LFU:online

Institut für Soziologie Institut für Soziologie

Univ.-Prof. Ph.D. Keith Doubt Univ.-Prof. Ph.D. Keith Doubt

408022

African American Social Thought

VO 2

wöch.

keine Angabe

Englisch

This objective of this course is to understand the tradition of African American social thought as a critical and decisive school of social and political thought. Subjects such as justice, racism, social order, civil society, democracy, and human rights are examined from the advantage point of this tradition.

The course is structured around five African American intellectuals: Booker T. Washington, W. E. B. DuBois, Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and Cornell West. Each makes substantial contributions toward defining the character as well as limits of the relation between social theory and moral advocacy. The course examines the ways in which each theorist shapes the tradition of African American social thought as a form of critical theory and demonstrates its importance to the wider world.

We will first re-visit selected writings from the sociological tradition (Max Weber, George Herbert Mead, Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim, and Jürgen Habermas). Then, we will study how these texts help us critically appreciate the work of African American intellectuals, linking the work of Booker T. Washington to Max Weber, W. E. B. DuBois to George Herbert Mead, Martin Luther King to Émile Durkheim, Malcolm X to Karl Marx, and Cornell West to Jürgen Habermas. When appropriate, material from popular culture will be used to demonstrate the arguments of each author. Grades will be based on oral exams in small groups at the end of the semester. Students have the option of submitting a written final exam in lieu of an oral exam.

1. Short selections from Max Weber, George Herbert Mead, Émile Durkheim, Karl Marx, and Jürgen Habermas. 2. Selected readings from Booker T. Washington, W. E. B. DuBois, Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, W. E. B. Du Bois, and Cornell West. *Readings, study questions, and discussion forums for the course will be available electronically through Moodle, an online course software.

Computeranmeldung
Beginn: 01.03.07