This course serves as an introduction to the Critical Theory of the Frankfurt School. 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 in the present. 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, mass culture, aesthetics, history and fascism. 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 queer and feminist philosophers, postcolonial and critical race theorists, and discourses on ecological crisis. Among others, the course will include key readings by Theodor Adorno, Gunther Anders, Walter Benjamin, Joni Alizah Cohen, Iyko Day, Maya Gonzalez, Max Horkheimer, Georg Lukács, Karl Marx, Moishe Postone, and Kohei Saito. [Track C]