Contemporary democracies find themselves faced with relations of domination and exclusion in a number of different sites: prisons, the workplace, politics, and at home. This course will examine different ways to understand the emergence and persistence of relations of domination and exclusion in contemporary politics. Each of these perspectives offers its own way of conceiving of politics, and a different vision of what justice might offer and require. Course readings will explore different theoretical approaches to contemporary politics, while also turning to specific examples to think them through. These examples include: mass incarceration, the persistence of economic and racial hierarchies, and domestic violence. Readings will change from one semester to another, but will include thinkers such as Michel Foucault, Charles Taylor, Iris Marion Young, Michelle Alexander, Audre Lorde, Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Keaanga-YahmattaTaylor, and others. Class sessions will include some lecturing as well as a substantial amount of class discussion.