This course serves as an introduction to the Critical Theory of the Frankfurt School and an investigation of its relevance to the many challenges we face today—from ecological crises to algorithmic oppression and surveillance. We will explore how the Frankfurt School’s founding theorists sought to critically diagnose the persistence of unfreedom, domination and immiseration in modernity in an effort to illuminate, however dimly, the possibility of emancipation. We begin with Critical Theory’s foundations in Western Marxism and proceed to engage with Critical Theory’s core concerns through primary texts on the critique of late capitalism, fascism, technology, aesthetics, and the “culture industries.” Finally, we will reflect on the contemporary currents of these debates. Specific attention is given to how Critical Theory both informs and is expanded by contemporary perspectives on media and cultural forces in the work of queer and feminist philosophers, postcolonial and critical race theorists, and discourses on ecological crisis. The course will include key readings by Karl Marx, Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer, Georg Lukács, Walter Benjamin, Gunther Anders, Bernard Stiegler, Hito Steyerl, Yuk Hui, Ruha Benjamin, Legacy Russell, Katherine Yusoff, and Safiya Noble. [Track C]