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Hope and Futurity (451-0-1)

Instructors

Hirokazu Miyazaki
847 4675540
1819 Hinman Ave. #110
Hirokazu Miyazaki is the Kay Davis Professor and a professor of anthropology. He is a specialist on theories of exchange, futurity, and hope. He has studied indigenous land claims in Fiji, financial trading in Japan, and peace activism in Japan and the U.S. He is the author of The Method of Hope: Anthropology, Philosophy, and Fijian Knowledge and Arbitraging Japan: Dreams of Capitalism at the End of Finance, and a co-editor of The Economy of Hope (with Richard Swedberg).

Meeting Info

Kresge Centennial Hall 2-435: Mon, Wed 5:00PM - 6:20PM

Overview of class

What is hope? How is hope produced and lost? How is hope distributed in society? What is the relationship between individual and collective hopes? What role does hope play in the production of knowledge, imagination and religious belief? In this course, we will investigate these questions through a close examination of a full range of anthropological, sociological, liteary, philosphical, and religious explorations into hope and futurity.

Registration Requirements

n/a

Learning Objectives

• To understand specific methodological and theoretical challenges that the subject of hope poses to the social sciences and humanities;
• To evaluate the productivity of hope as an analytical category for social scientific research;
• To investigate how social scientific research may benefit from literary, philosophical and theological imagination;
• To appreciate the merit of interdisciplinary research.

Class Materials (Required)

All materials will be made available via Canvas