Faculty

Lewis Gordon: Interview with Tavis Smiley

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Why does Black consciousness pose such a threat to racist power structures?

 

In his celebrated book Fear of Black Consciousness, Professor, Head of the Philosophy Department at UConn, and leading philosopher Lewis Gordon answers this question while unpacking “the historical development of racialized Blackness, the problems this kind of consciousness produces, and the many creative responses from Black and non-Black communities in contemporary struggles for dignity and freedom.” He joins Tavis for a conversation centered around his latest text.

 

"The Tavis Smiley Podcast" airs on weekdays 9 AM - 12 N

Insightful conversations with thought leaders, opinion makers, celebrities, authors and artists. Plus, socially conscious commentary that challenges listeners to re-examine the assumptions they hold, and expand their inventory of ideas.

 

One of TIME magazine’s “100 Most Influential People In The World,” Smiley has interviewed a veritable who’s who list of influencers, has penned multiple New York Times Bestselling books, and has already been honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Tracy Llanera: Symposium on “Richard Rorty”

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Congratulations to Assistant Professor of Philosophy Dr. Tracy Llanera on the symposium on her book Richard Rorty: Outgrowing Modern Nihilism! This symposium is now published (early view) in the journal The Philosophical Forum. 

Drawing on an original interpretation of Richard Rorty’s writings, [Richard Rorty: Outgrowing Modern Nihilism] challenges the orthodox treatment of nihilism as a malaise that human beings must overcome. 

Lewis Gordon: Best Philosophy Books for Beginners

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Check out Professor and Department Head Lewis Gordon’s picks for the best philosophy books for beginners!

“Why create a reading list of the best philosophy books for beginners? Well, Bertrand Russell once said that ‘science is what you know, philosophy is what you don’t know’, and when it comes to philosophy – I don’t know nearly enough. The vastness and occasional intangibility of the subject can make it feel inaccessible for novices. Like trying to find the end of a piece of sellotape, it can be frustrating to know where to start. In situations like this, there is only one thing you can do – ask the experts what they’d recommend as philosophy books for beginners. Luckily for me, I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing some of the world’s finest philosophical minds.”

-Phil Treagus Evans, “Philosophy Books for Beginners”

Nelson Maldonado-Torres: Sobre a Colonialidade doSer and El Mostrador

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Please check out two new items from Professor Nelson Maldonado-Torres: a new translation of his writings in Portuguese, and a reference to his work in El Mostrador, a Chilean newspaper.

Congratulations, Nelson!

Sobre a Colonialidade do Ser (On the Coloniality of Being)

About the coloniality of being is a text written with the blood of the victims of coloniality, historical logos that had been established since the colonization started in 1492, with the violent creation – and not innocent discovery – of the New World. Unlike many European and Eurocentric narratives about the genesis of modernity and its main characteristics, Maldonado-Torres takes into account the idea present in many decolonial studies, according to which modernity is born with coloniality and, therefore, it is necessary to talk about modernity-coloniality, to make it clear that coloniality is not a side effect of modernity, something that could be fixed or uprooted without calling into question the essence of modernity. Rather, coloniality is the lifeblood of modernity, statement that confronts Europe's boastful ways of understanding the modernity of its history. For this reason, the Cartesian cogito is not the striking sign of the origin of modernity, a kind of immobile engine or axial point moving all the tradition founded by it. As Enrique Dussel showed, the ego conquers (the I conquer) is the condition of possibility of Descartes' own thought, which is why modernity is marked by political-economic-epistemological relations of domination and subjection of non-Europe by Europe.

Purchase the book in Portuguese here

El Mostrador

"Alexander Ortiz Ocaña and Decolonialism"

*Excerpt*

Throughout the history of the human and social sciences there have been several turns, such as the linguistic turn, the hermeneutical turn, the phenomenological turn, the configurative turn, the socio-critical turn. Following that same logic, the Puerto Rican philosopher Nelson Maldonado Torres coined the term 'decolonial turn', which has been followed by many authors of our America, including us.

