From the Editors Archives - Page 88 of 171

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Memory, Justice, History, and the “Right” to be Forgotten

Reflections on Georgetown’s Slave Legacy

May 4, 2018 • by Tim Lacy

For the past two years, since the publication of a front-page New York Times story on Georgetown University’s sale of 272 slaves, I’ve been following the saga how the university has dealt with this information. By way of context, Georgetown is one of 28 Jesuit colleges and universities in the United States. When the Society of Jesus ...

Memory, Justice, History, and the “Right” to be Forgotten

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From Velvet Revolution to Velvet Dictatorship

Reflections on Democratic Regression

May 3, 2018 • by Adam Michnik

Let me start by describing how communism died. The first thing to perish was the communist faith. And this faith had two dimensions. It was a faith in the project of a just world, a world of solidarity and freedom. And it was a conviction that people had finally deciphered ...

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A Historian Obsessed With the Present

Political memoir changes the questions I ask of the past

May 2, 2018 • by Claire Potter

If, at some point, a new diagnosis is announced that describes people who can't stop purchasing and reading books about the 2016 presidential campaign, I could be one of the first to sign up for treatment. I imagine that while wellness professionals will recommend some combination of meditation and exercise, ...

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Sean Hannity, Gayborhoods, and Running Tutus

Past Present Episode 128

May 2, 2018 • by Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, Nicole Hemmer and Neil J. Young

In this episode, Natalia, Neil, and Niki debate the Sean Hannity phenomenon, battles over the “gayborhood,” and the popularity of running tutus.

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Sean Hannity, Gayborhoods, and Running Tutus

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The Face of ‘Post-Truth’ Politics

Observations from the trenches

May 2, 2018 • by Mykola Balaban

‘Post-truth’ is a concept that has been much discussed in recent years. But what is it like to experience its effects for real? Mykola Balaban, a history student and soldier, describes how it feels to be attacked with ‘non-existent’ rockets, and how one can come to doubt even one’s own ...

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What Do Military Attacks Accomplish?

Effective Action in Syria

May 1, 2018 • by Richard D. Anderson

When, on April 7, Syrian aircraft dropped canisters of toxic chlorine -- and maybe the chemical weapon sarin -- on the city of Douma, in an attack that killed seventy civilians, for once President Donald Trump spoke the truth: he called repeated chemical attacks “crimes of a monster.” On April ...

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Freud’s Jaw and Other Lost Objects

Fractured Subjectivity in the Face of Cancer

May 1, 2018 • by Lana Lin

Public Seminar spoke to Lana Lin, author of Freud’s Jaw and Other Lost Objects, about the genesis of the book, psychoanalysis, and art-making. Q&A with Lana Lin Public Seminar (PS): Why did you write Freud’s Jaw and Other Lost Objects: Fractured Subjectivity in the Face of Cancer ? Lana Lin (LL): I had been training to become ...

Blue Monday

Consonance, Dissonance, Harmony

Itinerary of some thoughts on thinking politically

April 30, 2018 • by Jeffrey C. Isaac

"I merely took the energy it takes to pout, and I wrote some blues." -Duke Ellington This is my fourteenth “Blue Monday” column. In but a few weeks, I have already written over forty thousand words in this virtual space. It’s not as if I don’t have a life. The column is not ...

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Translating Isaac Bashevis Singer’s Work

An interview with David Stromberg

April 30, 2018 • by David Stromberg

You can read the translated essay "Socrates and His Teaching" here on Public Seminar. Q & A with David Stromberg 1. How did you come to be a reader and translator of Isaac Bashevis Singer’s work? How did you find Singer, or how did Singer find you? I don’t know when I ...

Translating Isaac Bashevis Singer’s Work

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Socrates and His Teaching

Isaac Bashevis Singer translated by David Stromberg

April 30, 2018 • by Isaac Bashevis Singer

Socrates is the best-known Greek philosopher among most people. The reason for his fame is not the philosopher himself but his mean wife, Xanthippe. People in no way interested in philosophy know that the great Socrates had a bitter spouse who caused him great suffering. Socrates is also famous for ...

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Are Cities an Environmental Curse or Blessing?

Yes.

April 29, 2018 • by Robert Beauregard

Every day, people in Chicago consume immense quantities of food that arrive from nearby farms, large agri-businesses further afield, and producers around the world. Oranges are sent from citrus groves in Florida, chicken parts from processing plants in South Carolina, bananas from growers in the Dominican Republic, olive oil from ...

Are Cities an Environmental Curse or Blessing?

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Agent Sabina

On the abjection of Julia Kristeva

April 28, 2018 • by Albena Azmanova

Julia Kristeva’s recently released secret service files reveal a similar persona to that which comes through her writing: unruly, witty, courageous. And yet Kristeva is denying the allegations. Is it something other than the truth that she fears? ‘On the surface, an intelligible lie; underneath, the unintelligible truth showing through’ Milan Kundera, The Unbearable ...