UArizona unveils English course on ‘Anger and Resentment in the Wake of Trump’
The University of Arizona will be offering a new course in the English Department this Fall, which is titled “Anger and Resentment in the Wake of Trump and the Coronavirus.”
Students will discuss why “anger and resentment” have become prominent in political movements during the past several years and how they link to “white supremacy and white nationalism.”
The English department at the University of Arizona has released a list of new courses that are scheduled to begin this Fall. One class on this list is titled “Anger and Resentment in the Wake of Trump and the Coronavirus.”
Matthew Abraham, an English Professor specializing in “Rhetoric and Composition” at the University of Arizona, is listed as the instructor for the online course which will last 7 weeks.
Abraham is the co-editor of “The Making of Barack Obama: The Politics of Persuasion” and the author of “Intellectual Resistance and the Struggle for Palestine.” The professor currently teaches several classes including “Studies in Rhetoric and Composition” and “Critical Cultural Concepts.”
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According to a description of the curriculum, the students will focus on exploring “the role of anger and resentment in the context of understanding this current historical and political movement that has made resistance fashionable again.”
Division in our nation is due to “anger, resentment, and calls for resistance” that have been “especially prominent since January of 2017,” the website states. The brief summary goes on to mention the Coronavirus pandemic and the lack of resources which have caused “general disgust directed toward those who look or behave differently.”
“The rise of the Black Lives Matter Movement, #MeToo, and immigrant activism point to a widespread recognition of how systemic abuses of power are being resisted strongly by certain demographic sectors,” the course description states.
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“At the center of this storm of protest and resistance is the presidency of Donald J. Trump, whose unprecedented campaign and election fueled the rise of large-scale resistance movements among women, ethnic minorities, environmentalists, and ordinary citizens intent on defending constitutional norms and mainstream governmental institutions,” the description continues.
The course description makes a direct link between the “backlash against these movements” and “the rise of white supremacy and white nationalism.”
University of Arizona’s web page also addresses some questions that will be “explored” during the class, such as “how have other oppositional movements, such as those expressing nativist and racial supremacist sentiments, channeled their anger and resentment in the age of Trump through social media?”
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The possible textbooks listed for this course are “Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism,” “Dying of Whiteness: How the Politics of Racial Resentment is Killing America’s Heartland,” and “The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism.”
Alton Zhang, the President of College Republicans at University of Arizona, stated during a phone call with Campus Reform that “the U of A CR’s are incredibly appalled by these actions” and “colleges were never meant to be politicized. It’s very upsetting to see an Arizona college stoop to this level.”
“When a professor puts together a class like this it makes you wonder what their true intentions are for their students. Because in the end the students are not the ones benefiting from this,” Zhang said.
