IDS120

This interdisciplinary course explores issues of power in the United States, with a focus on contemporary debates about \"wokeness\" in U.S. culture. Using methods from multiple disciplines, students will study the political, economic, and social phenomena that shape American life -- from race and class to sexuality. We will pay special attention to large-scale social systems and institutions from a macro perspective before attending to sociopolitical phenomena at the level of lived experience. Students will reflect on their own personal relationships to structural and institutional power. Through the perspectives of a Literary Studies Scholar, a Historian, and a Philosopher, this course will develop students' capacities to think critically about contemporary issues of power, identity, and psychic life -- spanning contemporary debate around \"wokeness,\" trans rights and critical race theory, identity politics, cancel culture, and social transformation.

GEED - BC (Gen Ed: Building Connections)