Emotions

Description

In this course, we will examine the way that emotions—emotional experience and expression—are connected with cultural ideologies and assumptions about gender, race, and class.  We'll cover the "big five" emotions: anger, sadness, joy, disgust, and fear, as well as the socio-moral emotions like embarrassment, contempt, shame, and pride.  We will also discuss the field of positive psychology and its analysis of the positive emotions and the role they play in what positive psychologists refer to as "the good life."  Underlying all of this discussion will be an analysis of the ways that power operates on and through us to get under our skin and into what feels like our most personal possessions—our emotions.