Ithaca College

This seminar explores the historical, cultural, theological and social contexts and factors that gave rise to the pragmatic interventions of members of the Religious Society of Friends (better known as Quakers) into U.S. social/racial justice politics, regarding: 1) national debates/policies over the institution of slavery (anti-slavery movement; gradualism versus immediatism), 2) the inclusion of blacks within meeting houses in terms of membership & leadership, 3) imperialist & anti-imperialist debates over U.S. insular affairs (e.g. Puerto Rico and the Philippines), and 4) labor and civil rights struggles in most of the 20th century, among others.

We begin our journey by studying the historical and theological sources of Quakerism, moving on to the internal and external factors leading to the theological/organizational schisms of the 19th century, then examining Quaker faith and practices that informed Quaker social/political activism, and finally, examining Quaker interventions into anti-slavery debates, insular affairs, politics of inclusion/exclusion and economic/civil rights politics. In sum, we examine how and the extent to which U.S. pragmatic Quakers through discursive practices, institutional arrangements, and social/political activism shaped the social/racial justice politics over the extension of U.S. citizenship, disputes surrounding territorial sovereignty, and the rights of self-determination and governance within different contexts & during several key moments in American politics.

Readings will include primary and secondary source materials from social and political historians, political scientists, Quaker historians, American pragmatists, novelists, poets, and historical political figures.

For more information (including a syllabus), please contact Carlos Figueroa, cfigueroa@ithaca.edu.