Why the sudden fuss about public apologies? Ever raised this question? This course might be for you.
"The Politics of Regret" course treats past injustices as being at the center of contemporary world politics. We begin with questions of guilt, trauma, and responsibility, before moving to forms of transitional justice, be it truth commissions, trials, or lustrations. This said, significant attention is being paid also to official and unofficial apologies, which have been clearly stirring a lot of attention in the past couple of years. While part of this class is theoretical, we will examine (and debate) issues using examples from Europe and North America in particular.
As part of this course, you will learn:
- how the past is being constructed to serve present causes (and by whom),
- how past injustices are mobilized, demanded but also made salient,
- why the past matters and why it matters (and why it matters now).
Please note that this is an undergraduate course – but one that requires work and engagement. This is a course where we learn, engage in debates, where we agree and disagree, but all are discussions are grounded in scholarly literature.
With this in mind, please inform me by Week 2 if there are any reasons – religious, medical, any other – that might impact your performance in class and that you want me to take into consideration. We can make things work if I know in advance.
"The Politics of Regret" course treats past injustices as being at the center of contemporary world politics. We begin with questions of guilt, trauma, and responsibility, before moving to forms of transitional justice, be it truth commissions, trials, or lustrations. This said, significant attention is being paid also to official and unofficial apologies, which have been clearly stirring a lot of attention in the past couple of years. While part of this class is theoretical, we will examine (and debate) issues using examples from Europe and North America in particular.
As part of this course, you will learn:
- how the past is being constructed to serve present causes (and by whom),
- how past injustices are mobilized, demanded but also made salient,
- why the past matters and why it matters (and why it matters now).
Please note that this is an undergraduate course – but one that requires work and engagement. This is a course where we learn, engage in debates, where we agree and disagree, but all are discussions are grounded in scholarly literature.
With this in mind, please inform me by Week 2 if there are any reasons – religious, medical, any other – that might impact your performance in class and that you want me to take into consideration. We can make things work if I know in advance.
- Teacher: Hana Kubátová