Suffering and Justice

What is suffering, and how do we respond to it in a just way? This course explores the construction and circulation of understandings of suffering and justice through aesthetic representation, academic discourses, non-governmental organizations, and the law. We will consider how local and transnational contexts shape understandings of and responses to suffering, both historically and in the present. We will do so by attending to specific forms of suffering and their definitions (including trauma, corporeal violence, colonialism, and economic exploitation) and attempts to respond to these forms of suffering (through, for instance, human rights advocacy, humanitarianism, restorative justice, and revolutionary politics).