Tracing Alienation
Samiha Khalil, Professor
Rhetoric
Applications for Fall 2025 are closed for this project.
This project will trace the development of "alienation" as a legal, philosophical, and religious concept. It will also draw a map of how the concept is taken up in twentieth-century Hegelian and Marxist traditions to indicate a deep sense of estrangement in the modern capitalist world. The project will examine, as well, how alienation relates to the concept of the uncanny.
Role: Student researches are expected to:
- Conduct extensive library search across different disciplines.
- Trace the etymology of the concept using dictionaries across different languages.
- Read through dense philosophical, psychoanalytic, and religious texts.
- Write short summaries with clear indexing of findings.
- Organize discussion and presentation of findings during periodic meetings with prof.
Qualifications: - Good library search abilities.
- Full comprehension of the material is not required but student researchers should be able to draw an etymological and chronological map for the development of alienation across different fields and historical periods.
- Ability to index and write short summaries of the findings.
- Enthusiasm about etymology and dictionary search.
- Capacity to read across different languages. e.g. tracking the origins of a word in Latin or Greek and its integration within a linguistic or cultural context.
- Knowledge of German or French and background in philosophy would be a plus.
Hours: 3-5 hrs
Arts & Humanities