This course is a general introduction to the philosophy/politics of identity and recognition. We will focus on the issues of racial, ethnic, gender, and sexual identity-formations, as well as on the questions of marginalization, discrimination, and minority rights throughout the semester. We will approach these issues and questions from three different perspectives: Post-Marxism, Queer Theory, and Multiculturalism.  In the first part of the semester, we will read Laclau and Mouffe’s Hegemony and Socialist Strategy and inquire into their attempt to open up the possibility of multi-identitarian politics within the confines of Marxism. Then, we will read excerpts from some of the main texts of Judith Butler and examine the Butlerian understanding of performativity, abjection, interpellation, and parodic repetition. In the last part, we will read Will Kymlicka, Ayelet Shachar, and Arend Lijphart, and discuss their conceptualization of ethno-cultural minority rights and dilemmas of multiculturalism.