Democratic Crisis and the Politics of Social Media

Claire Potter on her upcoming Democracy & Diversity Institute course

“One of the things that’s so interesting about Democracy and social media today is that it’s a paradox… I think all the possibilities for social media being a democratic space are still there, but recent history suggests that social media has also been complicit in foreclosing Democracy, not just in ...
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Democratic Crisis and the Politics of Social Media

Making Knowledge Available

The media of generous scholarship

A few weeks ago, shortly after reading that Elsevier, the world’s largest academic publisher, had made over €1 billion in profit in 2017, I received notice of a new journal issue on decolonization and media.* “Decolonization” denotes the dismantling of imperialism, the overturning of systems of domination, and the founding ...
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Making Knowledge Available

What Walkouts Teach Students

A Report from San Diego

Sometimes in San Diego County, when too many people run their air-conditioning all at once, we have blackouts. The first time a blackout happened after I moved here, one neighbor shouted across the street to me: “There’s a blackout! I think it might be terrorism! But don’t worry, I have ...
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What Walkouts Teach Students

Concerns about Proposed Elimination of the History Major at University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point

An open letter

Provost Greg Summers University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point Academic Affairs Room 202 Old Main, 2100 Main Street Stevens Point, WI 54481-3897 gsummers@uwsp.edu Dean Eric Yonke University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point College of Letters and Science 130 Collins Classroom Center 1801 Fourth Avenue Stevens Point, WI 54481 eyonke@uwsp.edu Dear Provost Summers and Dean Yonke: The American Historical Association is deeply concerned about the recently announced plans to ...
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Concerns about Proposed Elimination of the History Major at University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point

Analytic or Continental?

The psychology of becoming a philosopher in the 21st century

Divorce need not be a tragedy. Things do turn messy, however, when parents force their kids to take sides: for one and against the other. We philosophers who are coming of age in the 21st century find ourselves, unfortunately, subject to such an unhappy circumstance. To become a philosopher today implies ...
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Analytic or Continental?

Re-imagining Clinical Psychology

What might a social justice-oriented clinical psychology program look like?

Disrupting injustice: An action plan to mobilize social change within psychology Introduction As students in psychology and aspiring clinicians, we feel it is pertinent to provide a space in which to focus not only on multicultural issues, but those pertaining to broader social justice initiatives and concerns. According to Goodman et ...
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Re-imagining Clinical Psychology

Media and Micro-Politics

Media, the New Authoritarianism and its alternatives from the perspective of the sociology of interaction

I have been conducting a seminar on “media and micro-politics” in a variety of different forms since publishing The Politics of Small Things, often with my dear friend and colleague, Daniel Dayan. This year the newest member of the The New School ‘s sociology department, Julia Sonnevend, the author of a brilliant ...
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Media and Micro-Politics

Bodies, Gender and Domination

OOPS course

Course Description: Why do people fight for their own servitude as if it were their own deliverance? This is a question that has been at the heart of philosophy for a long time under the headings of voluntary servitude, ideology, and more recently domination. The aim of this seminar is to ...
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Bodies, Gender and Domination

Women and Men in Dark Times (Syllabus Included)

University Lectures at The New School

Elżbieta Matynia and I are teaching a special university wide course for undergraduates this semester, inspired by our favorite political thinker, Hannah Arendt, and her illuminating collection, Men in Dark Times. The course is a response to the present political moment. We, as did she, live in “dark times.” And as ...
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Women and Men in Dark Times (Syllabus Included)

Gender and its Discontents

OOPS course

Description: We start by acknowledging that sex- and gender-based social organization is pervasive and, further, that its prominence and persistence is reflected in sex- and gender-conscious research across the humanities, the arts, the social sciences, design, and studies dedicated to social policies and innovative strategies for social intervention. We expand on ...
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Gender and its Discontents

The Dark Side of Homeschooling

What the Turpin case teaches us about the lack of oversight on homeschooling in the US

Earlier this month, police responded to a 911 call made by a 17-year-old girl, informing them that her brothers and sisters were being held captive in her family home in suburban Perris, CA. On arrival, police found her thirteen siblings, aged between 2 and 29, showing clear signs of malnourishment and ...
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The Dark Side of Homeschooling