Old Concepts, New Politics: Reimagining Political Theory

Session Submission Type: Roundtable

Session Description

Equality. Dignity. Freedom. Justice. Citizenship. Reciprocity. Rights. Some of the most important concepts for thinking about the aspirational promises of democracy are so thoroughly enmeshed in liberal discourses of morality, normativity, autonomy, individualism, and reason that it has become almost impossible – whether in scholarship or vernacular expression -- to speak or imagine them otherwise. This roundtable gathers together scholars from different theoretical, methodological, and institutional locations to do just that. It stages a conversation about the political terrains opened up by figurations of dignity, freedom, equality, justice, repair, etc. grounded in historic, geographic, and/or genealogic traditions, practices, and ways of life that refuse, contest, and rework liberal settlements. We seek to render legible how the politics these settlements underwrite may, however unwittingly, contribute to the retrenchments and polarizations of our age, to reflect on the challenges unconventional figurations may pose to these politics, and to explore the possibilities these figurations may offer for reimagining politics and political theory alike.

Sub Unit

• Division 2: Foundations of Political Theory

Chair

• Murad Idris University of Michigan

Presenters

• Cristina Beltran New York University

• Wendy Brown Institute for Advanced Study

• Roxanne L. Euben University of Pennsylvania

• Jill Frank Cornell University

• Jared Loggins Amherst College