Ted Hopf
Professor of Political Science
Office: 2176 Derby Hall
154 N. Oval Mall
Columbus, Ohio 43210
(o): (614) 292-3392
(f): (614) 292-1146
email: hopf.2@osu.edu
Identity Politics (PS 547)
Syllabus - Text Document for Printing
Readings - For Identity Politics (Userid and Password Needed)
Autumn 2005
Political Science 547
Ted Hopf 2176 Derby
292-3392 hopf.2@osu.edu
Class Hours: 1:30-3:15 Tuesdays and
Thursdays, 0412 Bolz Hall
Office
Hours: 3:30-5:30 Thursdays and by appointment
Course Overview
If politics is about the power to decide who gets what, then identity politics is about who controls the meaning of identity in society. Is it the individual, as liberal theories of politics would have us believe? Is it groups with whom we associate, as sociological and social psychological approaches would argue? Is it society writ large, as structuralist and institutionalist accounts contend? Is it the state, as neo/Marxist theorists argue? Or is it the language and discourse we use everyday to communicate our identities, as post-structuralist and post-modern political theorists assume?
This is a course that explores the origins, reproduction, and effects of social identity from the variety of perspectives mentioned above. The sources of identity that are investigated include the self, group, society, and state, as well as their more complicated combinations. The identities whose origins, maintenance, and effects we study are nation, ethnicity, gender, and race. The approaches we take to make sense of identity politics include writings in political science, social psychology, sociology, history, anthropology, and cultural and post-colonial studies.
