For two hundred years, Democracy has been the central term through which the modern nation-state and the "people” have been imagined, but democracy also presents many paradoxes – for example, “human” rights originally only included men of property, and the term emerged during a time of dispossession of Native lands, racial slavery and the formal subordination of women. This course focuses on the primary documents of democracy that emerged with the rise of the bourgeoisie through the American and French Revolutions. These works will be contextualized in European and colonial contexts, with attention given to the Magna Carta, the Iroquois constitution, the Federalist papers, the debates about the "humanity" of indigenous people in the Spanish empire, the “hydrarchy” of sailors and pirates, and the Haitian Revolution of 1804. The concept of democracy continuously inspires new social movements, including, in recent years, the "Arab Spring", the indignados in Spain, Occupy Wall Street, and pro-democracy movements in China, Burma, West Africa and Mexico. This class will include discussions of the specific meanings/contradictions of free speech, freedom of assembly, ‘public’ and public space, and the limit of dissent. What are the strengths and weaknesses of democracy? What are some aspects of society that can and should be democratic? What gets in the way of full implementation of democratic practices? What are strategies for making society more democratic?Foundations in Critical Studies introduces critical thinking skills essential to college-level work in the humanities and sciences. Students develop their critical capacities through close reading and active response to cultural texts and phenomena drawn from multiple disciplines and reflecting diverse perspectives on major themes or topics in contemporary life.

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