This class examines the concept of power, resistance, and powerlessness from an interdisciplinary theoretical perspective. The readings for this class include material from Political Science, Philosophy, Sociology, and Religion. Films are also an essential source for the study of power. Power is conventionally defined as a formal legal authority of the state or other political organization. Yet power is often informal and symbolic, for example, feminists argue the personal is political. We shall analyze the formal and informal manifestations of power. Four themes will be investigated and discussed: the politics of race, motherhood, resistance, and terrorism. Students are expected to engage in critical thinking, creativity and in group oral presentations.

In the work sample I chose to present, I learned about Joseph Nye’s ideology of Soft Power. Soft Power is when one co-opts someone else to want exactly what you or act how they want them to act. However, you do not coerce them, you co-opt them Soft Power focuses on having the ability to persuade and sway the preferences of others. Soft Power can also be looked at as an attractive power, because it is not commanding. Commanding is Hard Power, Soft Power is all about attraction because you’re abiding to peoples likeness which helps them be on your side, in a sense you persuade them to be on their side by appealing to them. Most politicians know exactly how to use this type of power, it helps them in their campaigning. They use Soft Power to get people’s votes. Soft Power is a staple of Democratic Politics. This sample shows something meaningful about the course mainly because it was one of the types of powers we went over and covered in class. As well it was one of the books we read in class as well. This course showed how certain types of power are used in real life.