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Topic

Movements of Desire: Mapping Radical Desire Through the 1960s New Left

Department of Sociology

Date & location

• Monday, August 17, 2026

• 11:30 A.M.

• Cornett Building

• Room A317

Examining Committee

Supervisory Committee

• Dr. Peyman Bahabzadeh, Department of Sociology, ������Ƶ (Supervisor)

• Dr. Simon Glezos, Department of Political Science, ������Ƶ (Non-Unit Member) 

External Examiner

• Dr. Sara Ramshaw, Faculty of Law, ������Ƶ 

Chair of Oral Examination

• Dr. Darlene Clover, Department of Educational Psychology and Leadership Studies, ������Ƶ

   

Abstract

While radical social movements struggle to orient themselves within an ever-changing and hostile world, the discipline of social movement studies has largely relegated itself to molar structural analysis, leading to a drought of movement-relevant theory. To address that need, this thesis constructs an analysis of liberatory social movements and the capitalist social world they exist within from the perspective of libidinal desire, drawing on the theoretical work of social theorists such as Gilles Deleuze, Felix Guattari, George Bataille, and Antonio Gramsci. By analyzing historical social movements through a desire-centered lens, this thesis seeks to explore social movements as dynamic processes rather than fixed structures, with the intent of building the basis for a theoretical framework that can be applied by current and future movement activists to their own unique circumstances. To do so, this thesis studies the historical trajectory of four youth movements from the 1960s and 1970s: The Students for a Democratic Society, the Yippies, the May ‘68 movement, and the Zengakuren student movement. By mapping flows of desire through these movements, this thesis analyzes what caused activists to desire to participate in them, and what distinct libidinal dynamics propelled them toward unique lines of flight when faced with new obstacles in their struggles for social change.