Media Aesthetic III: Structures of Experience The theme of the 2021 summer institute in media aesthetics is “structures of experience.” In his 1977 book Marxism and Literature, Raymond Williams briefly entertains the phrase “structures of experience” as an alternative formulation of his now-famous notion of “structures of feeling.” This year’s summer institute takes inspiration from this

A talk by Souleymane Bachir Diagne ‘Postcolonial Bergson‘ traces the influence of Bergson’s thought through the work of two major figures in the postcolonial struggle, Muhammad Iqbal and Léopold Sédar Senghor. Discussants Naveeda Khan (Anthropology, The Johns Hopkins University) Charles Taylor (Philosophy, Professor emeritus, McGill University) Gary Wilder (Anthropology/French, Graduate Center, CUNY) On Zoom June 3, 2021

‘The Politics of Nonviolence’ Karuna Mantena Discussants Dilip Gaonkar (Communication Studies, NU) José Maria Medina (Philosophy, NU) On Zoom, Thursday, May 20, 2021, 11 A.M.- 1 P.M. C.S.T Gandhi and King insisted that nonviolent action was both morally and practically superior to the use of force in waging political conflict, overcoming oppression, and advancing social change.  And yet the political

A presentation and dialogue on two recent books on digital culture and aesthetics: Experimental Games: Critique, Play, and Design in the Age of Gamification by Patrick Jagoda (University of Chicago) and The Play in the System: The Art of Parasitical Resistance by Anna Watkins Fisher (University of Michigan). The Play in the System explores what

‘Theory of the Gimmick– Aesthetic Judgment and Capitalist Form’ by Sianne Ngai (English, University of Chicago) Discussants Mark Greif (English, Stanford University) Joseph Jonghyun Jeon (University of California, Irvine) Leigh Claire LaBerge (The City University of New York) Repulsive and yet strangely attractive, the gimmick is a form that can be found virtually everywhere in

I AM THE PEOPLE Reflections on Popular Sovereignty Today by Partha Chatterjee On ZOOM Thursday, April 8, 2021, at 10 a.m. CST In I Am the People, Partha Chatterjee reconsiders the concept of popular sovereignty in order to explain today’s dramatic outburst of movements claiming to speak for “the people.” To register: https://northwestern.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJItceGrrzIuHNASqImjGa6WqAYuO6TKTFbd  

Writer, journalist, and cultural critic Zha Jianying will present and discuss her five-part essay, China’s Heart of Darkness: Prince Han Fei and Chairman Xi Jinping, a study of the legacy of Chinese Legalist philosophy and its influence on the rule of Xi Jinping. This essay was published in China Heritage, July 14-22, 2020. Discussants Loubna El