Political Loss

This course will explore the concept of political loss as it has been sketched by political theorists. Questions of grief and grievance have been at the center of contemporary political debates in the U.S. and elsewhere, even as political theorists have begun to pay increasing attention to the relation between affect and politics more generally, and to the role of mourning and loss in political life specifically. While the course explores the concept of loss generally, it is particularly concerned with the central role narratives of loss have played in debates about racial justice.