Race, Social Movements and American Politics

Undergraduate / Graduate

Throughout history it has often been the collective action of the most oppressed groups that has changed political systems and hierarchies in unprecedented ways, providing a vehicle for the participation of the those formally disempowered. It is just such collective political action that we will examine in this course. Throughout the quarter we will concentrate on one particular form of collective resistance-social movements. Given the rise of race-based social movements such as the Immigrant's Rights Movement and the Movement for Black Lives, exploring this form of mobilization, voice and political participation seems especially pertinent to the study of American politics today. Under consideration throughout the quarter will be such questions as: What counts as a social movement? What motivates people to engage in such activity? What are the challenges that movements and their leaders face? What impact do social movements have on the distribution of the lives of marginal communities and the general functioning of the state?