LECTURES IN POLITICAL THEORY
Gallatin is launching Lectures in Political Theory, which features scholars who re-imagine the meaning and practice of politics by reworking the tradition of political theory. Each speaker will demonstrate different aspects of political theory as a distinctive critical practice, partly by exploring how the vocabulary of political theory can be used to cross disciplinary boundaries and illuminate contemporary issues. The goal of the series is to see how it is possible to reconstruct and use the legacy of a canon that is often reified and confined to the past. Bonnie Honig will look at the promise and limits of mourning and lamentation for democratic politics, by a reading of Sophocles ’ Antigone, the classical tragedy that has played a key role in philosophy as well as political and feminist theory. Melissa Orlie will draw on the political theory conversation among political theorists about freedom to craft a radical analysis of the current environmental crisis. Robert Gooding-Williams will address the racial silence of the political theory canon by reading Frederick Douglass and W.E.B. Du Bois as political theorists whose analyses of race and nation reconfigure how we understand politics.
Schedule:
- Jason Frank – 8 October 2009, 5:30pm to 7:00pm
- Bonnie Honig - 9 November 2009, 5:30pm to 7:00pm
- Melissa Orlie – 7 December 2009, 5:30pm to 7:00pm
- Bob Gooding Williams – 1 February 2010, 5:30pm to 7:00pm
All lectures will be held in the Jerry H. Labowitz Theatre for the Performing Arts, entrance at 1 Washington Place.
Fredrick Douglass image courtesy of http://wigwags.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/frederick_douglass2.jpg
Antigone image courtesy of http://www.cps.ci.cambridge.ma.us/crls/writingcenter/antigone.jpg
