Autonomy is a common term heard both in political and activist circles. But what does it mean to actually "be autonomous?" This class will trace the intellectual traditions of the concept from both Eastern and Western scholarship, and through collective and personal autonomies. It will then explore in detail various understandings and experiences with autonomy such as the atomized individual, autonomist and anarchist endeavours, hunter-gatherer communities, Indigenous American communities, Catalonia, the Zapatistas, Rojava, Jamaican maroons, and even rural communities in Czechia and Italy. Within this exploration we seek to understand what exactly is autonomy? What is the relationship between personal and collective autonomy? What does it feel like to "be autonomous"? Who does it affect? How possible is it? And ultimately ask each student to explore what is the meaning of autonomy to them, and what would it feel like for them to live autonomously.
- Lehrende/r: Timothy D. Weldon