States, Subjects, Resistance

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

The state can look very different depending on who you are: it categorizes, taxes, polices, and provides. For some it is a guarantor of safety and for others, an obstacle to survive or evade. This seminar is about that relationship, focusing on how states construct authority and how people obey, resist, or transform it. Students will engage with three sets of questions. First, what does the state want from the people it rules and what does it need to know about them to get it? How do states count, name, and classify populations, and what happens to those who don’t fit? Second, what do people want from those who rule them? We ask how they live under state authority, exploring what domination and resistance mean to ordinary people and the many forms they take—from compliance to everyday resistance, evasion, and simply surviving. Third, how might networks and organized movements challenge power? And how do powerful actors absorb or defuse those challenges? We will examine these questions drawing on cases from Africa, Asia, the Americas, and beyond, combining comparative politics, international relations, and insights from related fields. Each student will choose one country and population to follow throughout the semester, applying course concepts to their case of choice in a series of class discussions and assignments.