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Questioning the Present: The Tyranny of Merit

The Tyranny of Merit

A talk by Michael J. Sandel
(Professor of Government, Harvard University,  United States)
 

Respondents

Charles Taylor (Philosophy, Professor Emeritus, McGill University, Canada)
Nilufer Gole (Professor of Sociology, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, France)
Craig Calhoun (Professor of Social Sciences, Arizona State University, United States)
 
On Zoom
Friday, February 04, 2022
10 A.M CT

A talk by Juliet Hooker, ‘Disobedience in Black: BLM and Black politics beyond democratic sacrifice

‘Rhetoric and Politics of Protest and Direct Action’

Disobedience in Black BLM and Black Politics Beyond Democratic Sacrifice

Juliet Hooker (Political Science, Brown University)

Respondents

Alan Chavoya (Philosophy, Northwestern University)

Alvin Bernard Tillery, Jr. (Political Science, Northwestern University)

On Zoom, Thursday February 3, 2022, 4 P.M. C.T.

Register  https://northwestern.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJYrdeqoqT4vG9WL0U8iHGGkR6YBInMbTTjy

Please download the readings here.

Colegio Nacional Lectures on State and Violence in Contemporary Mexico

‘Questioning the Present Series’

Colegio Nacional Lectures on State and Violence in Contemporary Mexico

Claudio Lomnitz (Anthropology, Columbia University) 

Respondents:

Veena Das (Anthropology, Johns Hopkins University)

Fernando Escalante (Sociology, El Colegio de Mexico)

ON ZOOM, Friday, December 10, 2021, 10am C.T.

https://northwestern.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJwkdeuprzgtHdQHN5wKFJbqDlTgryo_VPxt

For the readings/ lectures please visit

https://thects.org/publications/lomnitzlectures

This event is organized by the Center for Global Culture and Communication in association with the Center for Transcultural Studies

The Democratic Sublime: On Aesthetics and Popular Assembly

The Democratic Sublime: On Aesthetics and Popular Assembly

Jason Frank
(Government, Cornell University):
Respondents:
Robert Hariman (Program in Rhetoric & Public Culture, Northwestern University)
Jessica Winegar (Anthropology, Northwestern University)
November 12, 2021, 12 P.M.- 2 P.M.
1515 Kresge Hall, 1880 Campus Drive, Evanston, IL
If you are unable to attend the talk in person, you can also register to attend the talk over Zoom. To attend the talk on Zoom please register by following the link below. 
 

Abundance: On the Experience of Living in a World of Information Plenty

‘Media Aesthetics Series’

Abundance: On the Experience of Living in a World of Information Plenty (Oxford Up, 2021)

Pablo Boczkowski (Communication Studies, Northwestern University)

Respondents:
Charlie Beckett, Media and Communications, London School of Economics
Teresa Correa, School of Communication, Diego Portales University
Marwan M. Kraidy, Dean and CEO, Northwestern University in Qatar

Friday Nov 5, 2021, ON ZOOM, 10 A.M- 12 P.M. CT

Register https://northwestern.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJUlfuChrzsrHtWobi62mWYsyDYqaYTEFMh7

Cultivating Democracy: Politics and Citizenship in Agrarian India

Questioning the Present Online Series

Jointly Sponsored by CGCC and CTS

Cultivating Democracy: Politics and Citizenship in Agrarian India (Oxford UP, 2021)

by Mukulika Banerjee (Anthropology, London School of Economics, United Kingdom)

Respondents

Deepak Mehta (Sociology & Anthropology, Ashoka University, India)

Lisa Mitchell (South Asia Studies & Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania, United States of America)

On ZOOM

Friday, October 29, 2021, 10 A.M C.T. / 4 P.M. B.S.T./ 830 P.M. IST

Register https://northwestern.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJ0qceCsrjMtE9eh5RC9e7jfHE2hH1k5Md2c

A Duty to Resist: When Disobedience Should be Uncivil

Rhetoric and Politics of Protest and Direct Action (RPPDA): A workshop series

A Duty to Resist: When Disobedience Should be Uncivil (Oxford Up, 2018)

by
Candice Delmas
(Philosophy, Northeastern University)
Respondents:
Cristina Lafont (Philosophy, Northwestern)
Ryan Bince (Doctoral Student in Rhetoric & Public Culture, Northwestern University)
ON ZOOM
 
October 14, 2021, 1.00pm-3.00pm

Summer Institute 2021: Media Aesthetics 3

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 phrase’s suggestive resonance with a range of contemporary topics from structural racism to media infrastructures and from the substitution of ‘experience’ for ‘feelings,’ which might hint at a consideration of modes of living beyond conventional notions of feeling anchored in individuals and toward dimensions of life informed by algorithms, social media, and institutions in ways that challenge, in turn, received conceptions of subjectivity and collectivity. Moreover, in the wake of a year spent on zoom, we hope that the keywords “structures” and “experience” will feel newly fresh and perhaps even open-ended and ready for new thinking. Put otherwise, how must we understand the historical present given the tumultuous events of the very recent past?

‘Postcolonial Bergson’

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’

‘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