In this seminar, we will ask: What do we owe to the dead? How can we understand their moral and metaphysical standing? What do the dead have to do with living a good life? We will study a range of approaches to “ghostly matters” of haunting and ways of being with the dead. Our aim is to use these approaches to understand historical and ongoing oppression and violence - with particular emphasis on the realities and impacts of race, racism, and colonialism - and to explore the implications of hauntology and what Toni Morrison calls “rememory” for the meaning of justice. Course material will include - Avery Gordon Ghostly Matters, Jacques Derrida Specters of Marx, Toni Morrison Beloved, Christina Sharpe In the Wake, Dionne Brand A Map to the Door of No Return, Hans Ruin Being-with-the-dead, M. Jacqui Alexander Pedagogies of Crossing, M. Nourbese Philip Zong!, and work by Karen Barad, Matthias Fritsch, Eve Tuck, Denise Ferreira da Silva, Anna Tsing, Ian Baucom, Subcommandante Marcos, Arundhati Roy, and the Black Audio Film Collective.