) and/or oral (e.g. as part of interactive teaching sessions or in office hours). 

Indicative Reading

Note: Comprehensive and current reading lists for courses are produced annually in the Course Syllabus or other documentation provided to students; the indicative reading list provided below is for a general guide and part of the approval/modification process only.

• Alarcón N, Anzaldúa G, Bambara TC, et al. This Bridge Called My Back, Fortieth Anniversary Edition : Writings by Radical Women of Color. (Anzaldúa G, Moraga C, eds.). SUNY Press; 2022.
• Paul Gilroy, The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness (1993).
• Huggan, G. (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Postcolonial Studies (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013).
• Oyěwùmí O. The Invention of Women : Making an African Sense of Western Gender Discourses. University of Minnesota Press; 1997.
• Rao R. Out of Time : The Queer Politics of Postcoloniality. Oxford University Press; 2020.
• Muñoz JE. . Cruising Utopia : The Then and There of Queer Futurity. 10th Anniversary edition. New York University Press; 2019.
• Thomas G. The Sexual Demon of Colonial Power Pan-African Embodiment and Erotic Schemes of Empire. Indiana University Press; 2007.

Indicative Topics

Note: Comprehensive and current topics for courses are produced annually in the Course Syllabus or other documentation provided to students; the indicative topics provided below are used as a general guide and part of the approval/modification process only.

• Feminist and decolonial methodologies, and the politics of location
• Histories of race, gender and sexuality .
• Postcolonial and decolonial studies.
• Feminist, queer, and indigenous political studies.

Version History