Seminars
OVERVIEW
Course Title: The Politics of the Oppressed
What does it mean to think and do politics in an age of Trumpism and far-right politics, genocide and Zionism, Big Tech, and neoliberal capitalism? Why, despite the catastrophic effects of our political systems, are we unable to make sense of what is going on, let alone act upon it meaningfully?
This 4-week forum begins with these questions — and moves beyond them, from diagnosis to prognosis, to explore what a politics of liberation would look like: its mechanisms, ethics, and horizons. Ultimately, the forum aims to produce militant-intellectuals whose newly found critical awareness of the world enables new courses of action for transformation.
What You Get:
4 recorded sessions & 4 live Sunday forums (2 hours each)
A curated reading list of primary texts in political philosophy and liberation thought
Structured praxis exercises connecting theory to strategic action
Access to a private community hub (Discord) for ongoing discussion between sessions.
SYLLABUS
Weeks 1–2: The Politics of Domination — how the system captures you and who it kills.
Weeks 3–4: The Politics of Liberation — how the political liberates and what grounds it ethically.
WEEK-BY-WEEK SUMMARY
WEEK 1 — WHY CAN’T YOU THINK?
Why is it so difficult to understand politics, let alone imagine radical change? Why are so many people unwilling to change the world around them despite the effects it has on their lives? This week, we ask: what is power? We examine the internal mechanisms of modern politics — how power captures the mind and body — through the work of Paulo Freire on the fear of freedom, Mark Fisher on Capitalist Realism, and Byung-Chul Han on Psychopolitics.
Readings: Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed Ch. 1–2 · Han, Psychopolitics Ch. 1 · Fisher, Capitalist Realism Ch. 1–2
WEEK 2 — WHO DECIDES WHO DIES?
From the soft capture of the mind to the production of death-worlds. What do the genocide in Gaza and the devastation of South Lebanon tell us about the state of politics in the modern world? What illusions of law and order do they shatter? We return to the question of what power is through Freire on oppression as necrophilia and Achille Mbembe on necropolitics.
Readings: Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed Ch. 1 selections · Mbembe, Necropolitics Ch. 3
WEEK 3 — MECHANICS OF LIBERATORY POLITICS
Having diagnosed the politics of our present age, we explore the mechanisms through which our communities can refuse their conditions, undergo conscientização (critical awakening), and transform into a shattering force — a state of rebellion. This week draws on Paulo Freire on critical consciousness, Chantal Mouffe on populism, and Enrique Dussel on the state of rebellion.
Readings: Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed Ch. 3 · Mouffe, For a Left Populism Ch. 3
WEEK 4 — ETHICS OF LIBERATORY POLITICS
Liberation does not occur in a void; it is always committed to higher principles. We explore the critical and ethical principles that ground any liberatory politics — solidarity, humanity, and the restoration of life — through Paulo Freire on true generosity, Enrique Dussel on the Critical Material Principle, and Frantz Fanon’s warning on what happens when liberation movements betray their own people.
Readings: Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed Ch. 4 · Dussel, Twenty Theses on Politics Theses 13 & 16 · Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth “The Pitfalls of National Consciousness”