Far Left Courses at American Colleges

Colleges nationwide offer classes steeped in identity politics and liberalism according to a new Young America’s Foundation (YAF) report that lists liberal college courses. The report is titled, “Comedy & Tragedy: College Course Descriptions and What They Tell Us About Higher Education Today.”

YAF’s summary explains, “You’ll notice one recurring theme throughout the classes listed in this catalog: collectivism. Our colleges and universities are obsessed with relating every imaginable academic topic to the broad categories of sex, race, class, and gender. Rather than focusing on they [sic] study of humans as capable individuals, academics go out of their way to corral people into specific categories based on identity.”

Consider these three examples found in YAF’s report:

The University of South Carolina’s “Ecofeminism” course description says the class is, “An exploration of the connections between oppression of women and oppression of nature.”

A Dartmouth College course titled “Hand to Mouth: Writing, Eating, and the Construction of Gender” bears the description:

“Our perceptions of food are often limited to familiarity with its preparation and consumption, but do we consider food as an extension of the self or as a marker of class, gender and sexuality? This course will look at food as an intersection of production, consumption and signification, and at how different cultural traditions regulate gender by infusing food with socially determined codes. Readings include Margaret Atwood, Isak Dinesen, Marguerite Duras, Laura Esquival, among others.”

At Williams College, a course titled “Actually Existing Alternative Economies” appears to present capitalism in a negative light. The beginning of the course description says:

“Capitalism has a way of constricting our imaginations so that we come to believe the only possible form of economic institution is one based on profit seeking, competition and individualism. However movements in countries including Brazil, France, Canada and Spain are demonstrating otherwise. Theorists, practitioners and social activists are adopting labels including ‘Solidarity Economy’ and ‘New Economy’ to group together economic activities based on ideals of human provisioning, social justice and environmental sustainability.”

*Some of the courses in YAF’s report include:

• Classic and Contemporary Marxism, Purdue University
• Feminist Economics, Wellesley College (Not offered any semester in 2016/2017 course catalog)
• Rainbow Republic: American Queer Culture from Walt Whitman to Lady Gaga, Wellesley College
• Feminist Philosophy, University of Florida
• Queer Theory, University of Florida
• Inequality and Social Justice, Dartmouth College
• Marxism, DePaul University
• The Economics of Socialism, DePaul University
• Queering the Bible, Swarthmore College (Listed for Spring 2018)
• Race and Capitalism, Yale University
• Racial Capitalism, Williams College
• Rednecks, Queers, and Country Music: Identity & Social Status in Popular Culture, University of Michigan
• Saints and Sexuality, University of Mississippi
• Sex, Gender, and the Bible, University of Mississippi
• Studies in Gender and the Environment, University of Missouri
• The Power of Whiteness, Providence College
• Transgender Latina Immigration: Politics of Belonging and Labor in the United States, Bowdoin College (Listed for Spring 2016)

While the course descriptions in YAF’s report reveal the radical nature of many of the classes, some of the classes described in the report could potentially offer valuable content if they are not framed with a left-wing worldview. But considering the tenor of academia and the theme of leftist ideology throughout YAF’s list, the courses are likely taught through the lens of liberalism.

*Note: Some of the source links provided in YAF’s report do not link to the appropriate material. In the links above, Accuracy in Academia has used some of YAF’s links and added additional source links so each course title in the list links to relevant documentation. Parenthetical notes next to three of the courses indicate that they are not offered during the 2016-2017 academic year.

Alex Nitzberg is an intern at the American Journalism Center at Accuracy in Media and Accuracy in Academia. Follow him on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

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