SlugAtlasUC Santa Cruz

HISC 60CWhat Is Resistance?

5 creditsGE TAUndergraduateStudent Option

Explores the politics of resistance and how different thinkers have conceptualized what it means to resist, why it is necessary, and with what methods it should be done. Side by side with the theorists of resistance, the course analyzes examples of resistance from around the world, traversing different time periods, geographies, and cultures. Examples range from peasant revolts to labor movements, feminist struggles to anti-war mobilizations, prisoner uprisings to anti-colonial wars and contemporary forms of corporeal, self-sacrificial resistance. Relying upon the concrete political problems posed by each historical instance as springboards into larger theoretical concerns, the course focuses on questions such as the nature of power relations, different forms of political organization and representation, the relationship between means and ends, the role of violence, and the function of different media, especially as they become manifest in the complexity of real politics.

  • Enroll in lecture and associated discussion section.

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When it runs

Winter 2026Open Winter 2026

SectionTypeWhenWhereInstructorSeats
01Lecture
Tue Thu 3:20pm–4:55pm
Steven Acad 150B. BarguOpen 110/120

Who teaches it

InstructorRatingDifficultyWould take againReviews
Banu Bargu3.6 / 53.4 / 564%11

From RateMyProfessors, which is student-submitted and not a survey. Small review counts move a long way on one bad quarter.

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