Silvia Federici's Caliban and the Witch Reading Group [Durham, NC]
**This course is in-person only. There is no virtual component. Participants must be age 21+
Full Tuition: $200 — Scholarship options are available in the drop-down enrollment menu for you to self-select.
Instructor: Lindsey Andrews | 4 Weeks | Sundays May 5-May 26 | 3:00-5:00 PM ET | IN PERSON, 719 N Mangum St., Durham, NC
Over the course of four weeks, we’ll read Silvia Federici’s landmark text on gender and the origins of capitalism: Caliban and the Witch: Women, the Body, and Primitive Accumulation. In it, she shows that witch hunts, which targeted women, intensified across Europe at the same time as the origin of capitalism. The same strategy of the witch hunt was used to dispossess colonized people of their lands and justify chattel slavery. She also shows that Enlightenment science and modern medicine were central tools for invisibilizing women’s work, mechanizing the body, and controlling reproduction—all of which structured the legal and economic systems that we still live under today. Together, we’ll investigate Federici’s central question: What does gender have to do with capitalism and how does it intersect with colonialism and enslavement? We’ll read to learn about how the degradation of women has been central to the expansion of capitalism across the globe, and how the “feminization of labor” has exacerbated inequality. From AK Press: “Caliban and the Witch is a history of the body in the transition to capitalism. Moving from the peasant revolts of the late Middle Ages to the witch-hunts and the rise of mechanical philosophy, Federici investigates the capitalist rationalization of social reproduction. She shows how the battle against the rebel body and mind are essential conditions for the development of labor power and self-ownership, two central principles of modern social organization.”
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This class will take place in person at Night School Bar in Durham. Night School requires that students refrain from attending in-person classes when sick. For more on our class policies, see our FAQ. Instructors will also follow this policy. If your instructor is sick, class may be moved to online for a session or rescheduled to the week following the final scheduled session at the instructor’s discretion.
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Scholarships: We are currently able to offer three full scholarships per class. Our full scholarship tier is a nonrefundable offering, limited to one per student per month.Because our scholarship funding is limited, selecting multiple full scholarships in a single month will result in disenrollment from all classes. If the scholarship tier you need is sold out please email us directly, and we will add you to a waitlist and notify you if additional scholarships become available. Please see our FAQ for more information, including installment plans and refund policy.