Spring 2026
Dissent: Politics, Justice, Dignity
Dates: January 26, 2026 - May 18, 2026Day/Time: Monday; Wednesday 10:10 AM - 11:30 AM EDT
Level: 200-Level
Certificate: Civic Engagement, Democracy*
Instructor: Pinar Kemerli, Bard College
Why do citizens and non-citizens rebel? How do oppressed, exploited, indignified bodies become agents of resistance? When is it legitimate to break laws? What makes resistance “civil”? This course surveys modern theories of dissent and resistance. We will examine the characteristics, justifications, and limitations of various forms of resistance and refusal that individuals and collectives have historically engaged in across the world. In addition to the kinds of dissent that take collectivist forms including popular uprisings, civil disobedience, and anticolonialism , we will cover acts of refusal that might not reach such popular forms and/or remain dismissed as marginal acts of protests including conscientious objection, hunger strikes, and self-immolations. Liberal, republican and radical perspectives on what makes such forms of resistance political, necessary and just will be examined. Our scale of analysis will be global, reaching from the American civil rights struggle to the infamous French refugee camp, the “Calais Jungle,” from the Irish hunger strikers in the notorious Maze Prison to Tahrir Square in Cairo, from the Gezi Park protest in Turkey to the Algerian War of Independence. Our goal is to acquire a historically grounded understanding of diverse forms of resistance with a focus on the key theoretical concepts and expressions informing them in order to learn to form connections between philosophical debates we study and our contemporary political dilemmas. In addition to textual resources, the course includes analysis of several movies and documentaries including Malcolm X (1992), Hunger (2008), The Square (2013), No Other Land (2024).
Credits: 4 US / 8 ECTS