In a previous post, Katy pondered what love might have to do with visiting other worlds. She partly landed on love as a way of preventing us from objectifying the other, to engage with others respectfully. I want to take that a little further. Katy admits that she is uncomfortable with the idea of love in politics. But I think love can be a kind of language that allows us to start thinking about politics. Visiting According to Hannah Arendt, visiting is the process of expanding our … [Read more...]
A state of unwelcome
It was chilling to read about Texas Governor Greg Abbott's statement that Texas would not resettle refugees in 2020. In recent years, Texas has been the state to resettle the largest number of refugees. Echoes of Arendt's Origins of Totalitarianism The Governor's decision reminds me of Hannah Arendt's discussion of the decline of the nation-state in the Origins of Totalitarianism. The phenomenon of statelessness tested the limits of national sovereignty. Some states stripped their unwanted … [Read more...]
Even more sabbatical downtime
My final few weeks in New York were frantic. I submitted a paper for review, began to think about Winter syllabi, and finished (mostly) the massive pile of books I had checked out from the library. But, I managed to have some downtime too. Challenging borders I attended a few events at Where No Wall Remains, the 2019 biennial Live Arts Bard festival at the Fisher Center for the Arts. I like the intellectual grounding of the festival. Artists submit items for inclusion in the festival syllabus, … [Read more...]
Private sponsorship and community solidarity
The most recent issue of Refuge: Canada's Journal on Refugees is devoted to private sponsorship. Reading it encouraged me to return to themes I raised in a previous post about Canada's Private Sponsorship of Refugees Program. And good news--Refuge is open access, so anyone can read these articles! I find private sponsorship for refugee resettlement to be an opportunity to think through Hannah Arendt's claims about the blurring of private and public concerns. For Arendt, the private, the realm … [Read more...]
Sabbatical downtime
"Downtime" happens in role-playing games when a party finishes an adventure and needs to rest and stock up before heading out again. Sabbatical is like that too! I am spending my fall term as a Visiting Scholar at the Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and Humanities at Bard College, in New York's Hudson Valley. Intellectually, it's been great. But so has my downtime! Here's a little of what I have been up to during my September Saturdays. My Instagram stories are also a good way to keep … [Read more...]