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Ways of Knowing (203-0-71)

Instructors

Hasan Mahmud

Meeting Info

Northwestern Qatar Room 1-300: Mon, Wed 11:30AM - 12:45PM (AST)

Overview of class

At Northwestern, we ask students to take liberal arts courses. There is an inherent belief that these courses lead us to better know the world around us. In this Ways of Knowing course, we will unpack the notion of a liberal education and its quintessential space, the university. We will critically examine the very idea of knowledge: What makes the knowledge you acquire here valuable? Which kinds of knowledge are considered to be significant and authoritative in the societies we live in, and why? How is this knowledge produced, for what purposes, and with what social effects? What are the entanglements between knowledge and power? Who has the authority to produce it, who do we count as an authoritative knower on an issue, and why? What makes this knowledge valuable to you and how does it serve the goals you came to pursue? The goal of this class is to encourage and enable you to critically reflect on the conditions of your learning and the purposes for which you are pursuing it. More specifically, you will learn about colonial knowledge production and its manifestations in the contemporary world. Thus, we will look at education in our postcolonial context, where there is nothing really post about colonialism. We will examine how dominant forms of knowledge production have been and continue to be shaped and influenced by colonialism. To do this, we will explore the history of colonial knowledge production, specifically focusing on the idea of the human as a primary way of understanding our world. Throughout the semester, we will explore topics of education, power, knowledge production, colonialism and humanity through the lens of philosophy, anthropology, history and literature, but also thinking of these various modes of knowledge production as intersecting with and informing each other. Our goal is to get you to think critically about different ways of understanding the world. We also want you to think about how we have gotten to where we are, as well as to equip you with tools for critiquing the world around you, especially your own university - your second home for the next two years.

Registration Requirements


  • Prerequisites: None

  • Open to sophomores only

Enrollment Requirements

Enrollment Requirements: NUQ: Registration is reserved for sophomores only