In recent years, the field of critical pedagogy (the critical study of teaching, its philosophy, history and practice) has become central to the consideration of how post-secondary education functions. Theorists such as Paulo Freire, Henry Giroux, Peter McLaren, bell hooks and Ira Shor, to name the best known in the field, have encouraged us to re-think what it means to educate and to learn, particularly in an increasingly globalized world. In this course we will look at some of the central tenets and texts within the field of critical pedagogy, particularly as they can shed light on the discipline of literary studies in English and how it is learned, structured, disseminated, taught, and fought over. The course will also exemplify, through an inquiry-based and critical approach (students and instructor will make collaborative decisions about the much of the of the course direction) some of the principles that critical pedagogy deems important, particularly concepts of democratic and liberatory education.