Debt and Economic Justice: A Humanities Approach [$20 Suggested]

Instructor: Madden | Sunday | October 9 | 7:30-9:00 PM ET

Recently, organizers successfully pushed the Biden administration to cancel some student debt. Across social media, many of the responses were outraged: those people took out loans; surely they should pay them back. Why are people so upset about other people's debt? As anthropologist David Graeber notes, the powerful belief that people ought to repay debt is "actually not an economic statement, it's a moral statement." Not repaying your debt is seen as a moral failing, and the supposed "self-evidence" of the link between debt and morality, he says, is what makes it "so insidious." In this teach-in, we will study debt from the view of the humanities in order to understand how conversations about debt are not just about money. We will work together to understand the subjectivities produced by debt and its value-laden rationalities. We will learn from the leadership and debt abolition efforts of former students of for-profit colleges, from debt resistance groups Strike Debt and Debt Collective, and from writers who center feminist and anti-racist approaches to economic justice. Join us on Sunday October 9 from 7:30-9:00 PM for this important discussion!

—

Direct student donations are a crucial aspect of our funding model, and without them, we are not able to pay instructors a living wage. We encourage you to pick the payment tier that corresponds with your needs, but ask that you please consider our commitment to fair labor practices when doing so.

If it is difficult right now for you to make a donation, you can use this promotion code to register without payment: AG7MYM9

If you would like to pay it forward in the future, you can make a one-time donation to our general scholarship fund.