3.0

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This course will unpack a concept and phenomenon that is as politically significant as it is often taken for granted. What is property? How did it develop? Are there different forms of property? Are there alternatives to property? Is property a universal human right? Through lectures, student-led seminars, films, and a diverse array of texts, we will explore the theoretical sides of property (how the concept has been imagined, acknowledged, and/or critiqued by political and social theorists) as well as its political realities: What forms of property have historically existed? Which have become dominant, and why? What is property’s relationship to policing, gender and family politics, slavery, colonialism, race, capitalism, democracy, and the modern state? And how is property challenged or resisted?