Honours Course on History of Africana Intellectualism: 2015

Honours Course on History of Africana Intellectualism: 2015

History Department, Rhodes University

Facilitated by Dr. Vashna Jagarnath, Senior Lecturer & Acting-Deputy Dean of Humanities (Research)

Summary of the course

Welcome to this short course that attempts to open up a discussion on the history of African thought. Given the vastness of the subject matter we will have to navigate through the key debates and materials rather than undertaking a comprehensive study. Think of the course as a smorgasbord picking up bits and pieces arranged under themes. This way we can sample some of the vast array of literature and you will, by the end of the course, at least be competent in the main debates dealing with African intellectual thought.

Constituent Power in the Modern World: A Brief Introduction

Department of Politics & International Relations, Rhodes University

Constituent Power in the Modern World: A Brief Introduction

A post-graduate course to be taught by Richard Pithouse in the first semester, 2015

Throughout the modern era … constituent power has been in conflict with constituted power, the fixed power of formal constitutions and central authority. Whereas constituent power opens each revolutionary process, throwing open the doors to the forces of change and the myriad desires of the multitude, constituted power closes down the revolution and brings it back to order. In each of the modern revolutions, the State rose up in opposition to the democratic and revolutionary forces and imposes a return to a constituted order, a new Thermidor, which either recuperated or repressed the constituent impulses. The conflict between active constituent power and reactive constituted power is what characterizes these revolutionary experiences.

-         From the introduction to Antonio Negri’s Insurgencies: Constituent Power and the Modern State (1999)

Introduction to Urban Politics, Politics II, 2014

A Right to the City?

An introduction to urban politics

Week One: An Introduction to the Contemporary Urban Question 21 July – 25 July 2014

• Davis, Mike. 2004. ‘Planet of Slums’, New Left Review, No. 26
• Davis, Mike. 2006. ‘Fear and Money in Dubai’, New Left Review, No. 41
• Harvey, David. 2008. ‘The Right to the City’, New Left Review, No. 53.

African Theory Course 2013: Schedule of Study

Thinking Africa, Department of Politics & International Relations

African Theory Course 2013: Schedule of Study

This course is the part of the Thinking Africa Project in the Department of Politics & International Relations. The course has two primary objectives this year. The first is to give students an opportunity to seriously engage a set of texts central to the African canon. The second is to prepare students for the colloquium that will be held at Rhodes on the work of V.Y. Mudimbe in August this year.  Mudimbe, a scholar of major global stature, first visited Rhodes in 2011 for the Fanon colloquium hosted by Thinking Africa and will return for this year’s colloquium. Thinking Africa is also publishing Mudimbe’s new book which will be launched at the colloquium.

Contemporary Social Theory 2010

Contemporary Social Theory

Sociology III

Department of Sociology

Rhodes University

Fourth Term 2012

This year there is a special Contemporary Social Theory course to mark the visit to the Department of Sociology of Professor John Holloway during the fourth term.

The course focuses on specific theorists, as follows:

Week 1: Partha Chatterjee (by K Helliker)

Weeks 2 & 3: John Holloway

Week 4: Alain Badiou (by Michael Neocosmos, UNISA)

Week 5: Samir Amin (by T Alexander)

Week 6: Jacques Ranciere (by R Pithouse, Politics Department).

A Right to the City? An introduction to urban politics

A Right to the City? An introduction to urban politics

Week One: An Introduction to the Contemporary Urban Question 17 – 21 September 2012

• Davis, Mike. 2004. ‘Planet of Slums’, New Left Review, No. 26
• Davis, Mike. 2006. ‘Fear and Money in Dubai’, New Left Review, No. 41
• Harvey, David. 2008. ‘The Right to the City’, New Left Review, No. 53.

Contemporary Political Theory, Politics 3

Department of Politics and International Studies, Rhodes University, 2011

Words wreak havoc...when they find a name for what had...been lived namelessly.

- Jean Paul Sartre (cited in Ananya Roy’s City Requiem, Calcutta: gender & the Politics of Poverty, 2003 (University of Minnesota Press: Minneapolis)

In this course we will engage, immediately and without mediation, with some of the most influential theory at the centre of some of the most urgent debates in contemporary political thought. Each lecture will be based around a specific text and it will be assumed that the students have read that text before the lecture. The compulsory readings are listed here and will be available in digital and printed form. The optional readings, along with various other resources, are listed on RU Connected.

Philosophy & Event

Department of Political & International Relations, Rhodes University

Pol 101, 2010

Philosophy & Event

Week One: The American Revolution (1776-1783)

Compulsory Reading

John Locke, Second Treatise on Government (1689) [Excerpts]

Thomas Paine ‘Of Monarchy and Hereditary Succession’, Chapter 3 of Common Sense (1776)

The Declaration of Independence, 1776