This course examines key milestones in the history of ideas and cultural thought, from the Enlightenment to the present, with a focus on the shaping of modernity. It explores the historical and geographical context of the European Enlightenment and the emergence of leading precursors of contemporary social theory. It also investigates gender relations as they were structured around shifting boundaries between the private and public spheres during the pre industrial era and the process of industrialization. The Age of Exploration is approached through the lens of East
West relations; Orientalism, the concept of Empire, and the interplay between discourse and power are studied within a postcolonial framework that highlights diasporas, hybrid cultures, and cosmopolitanism.