During the spring of 2019, I challenged students in PL314, Marx & Marxist Philosophy, to design their own assignments for the class. When it came time to discuss their final project, intended to be a culminating piece of academic work that reflected the substance of the course materials, there were various opinions among the students about what they wanted to do. Some wanted to tackle a research-oriented paper, some wanted to analyze historical events or cultural phenomena, and some wanted to explore non-traditional or creative, intellectual projects. We then grappled with how we might accommodate all these different intellectual endeavors. This web site is the outcome.
You’ll find here a broad range of intellectual work. Despite the differences among the projects, however—in content, approach, political outlook, medium, structure, style, and format—they share a common origin: careful and thoughtful engagement with texts written by Marx, Engels, and a variety of figures in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries who are considered part of the tradition of Marxian thought. As reflected in the students’ work here, the Marxian tradition is broad and endeavors to understand a range of human phenomena, asking fundamental questions about human social life, creative production, human culture, freedom, and human relations. Each student has built something new and intellectually inviting on this foundation. I hope that you enjoy the website and that you learn from each student’s contribution.
—Jill Gordon
Professor of Philosophy