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 10 A.M. to 12 P.M. C.T.

Register: https://northwestern.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJwvce2opjspEt0DyT2Dt8kUcXGuv1haIvLq

‘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 or practical logic of nonviolence remains obscure and/or controversial, despite the continued global prevalence of nonviolent protest.

I explore the theoretical underpinnings of the politics of nonviolence to better understand how and why nonviolent protest (1) uses tactics of disruption on a mass scale, (2) dramatizes injustice and dissent through forms that display and perform discipline, (3) tries to persuade and provoke crises through direct action.

Please email ViduraBahadur2023@u.northwestern.edu for the readings

To Register:  https://northwestern.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJYpcO6srj0qE9NelgD-yoTvIYh-WLumk-Ic

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 artistic resistance looks like in the twenty-first century, when disruption and dissent have been co-opted and commodified in ways that reinforce dominant systems.

Experimental Games draws on the history of economics, affect theory, media theory, and game studies to explore video games as cultural counterparts of neoliberalism and as experimental forms that can complicate this paradigm from the inside out.

On Zoom, Friday, May 7, 2021 at 12 p.m. C.S.T

Register https://northwestern.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJUrcOurqDspHNR3gRInwAuCQLCFLhVp2P-K

‘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 capitalism. It comes in many guises: a musical hook, a financial strategy, a striptease, a novel of ideas. Above all, acclaimed theorist Sianne Ngai argues, the gimmick strikes us both as working too little (a labor-saving trick) and as working too hard (a strained effort to get our attention).

On Zoom, April 29, 2021 at 10 a.m C.S.T.

Register https://northwestern.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJIvcOisrj8qGNwQeQ9wQcBpDWpCdY4DwxZ8

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

James J. Hodge
and
Shane Denson

Zoom Event
Friday, April 2, 2021
2 p.m. CST / 12 p.m. PST

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 Amine, Political Science, Northwestern University
Geremie Barmé, College of the Asia & Pacific, Australian National University
Pratap Bhanu Mehta, Contributing Editor at Indian Express, formerly vice-chancellor of Ashoka University

Organized by the CGCC in collaboration with the CTS, this webinar is part of a larger series of conversations ‘Questioning The Present’, a forum on contemporary issues.

John Durham Peters
Yale University

Friday, February 19

A Graduate Student Conference

A Collaborative Project between Northwestern University, the University of Chicago, and the University of Michigan

Friday, February 12, 2021

Dipesh Chakrabarty

Zoom Event
December 10, 2020