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The Political is Personal: Feelings, Agency, and the Political Self


Dozent/in Dr. Lynn Alena Roth
Veranstaltungsart Hauptseminar
Code HS251672
Semester Herbstsemester 2025
Durchführender Fachbereich Politikwissenschaft
Studienstufe Bachelor Master
Termin/e wöchentlich (Mi), ab 17.09.2025, 12:15 - 14:00 Uhr, 4.B54
Umfang 2 Semesterwochenstunden
Turnus Wöchentlich
Inhalt The Political is Personal: Identity, Emotion, and Lived Politics
This module begins with the idea that the political is also deeply personal. Our political beliefs, loyalties, and actions are closely tied to how we see ourselves and interpret the world. At the same time, our inner lives—our emotions, desires, and identities—are shaped by the cultural narratives and political structures we inhabit.
Our feelings are shaped by politics—and our politics by how we feel. This seminar explores how the boundaries between the personal and political dissolve in the formation of identity, emotion, and agency. Rather than viewing emotion as separate from political life, this course approaches affect as a central mode through which power circulates, and resistance takes form. From grief and shame to hope and solidarity, we explore how emotions are not only personal responses, but deeply political forces shaped by histories, ideologies, and social structures.
Key questions include:
• What does it mean to “feel political”?
• Can lived experience be a form of theory?
• How do emotions operate within systems of power?
• In what ways do storytelling and embodiment create political meaning?
• What role does affect play in protest, populism, and political belonging?
We will engage with theorists such as Judith Butler, bell hooks, Sara Ahmed, Frantz Fanon, and Michel Foucault to examine how political subjectivity is shaped at the intersection of emotion, identity, and power—embedded within broader historical, cultural, and structural forces—and how affect functions both as a tool of political control and a resource for resistance.
Schlagworte Gender/Diversity
Lernziele By the end of the module, you should be able to:
• Understand key theories of subjectivity, selfhood, and the history of emotions
• Apply these theories to the analysis of modern political phenomena
• Analyse how political theory engages with the politics of feeling, and how affect operates within structures of power, identity, and resistance
Voraussetzungen Keine / None
Sprache Englisch
Anmeldung ***Wichtig*** Um Credits zu erwerben ist die Anmeldung zur Lehrveranstaltung über das UniPortal zwingend erforderlich. Die Anmeldung ist ab zwei Wochen vor bis zwei Wochen nach Beginn des Semesters möglich. An- und Abmeldungen sind nach diesem Zeitraum nicht mehr möglich. Die genauen Anmeldedaten finden Sie hier: http://www.unilu.ch/ksf/semesterdaten
Prüfung Keine Prüfung.
Aktive Teilnahme: Besuch des Seminars, wöchentliche, kurze schriftliche Kommentare, aktive Mitgestaltung der Sitzungen
Abschlussform / Credits Presentation, Group work and active participation (graded) / 4 Credits
Hörer-/innen Nach Vereinbarung
Kontakt lynn.roth@unilu.ch
Material Handouts und Folien werden auf OLAT zur Verfügung gestellt / Handouts and slides will be made available on OLAT.
Literatur Die Literaturliste wird zu Semesterbeginn auf OLAT geladen.