EXPECTED Spring 2026 COURSES IN CONTINENTAL PHILOSOPHY AND/OR CRITICAL THEORY 

Anderson: PHIL185 Topics in Continental Philosophy

With rotating topics depending on the semester offered, this Topics course will cover central concepts, movements, and figures from the continental European tradition of philosophy. Seminar topics may include Poststructuralism, Existential Phenomenology, Critical Theory, German Idealism, Materialisms, and more. This semester’s topic is Selfhood.

Anderson: PHIL045 Philosophy of Gender

This course investigates the features and everyday impacts of gender from a philosophical perspective. Topics considered include: the relation of sex to gender; the nature of gendered oppression and its intersections with other forms of oppression; feminist and queer approaches to values and knowledge; and whether gender is a necessary or contingent feature of social relations.

Eisenstadt: RLST 162 PO Modern Jewish Philosophy

We begin with early modern attempts to define Judaism as a religious, political, and/or philosophical thing, and follow the questions this endeavour raises as they develop into 20th century theory about the role of dialogue with the other in the formation of the self.  We read selections from Spinoza’s Theological Political Treatise, Mendelssohn’s Jerusalem, Rosenzweig’s Star of Redemption, Buber’s I and Thou, and Levinas’s Totality and Infinity.

Friedlander: MS 148D Powers of Pleasure

This course explores relationships between pleasure (and related concepts of desire, happiness, jouissance, erotics, etc.) and power.  It draws upon work by Freud, Barthes, Lacan, Foucault, Berlant, Lorde, Jameson, hooks, Fiske, Saketopoulou, and more. Letter grade only. Prerequisites: MS 049 PO, MS 050 PO, and MS 051 PO.

Friedlander, Krips, and Andrejevic: MS 149T PO-01 Seminar in Critical Studies

An overview of core traditions in Critical Media Studies through in-depth engagement with key texts. This course serves as preparation for the Senior Seminar by consolidating a foundation in critical theory. Areas of focus include the following: The Frankfurt School, The Chicago School, Pragmatism, Structuralism and Post-Structuralism, Semiotics, Feminist Theory, Queer Theory, Psychoanalytical Theory, Postcolonial Theory, and Critical Race Theory. Prerequisites: MS 049 PO, MS 050 PO, or MS 051 PO, and one upper level theory class (MS 147 PO - MS 149 PO). May be repeated once for credit.

Kreines: Introduction to Philosophy: Buddhist to Existentialist Philosophy

An introduction to philosophy via its history, across traditions: the history of Buddhist philosophy, ancient Greek, medieval Islamic philosophy, and then Christian and atheist forms of existentialist philosophy. A central topic is this: Sometimes philosophers appeal to reason to transform our emotional or ethical lives. For example, Buddhist philosophers argue against the existence of the self, aiming to diminish our craving and suffering.  Sometimes philosophers move in the opposite direction, appealing to emotion and lived experience—for example, existentialists on anguish—to reform our relation to reason. Which direction is more appealing? Or can both cooperate, in the end?

Scott: PHIL131 PZ Philosophy of Work

Over the course of a lifetime, most people spend more time working than doing anything else apart from sleeping. Work and labor are therefore central features of human existence. Yet philosophical reflection on work has often risen and fallen with moments of rapid social and economic transformation—from Adam Smith and Karl Marx writing amid the Industrial Revolution to today’s debates in the face of automation, AI, and widening inequality. This course explores the philosophy of work by asking both historical and contemporary questions: What is work, and how should we understand its role in human life? What goods—economic, social, moral, or existential—has work been thought to provide? Can work contribute to a meaningful or flourishing life, or is it inherently a burden? We will also consider the politics of the workplace, examining arguments for and against more democratic or egalitarian forms of organization. Throughout, we will draw on historical texts as a foundation while simultaneously keeping our eye on present challenges and future possibilities. The course will conclude with a discussion of the current landscape of work in contemporary society, and ask us what role work should play in human life going forward

Seitz: AMST 179B HM-01 Race, Gender, and Class in the Long Great Recession

The December 2007 collapse of the U.S. housing and financial markets brought about the worst economic crisis (to date) since the Great Depression. This course will investigate the underpinnings, asymmetrical consequences, and long afterlives of the Great Recession, beginning from the American studies premise that its economic dimensions are inseparable from its social, cultural, affective, and (geo)political ones. Together, we will grapple with reactionary political and aesthetic responses to what Ruth Wilson Gilmore calls “organized abandonment” and explore the alternatives offered by progressive social movements, artists, and critics seeking to reintroduce the language of class and (geo)political economy (and their crucial imbrications with race and gender) more clearly into U.S. political, academic, and cultural discourse.

Kirk: ENGL165 PO Theories and Methods in Literature

We will focus on a variety of approaches to the study and analysis of literature, as well as conversations and debates within and beyond the discipline.

Thielke: PHIL042 PO History of Modern Philosophy

Modern Philosophy. Major philosophers of the 17th and 18th centuries (e.g., Descartes, Locke, Berkeley, Leibniz, Hume), emphasizing their views on metaphysics, epistemology and philosophy of mind.

Daniels: EA 062 PO Political Animals, Animal Ethics

In what ways are we ethically accountable to non-human animals? How can politics do justice to the more-than-human world? How do our conceptions of ethics and politics change when we take animals seriously?

This course introduces students to the emergent fields of animal ethics, critical animal studies, and the politics of animal rights. In Unit 1: Animals and Philosophical Ethics, we examine accounts of animals and their moral standing within mainstream animal ethics, alongside some critical alternatives. In Unit 2: Animal Politics, we explore dominant practices within food industry and political demands for justice concerning both animals and humans. In Unit 3: Race, Colonialism, Animals, we examine how the abuse of animals and some animal rights movements can align with or mask racist and colonial projects.