This course is essentially a voyage in classical and contemporary
social and cultural theory.  Yet the organizing principle is the
concept of “modernity” (sometimes with quotation marks, sometimes
without, sometimes singular, sometimes plural).  We will explore not
only the classical European formulation of the modernity concept but
also trends of thought – new and old - that place the concept into
question.  In particular, in terms of classical philosophical
formulations we will contrast the Enlightenment ideals of the modern
with the anti-Enlightenment ideals of romantic and pluralized cultural
histories.  We will then also turn to various forms of theorization
that question “modernity” on various grounds:  (1) it feigns
universalism while hiding cultural/historical/geographic particularism
(2) it is destined towards fragmentation and multiplication (3) it
cycles through de- and then re- enchantment (4) it is predicated on
various racialized, geo-politicized, eco-politicized, and violent
global realities and (5) its inevitability is a farce since it really
never existed to begin with.

The seminar will be organized around close readings and discussions of
several theoretical accounts that range from Enlightenment philosophy
and political-economy to subaltern studies and political ecology.
Some of the authors we will read include:  Herder, Marx, Weber, Du
Bois, Fanon, Chakrabarty, García-Canclini, Hardt and Negri, and Latour.