Care. An interdisciplinary survey of the concept

elective courses
general courses

A high level of fluency in English is a prerequisite for attending the course, as the reading material is mostly in English.

Blended learning

'Care. An interdisciplinary survey of the concept' is an open seminar devoted to the notion of care, it's history and latest renditions in arts, humanities and social sciences.

One of the topical discussions in the humanities now is the so-called 'crisis of care,' understood primarily as a crisis of social reproduction, but also used to describe other intertwined crises of the last decade, such as the European migration crisis, the ecological crisis, and even the financial crisis of 2007-2009.

Care is a moral obligation, a political slogan, a marketing catchphrase, and a theoretical tool utilised in disciplines ranging from feminist studies, environmental humanities, post-humanism and disability studies. There are various definitions of care - it is understood as an emotion, a virtue, a moral ethic or an attitude towards the world, often characterised as feminine, and associated with nurturing, tending to and cultivating. The feeling of care is also viewed as a burden, and juxtaposed to security, which in its root sense means literally the state of being without care ('se-cura').

During the course we will study the history of the notion of care and its different renditions in Western philosophy and cultural texts. We will examine care as a prosocial and antisocial force; look at its gendered associations and their implications; and, last but not least, ask whether care can save the world.

The reading list in its final form will be communicated in the beginning of the semester. Essential texts for the topic include:

• Adams, Carol, Donovan, Josephine. 2007. The Feminist Care Tradition in Animal Ethics. New York: Columbia University Press.
• Berman, Marshall. 1988. All That is Solid Melts Into Air. The Experience of Modernity. London: Penguin Books.
• Curtin, Deane. 2007. “Toward an Ecological Ethic of Care.” Hypatia, 6: 60-74.
• Dowling, Emma. 2021. The Care Crisis. What Caused It and How Can We End It? London-New York: Verso.
• Fraser, Nancy. 2017. “Crisis of Care? On the Social-Reproductive Contradictions of Contemporary Capitalism.” In Social Reproduction Theory: Remapping Class, Recentering Oppression, edited by Tithi Bhattacharya, London: Pluto Press, 21-36.
• Hamilton, John T. 2013. Security. Politics, Humanity, and the Philology of Care. Princeton-Oxford: Princeton University Press.
• Hamington, Maurice. 2004. Embodied Care: Jane Addams, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, and Feminist Ethics. Urbana-Chicago: University of Illinois Press.
• Held, Virginia. 2006. The Ethics of Care: Personal, Political, and Global. New York: Oxford University Press.
• Merchant, Carolyn. 1996. Earthcare: Women and the Environment. London: Routledge.
• Noddings, Nel. 2002. Starting at Home: Caring and Social Policy. Berkeley: University of California Press.
• Puig de la Bellacasa, Maria. Matters of Care. Speculative Ethics in More Than Human Worlds. Minneapolis- London: University of Minnesota Press.
• Reich, Warren T. 2003. “Care: I. History of the Notion of Care”; “Care: II. Historical Dimensions of an Ethic of Care in Health Care.” In Encyclopedia of Bioethics, 3rd edition, edited by Stephen G. Post. New York: Thomson Gale, Macmillan Reference, 349-367.
• Reich, Warren T., Jecker, Nancy S. 2003. “Care: III. Contemporary Ethics of Care.” In Encyclopedia of Bioethics, 3rd edition, edited by Stephen G. Post. New York: Thomson Gale, Macmillan Reference, 367-374.
• Safranski, Rüdiger. 2017. Czas. Co czyni z nami i co my czynimy z niego, przeł. Bogdan Baran. Warszawa: Czytelnik.
• The Care Collective, Andreas Chatzidakis, Jamie Hakim, Jo Littler, Catherine Rottenberg, and Lynne Segal. 2020. The Care Manifesto: The Politics of Interdependence. London: Verso Books.
• Tronto, Joan C. 2013. Caring Democracy. Markets, Equality, and Justice. New York-London: New York University Press.

I will be sharing scanned texts with the students.

Student_ka zna i rozumie:

• swoistość nauk o kulturze oraz ich związki z innymi naukami humanistycznymi i społecznymi;
• w zaawansowanym stopniu wybrane metodologie nauk o kulturze, strategie poznawcze i stosowane metody badawcze;
• metody analizy oraz interpretacji praktyk i tekstów kultury.

Course is graded on the basis of attendance and active participation in class.

Students can miss no more than two classes.