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Malcolm X (El Hajj Malik El Shabazz) and Martin Luther King, Jr. are both icons of the twentieth-century civil rights and black freedom movements. Often characterized as polar opposites - one advocating armed self-defense and the other non-violence against all provocation - they continue to be important religious, political, and intellectual models for how we imagine the past as well as for current issues concerning religion, race, politics and freedom struggles in the United States and globally. This course focuses on the political and spiritual lives of Martin and Malcolm. We will examine their personal biographies, speeches, writings, representations, FBI Files, and legacies as a way to better understand how the intersections of religion, race, and politics came to bare upon the freedom struggles of people of color in the US and abroad. The course also takes seriously the evolutions in both Martin and Malcolm's political approaches and intellectual development, focusing especially on the last years of their respective lives. We will also examine the critical literature that takes on the leadership styles and political philosophies of these communal leaders, as well as the very real opposition and surveillance they faced from state forces like the police and FBI. Students will gain an understanding of what social conditions, religious structures and institutions, and personal experiences led to first the emergence and then the assassinations of these two figures. We will discuss the subtleties of their political analyses, pinpointing the key differences and similarities of their philosophies, approaches, and legacies, and we will apply these debates of the mid- twentieth century to contemporary events and social movements in terms of how their legacies are articulated and what we can learn from them in struggles for justice and recognition in twenty-first century America and beyond.

In this course, students will learn and engage with the core debates that have animated political theory in modern times. What is the proper relationship between the individual, the community, and the state? Are liberty and equality in conflict, and, if so, which should take priority? What does justice mean in a large and diverse modern society? The title of the course, borrowed from a book by Michael Sandel, is 'Liberalism and its Critics' because the questions we discuss in this class center on the meaning of, and alternatives to, the liberal ideas that the basic goal of society should be the protection of individual rights and that some form of an egalitarian democracy is the best way to achieve this goal. The course is structured around two historical phenomena: one the one hand, liberal answers to these key questions have at times seemed politically and socially triumphant, but on the other hand, this ascendency has always been challenged and contested. At least one prior class in political theory, such as Justice (PS 103), Citizenship in the 21st Century ( College 102), or Democratic Theory (PS 234) is recommended but not required.

This course is an introduction to the history of Western political thought from the late fifteenth century through the nineteenth century. We will consider the secularization of politics, the changing relationship between the individual and society, the rise of consent-based forms of political authority, and the development and critiques of liberal conceptions of property. We will cover the following thinkers: Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Wollstonecraft, Mill, and Marx.

Do you have a duty to vote? Should immigrants be allowed to vote? Should we make voting mandatory? How (if at all) should we regulate campaign finance? Should we even have elections at all? In this course, we will explore these and other ethical questions related to electoral participation and the design of electoral institutions. We will evaluate arguments from political philosophers, political scientists, and politicians to better understand how electoral systems promote important democratic values and how this affects citizens' and political leaders' ethical obligations. We will focus, in particular, on issues in electoral design that have been relevant in recent US elections (e.g. gerrymandering), though many of the ethical issues we will discuss in this course will be relevant in any electoral democracy.

Public service is private action for the public good, work done by individuals and groups that aims at some vision of helping society or the world. This course examines some of the many ethical and political questions that arise in doing public service work, whether volunteering, service learning, humanitarian endeavors overseas, or public service professions such as medicine, teaching, or even "ethical investing" and "ethical entrepreneurship." What motives do people have to engage in public service work? Are self-interested motives troublesome? What is the connection between service work and justice? Should the government or schools require citizens or students to perform service work? Is mandatory service an oxymoron?

Activists devote sustained effort and attention toward achieving particular goals of social and political change. Do we have an ethical obligation to be activists? And how should those who do choose to be activists (for whatever reason) understand the ethics of that role? Questions discussed in this course may include: When is civil disobedience appropriate, and what does it entail? Should activists feel constrained by obligations of fairness, honesty, or civility toward those with whom we disagree? Are there special ethical considerations in activism on behalf of those who cannot advocate for themselves? What is solidarity and what does it require of us? Students in this course will develop skills in analyzing, evaluating, and constructing logical arguments about ethical concerns related to activism, but class discussions will also address the potential limitations of logical argument in ethical and political reasoning.

How should human beings interact with the natural world? Do we have moral obligations toward non-human animals and other parts of nature? And what do we owe to other human beings, including future generations, with respect to the environment? In this course, we will tackle ethical questions that confront us in our dealings with the natural world, looking at subjects such as: animal rights; conservation; economic approaches to the environment; access to and control over natural resources; environmental justice and pollution; climate change; technology and the environment; and environmental activism. We will frame our inquiry with leading ethical theories and divide our approach to these topics by ecosystem, dedicating time to each unique environment and its specific nuances: aquatic, desert/tundra, forest/grassland, and the increasingly recognized environment of Space.

In this course, we will discuss the body as a site of moral and political conflict. Here are a few of the questions that will be explored: People are encouraged to become kidney donors, but we still don't have enough kidneys for everybody who needs one. Should you be allowed to sell a kidney? Suppose Robert is dying of a rare disease and the only thing that could save his life is a bone marrow transplant from his cousin David, but David doesn't want to donate. Should we force him to "donate"? Some people say a woman should be free to make abortion decisions on whatever grounds she wants, including prenatal genetic testing for conditions like Down syndrome; others condemn such selective abortion as an unacceptable form of eugenics. What genetic testing information, if any, should be allowed to influence a woman's decision about whether to terminate a pregnancy? In addition to these normative questions, we will also study related questions in constitutional law. When the Supreme Court decided that abortion was a constitutional right in Roe v. Wade, on what legal reasoning did they base their decision? When they decided to overturn Roe in the recent Dobbs v. Jackson, what legal reasoning did they use then? How will Dobbs affect other (current) constitutional rights?

This class begins from the core definition of citizenship as membership in a political community and explores the many debates about what that membership means. Who is (or ought to be) a citizen? Who gets to decide? What responsibilities come with citizenship? Is being a citizen analogous to being a friend, a family member, a business partner? How can citizenship be gained, and can it ever be lost? These debates figure in the earliest recorded political philosophy but also animate contemporary political debates. This class uses ancient, medieval, and modern texts to examine these questions and different answers given over time. We¿Äôll pay particular attention to understandings of democratic citizenship but look at non-democratic citizenship as well. Students will develop and defend their own views on these questions, using the class texts as foundations. No experience with political philosophy is required or expected, and students can expect to learn or hone the skills (writing / reading / analysis) of political philosophy.