The decolonial turn implies the search to start building knowledge from the particular context of each region, from conceptualized and situated knowledge, looking at ourselves and without the need to import knowledge from other regions, other countries or other contexts

Read the full article here

Tracy Llanera: CLAS Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Grant

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Congratulations to Assistant Professor Tracy Llanera, who has been awarded a CLAS Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Grant to support her work titled “Resilience: A Workshop for Women Doing Philosophy.” Dr. Llanera’s work has already inspired an intellectual movement in the South Pacific, in which Indigenous and other South Pacific women of color working in philosophy have created a Women Doing Philosophy group and project. The result is a series of influential journal articles, conferences, colloquia, and a proposed anthology on resilience. The proposal for the anthology has been enthusiastically received by the series editors for the Routledge-India series Academics, Politics and Society in the Post-Covid World.  

Ayanna De’Vante Spencer: me.too International Social and Political Framework

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Assistant Professor Ayanna De’Vante Spencer and her collaborators launched the me.too International’s Social and Political Framework. As the original author of the first two versions and now a co-author, Dr. Spencer is very proud of this public philosophy for and with survivors, and the extraordinary team at me too International. Interested parties can view the framework here digitally before physical copies are available.

Lewis Gordon: Interview in Newsweek

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Check out Professor and Department Head Lewis Gordon’s recent interview in Newsweek, “Kanye West Confused About Antisemitism and Racism, Professor Says.”

*Excerpt*

Gordon explained that “the nonracial interpretation of antisemitism doesn’t quite play out in practice, since people who hate Jews use all the logic of race and racism when speaking about Jews, and, internally to Jewish communities, one could be born Jewish (through a Jewish mother) and remain so even when, in some cases, one has converted to other religions.”

“So,” said Gordon, “the short answer is this: Wherever there is antisemitism, there is racism. Wherever there is racism, there is often antisemitism. But bear in mind, antisemitism is a species of racism.”

Lewis Gordon: Kanye West and the Age of the Unmanageable

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Check out Professor and Department Head Lewis Gordon’s comments on Kanye West in the Financial Times, “Kanye West and the Age of the Unmanageable.”

*Excerpt*

Lewis R Gordon is an American philosopher whose book Fear of Black Consciousness was published earlier this year. In 2018, he was interviewed for an article about Kanye in which he tried to explain the singer’s drift to the right following a controversial interview the musician had done on TMZ about the history of slavery. “It’s pretty clear that his psychological protection against vulnerability is to push himself to the level of a god,” said Gordon. “People who build up an edifice of pleasing falsehoods to protect themselves eventually lose the connection to certain elements of truth.”

Tracy Llanera: Keynote at Notre Dame School of Virtue and Character

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Assistant Professor Tracy Llanera gave a keynote at the 2022 Notre Dame School of Virtue & Character presented by the Institute for Ethics & Society. Held over two weeks, the third NDSVC allows selected participants to engage with new research on the topic of cultivating good character. NDSVC features six keynote sessions, each running for 1.5 hours. The sessions are structured around a pre-read paper and provide participants with the opportunity to engage directly with the speakers in a rigorous but friendly discussion of their work. 

Flyer for the 2022 Notre Dame School of Virtue & Character

Lewis Gordon: Philosophy and Global Affairs Vol. 2

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Check out the second volume of Philosophy and Global Affairs, co-edited by Professors Lewis Gordon and Jane Anna Gordon. You can also read Professor Tracy Llanera's contributed article, linked below.

"Pragmatism, Language Games, and the Philippine Drug War" by Tracy Llanera

This article explores the claim that how we talk can inspire how we reason and act. Contemporary research suggests that the words militant Christian leaders in the Philippines use shape how they rationalize President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs. Describing drug users as “sinners,” a trope in religious language, is particularly lethal. Using work on pragmatism and philosophy of language by Richard Rorty, Robert Brandom, and Lynne Tirrell, the author examines how the term “sinner” generates pernicious claims in the drug war. It explores how the use of the term inspires hermeneutic uptake, redirects discursive focus, and engenders certain social and political actions in the Philippines.