Overview
GLST 611: Social Movements is a graduate-level seminar that explores theories, histories, and struggles of social movements in the North American Region. As participant of this course, you will be encouraged to not only engage with the theories, histories, and struggles that have historically defined collective action and transformative grassroots mobilization along this region, but also to try to understand social movements as both forces of social change and spaces through which knowledge is produced, contested, and reimagined. It is expected that, by the end of the course, you will have developed the theoretical and methodological tools necessary to study social movements with nuance and rigour.
Note that course readings include pieces written by activist-scholars and movement-embedded researchers alongside case studies examining historical and contemporary social movements.
Outline
Week 1: Social Movements: Conceptual Considerations
Week 2: Theories of Social Movements and Collective Action I: Classical Approaches
Week 3: Theories of Social Movements and Collective Action II: Classical Approaches and New Directions
Week 4: The hidden forms of resistance: Infrapolitics and the (Re)Definition of Social Movements
Week 5: Social Movements in North America I (case studies)
Week 6: Social Movements in North America II (case studies)
Week 7: Social Movements in North America III (case studies)
Week 8: Social Movements in North America IV (case studies)
Week 9: Understanding Social Movements from Within: Ideology and Politics
Week 10: Understanding Social Movements from Within II: Tactics and Strategies
Week 11: Understanding Social Movements from Within III: Organizing and Movement-Building
Week 12: Social Movements as Sites of Collective Learning
Week 13: Studying with Movements / Learning from Movements: Activist Research and Method
Week 14: Final Paper/Project Due
Objectives
By the end of this course, students should be able to:
- describe key theories and conceptual frameworks in social movement studies.
- describe the historical development and social transformations propelled by major social movements in North America (Civil Rights Movement; labour movement; environmentalism; Indigenous and anti-colonial struggles; Feminist and LGBTQ+ movements; Black Lives Matter and contemporary racial justice activism, and Migrant justice movements).
- theorize social movements as dynamic sites of knowledge production.
- develop research skills useful to the study of social movements from interdisciplinary perspectives.
Evaluation
To receive credit for this course, students must participate in the online activities, successfully complete the assignments, and achieve a final mark of at least 60 per cent. Students should be familiar with the Master of Arts—Interdisciplinary Studies grading system. Please note that it is students' responsibility to maintain their program status. Any student who receives a grade of "F" in one course, or a grade of "C" in more than one course, may be required to withdraw from the program.
The following table summarizes the evaluation activities and the credit weights associated with them.
| Activity | Weight |
| Analytical Commentaries | 30% |
| Responses to Peer Commentaries | 15% |
| Research Project or Final Paper Proposal | 25% |
| Final Paper Submission | 30% |
| Total | 100% |
Materials
Digital course materials
Links to the following course materials will be made available in the course:
- Choudry, A. (2015). Learning activism: The intellectual life of contemporary social movements. University of Toronto Press.
- Dixon, C. (2014). Another politics: Talking across today’s transformative movements. University of California Press.
- Scott, J. (2009). The art of not being governed: An anarchist history of upland Southeast Asia. Yale University Press.
- Staggenborg, S., & Ramos, H. (2023). Social movements (4th edition). Oxford University Press.