Politics & Poetics of Identities

In this course, we will examine the complex processes of construction, performance, and representation of one’s multiple identities. We will look at hybrid, shifting, imagined, traveling, displaced, conflicting, fragmented, repressed and expressed identities. We will both deconstruct the politics and explore the poetics of identities. With this purpose in mind, we will question the various dimensions of one’s identity by critically examining the concepts of race & ethnicity, gender, class, nationality & citizenship, sect, and generation.

In order to do so, we will rely on both foundational texts in the field and literary and cinematographic materials. We will also reintroduce space and time in our reflection, by exploring the notion of context(s), playing on various scales of analysis (from the psychological/interpersonal to the societal level), and studying shifting conceptions of identity through different historical periods. We will focus more specifically on the notion of “coming of age” and the issues related to identity formation and sense of belonging/alienation among the youth in the so-called global South and beyond.

Finally, this course will provide plenty of space and time for students to reflect on their own multiple identities, positionalities, and voices. Please note, however, that this short description merely constitutes a tentative flow for the course and that students’ participation will be solicited to help co-design a syllabus that closely addresses their matters of concern.

Expectations

Participants are expected to submit weekly reactions to the readings, videos, artistic pieces in form of a written paragraph, a mind-map and/or a three-min pitch.

Participants are further expected to prepare a set of questions that can inform conversations with three guest speakers throughout the trimester.

Participants are expected to design and produce trimester-long individual or group projects (in the form of a research paper, a social media campaign, or a piece of art)

Why apply?

To increase the students’ awareness of the multiplicity, fluidity, and socially constructed nature of identities.

To develop their sensitivity to the complex dynamics of identity construction and negotiation.

To familiarise them with the concepts of performance, performativity and representation.

To encourage them to deconstruct the politics and explore the poetics of identity.

To engage critically with the course material and creatively relate it to their own lives and experiences.