IOP Pritzker Fellow Bhaskar Sunkara on "Class, Realignment & the Future of Democratic Politics?"

THIS SEMINAR IS OPEN TO CURRENT UCHICAGO STUDENTS ONLY

Monday, April 13

3:30-4:45pm

This final seminar evaluates whether contemporary shifts on the Democratic left have translated into meaningful changes in the party’s working-class base. Drawing on data from the Center for Working-Class Politics, where Sunkara is a board member, the session asks whether “moving left” has expanded working-class support or primarily reorganized the party’s activist and professional strata.

Discussion focuses on younger democratic socialist figures, including Zohran Mamdani, as test cases for whether class realignment is emerging under present conditions or whether these successes reflect a politics adapted to fragmentation rather than alignment. The seminar concludes by asking whether rebuilding class-based majorities remains possible or desirable, or whether progressive politics is more likely to persist as a coalition of overlapping interest groups in which labor functions as one element among many.

Special Guest: Jared Abbott, Director of the Center for Working-Class Politics, Political Scientist & Assistant Professor at California State University

Pritzker Fellows seminars are off the record and open to current UChicago students only. Seating in the IOP Living Room is limited and available on a first-come, first-served basis.

If you have any questions about accessibility, please contact Ella Kumano-Maloney (ikmaloney@uchicago.edu).