Media

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.”

Nelson Maldonado-Torres: “Decolonizing Academia”

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Check out Professor Nelson Maldonado-Torres‘ recent interview in “Decolonizing Academia: Obstacles and Paths Forward,” published in Chinese Social Sciences Today.

*Excerpt*

Nelson Maldonado-Torres, a professor from the Department of Philosophy at the University of Connecticut in the US, held a similar view, saying that decolonization refers to particular historical moments when former colonies of European empires struggled for their political and juridical independence, particularly within the disciplines of history and the social sciences.

Lewis Gordon: History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps

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Listen to Professor and Department Head Lewis Gordon as he discusses Frantz Fanon on "History of Philosophy without any gaps." In this podcast Peter Adamson, Professor of Philosophy at the LMU in Munich and at King's College London, takes listeners through the history of philosophy, "without any gaps." The series looks at the ideas, lives and historical context of the major philosophers as well as the lesser-known figures of the tradition.

Lewis Gordon: Eminent Scholar Roundtable

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Congratulations to Professor and Department Head Lewis Gordon, honoree of the Global Development Studies Eminent Scholar Roundtable 2021-2022 organized by the International Studies Association.

The Global Development Section draws together scholars broadly concerned with development and global justice working across a number of fields, for example, postcolonial studies, development studies, critical political economy, critical security studies, social and political theory, history, sociology, gender studies, and public policy. The Section approaches the phenomenon of development in its broadest sense as the study of change, rather than in its narrow hegemonic conceptualization as technical interventions in social worlds. GDS is further concerned with investigating alternative understandings, especially those that excavate the intimate links between development, colonialism, and global capitalism. In this respect, the Section seeks to cultivate an intellectual space or provocation, supporting many ways of seeing and being in the world. And for this purpose, the Section is committed to facilitating diverse modes of inquiry, establishing research networks, and supporting early-career scholars in their professional endeavors.

Tracy Llanera: “Yes, You Do Deserve a Little Treat”

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Check out Assistant Professor Tracy Llanera's recent article in The New York Times, "Yes, You Do Deserve a Little Treat"

*Excerpt*

Tracy Llanera, 35, a philosophy professor at the University of Connecticut who studies nihilism, said that this treat-forward approach is one way people are reclaiming some of the freedom and stability that has been lost since early 2020.

“In the Covid pandemic, the thing that confirms that you’re suffering from existential nihilism is the lack of control,” Ms. Llanera said.

Amid these feelings of ongoing helplessness and grief, she said, people try to find consistent and reliable pleasures.

“Something about treat culture is that you’re always regularly going to get the treat,” she added. “You can depend on that, at least. There’s a guarantee that this small little ritual that you have every week will at least satiate something in you.”

Tracy Llanera: “I Am An American Philosopher”

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Check out Assistant Professor Tracy Llanera's recent interview with the Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy (SAAP), "I Am An American Philosopher."

*Excerpt*

The pragmatist tradition has no problem about being level-headed and getting muddy. There’s no bizarre or elitist hang-up in using (and re-forging) concepts from philosophy or other disciplines to make sense of contemporary issues or to promote social amelioration. As an approach, I’ve found pragmatism to be useful and liberating, whether I’m thinking about existential despair, or the words we use, or how hate festers in people.