POST-4505H: Futurities
Instructor: Nadine Changfoot (nadinechangfoot@trentu.ca)
Course Code: POST 4505/CUST 5505H
When Taken: Winter 2023
Major Presentation: Understanding Historical Perspectives in Political Philosophy
Class Notes: Futurities_ Centring Difference and Worldmaking(s)
This was a fourth-year/MA student seminar course. It discussed advanced political theories focusing on the theme of “futurities”. This refers to how certain groups within political theory create visions for the future. For my final project, I selected two notable theorists examined in the class, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson and Nancy Fraser, and examined their views on the past or history, with a focus on how this affected their theories about the future. This was a particularly interesting comparison because both of these theorists had disparate views on history. Betasamosake Simpson did not view history as linear, or something to stay in the past and instead viewed it as circular. In comparison, Fraser viewed history as linear, in the past, and as existing in several phases or eras. These views greatly affected the ways in which they wrote their theories and the theoretical ends for which they argued. From completing this research, my mind was opened to new ways of viewing history and the past. While I had a basic understanding of the fact that events in the past affect the present, I had failed to recognize how deeply the past can be felt, particularly the effects of the past on generations to follow. Betasamosake Simpson’s perspective also emphasized how our actions are history for future generations. I believe that this view allows present people to focus on love and care for the future and past. Comparing Betasamosake Simpson’s view to Fraser was particularly fruitful as Fraser holds a very classic historical view of the past and a view that is echoed through most of the history classes I have taken, even through the division of history into classes discussing various eras or people within these areas. While this separation is useful for limiting the scope of research, or classes, I enjoyed how Betasamosake Simpson’s view challenged these core divisions of history.