Middlebury

FYSE 1059

The Politics of Hope

The Politics of Hope
We are frequently told we must “never give up hope,” but what is at stake in hoping? In this seminar we will interrogate this ubiquitous demand to hope. We will explore contemporary debates about the possibility of hope in the face of uncertain planetary futures to consider the politics of how, in what ways, toward what ends, and why we hope. At what point does hope become misplaced, turning into a “cruel optimism”? How is hope mobilized politically? How are different futures—optimistic and pessimistic, utopian and dystopian, redemptive and apocalyptic—distributed among different groups? And what might happen if we let go of commonly held yet narrowly conceived hopes and tried imagining something different?
Subject:
First Year Seminar
Department:
First-Year Seminar Program
Division:
Interdisciplinary
Requirements Fulfilled:
CW SOC

Sections in Fall 2023, School Abroad Spain (Madrid)

Fall 2023

FYSE1059A-F23 Seminar (Suarez)