HIST261 - People's History of Pakistan

This course asks what Pakistan's history would look like when told from the perspective of the most marginalized groups in the country. Such an approach would demand that we jettison state-centered narratives and geopolitical frameworks. Instead, the course prioritizes the ethical imperative to tell the history of a place by including the voices and experiences of its people. It explores questions about how the state might appear differently in such narratives, as also about the impact of colonialism on the nation-state and its oppressed. Over the semester, we will investigate the responses, resistances, and revolts of marginalized groups that are facing intensified and intersecting oppression in a global and national context of surveillance, militarization, and capitalist exploitation. This course explores these urgent questions about the forces shaping the global present through the histories of the region, women, peasants, displaced persons, labor, and students in Pakistan.