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n including harassment on campus or during university related activities based on race and national origin specifically including shared ancestry and ethnic characteristics emory university s commitments today promise to bring it into compliance with federal civil rights law as its full school community deserves said assistant secretary for civil rights catherine e lhamon the resolution letter to the emory university and the resolution agreement are available on the office for civil rights website contact press office press ed gov 202 401 1576 office of communications and outreach oco office of communications and outreach oco page last reviewed january 16 2025 panel proposal for prague december 7 2024 uncategorized i just submitted this proposal for a panel at the upcoming ispp meeting they better accept it can t wait panel title from neoliberal to authoritarian the usa s fascist tide panel abstract after fifty plus years of neoliberalism the united states is witnessing a bewildering right angle turn from a politics that is laissez faire globalized and individualistic to an authoritarian and increasingly fascist one that is chauvinistic statist and moralistic while it might be tempting to say that we are in a post neoliberal era the papers in this panel argue that the rising tide of fascism in the usa along with the terror and violence that might ensue from it continues the neoliberal project each paper also investigates the psychological processes the new authoritarians employ to assuage the anxiety produced by neoliberalism while still continuing the neoliberal project these processes are generally fascistic with a strong father figure promising protection from imagined enemies and forces noëlle mcafee argues that rather than being a reversal of neoliberalism the new authoritarianism is a vicissitude of it the elements of its playbook feed on phobia and assuage the precariat s anxieties while still shoring up the elite s power catarina kinnvall argues that the new authoritarians capitalize on precarity making electoral promises they have no intention of delivering increasing rather than decreasing insecurity among their constituencies pasko kisić merino and antonia stanojević focus on how the new authoritarians employ genderphobic narratives to bemoan how feminised liberal modernity robbed america and how american wholeness and enjoyment could be recaptured paul nesbitt larking turns to how the rise of authoritarianism in the united states affects its northern neighbor s capacity and willingness to assert political independence in the asymmetrical relationship between the two countries the american force field is seductive and attractive while canada s dominant political communities have historically asserted their independence in various ways the question arises as to how much the us s mode of dividing communities and demonizing subaltern peoples might seep into canada s own political culture to conclude discussant james mcauley will offer reflections neoliberalism to authoritarianism november 23 2024 uncategorized i ve been thinking writing and presenting a lot lately on how the new authoritarianism seen on campuses and politics more broadly is not a reversal of neoliberalism but a vicissitude of it both are aimed at discrediting a politics of collective welfare both are de political offering ready made solutions instead of the messy work of deciding together in the midst of uncertainty neoliberalism offers market solutions to political problems which generates precarity and fear authoritarianism invents phobic objects in which to deposit one s anxiety and deflect people from noticing the actual source of danger it s not rampant capitalism it s those haitian immigrants that are the problem then the authoritarian leader promises to save everyone from this supposed danger here s one piece that lays it out more to come another restriction on open expression at emory august 27 2024 uncategorized on april 25 2024 emory university president gregory fenves violated emory s open expression policy by abruptly terminating a peaceful protest brutally and violently enlisting the police to attack demonstrators with pepper spray rubber bullets and tasers today fenves violated the policy again issuing restrictions unilaterally completely disregarding long standing principles of shared governance his move is contrary to the the policy s clear statement that only the university senate oversees any revisions to the policy the university senate was told about the new policies but not consulted the administration decided unilaterally and abruptly claiming there was no time to consult the senate since students were already on campus even though it had the whole summer beforehand to do so as emory university senate president george shepherd wrote to fenves indeed emory s respect for open expression policy roep itself mandates a central role for the senate in changes to the roep section 8 14 3 2 indicates that changes to the policy come from the senate after the committee on open expression the committee fulfills its duty to regularly review this policy and its applicability and to recommend changes to the university senate as necessary for many years that is how changes to the policy have occurred the committee and or senate suggests changes and then the administration decides whether to adopt them and usually does the university announcement of the new regulations excels in double speak making it sound as if it is working with the senate do not be fooled this is absolutely not the case beyond the depressive position june 15 2024 uncategorized the brilliant avgi saketopoulou has developed a new psychoanalytic political concept she is calling exigent sadism at an online event sunday june 23 at the red clinic in london i will be engaging her new work which i see to be a way to move to a new position beyond melanie klein s depressive position from the announcement this presentation fleshes out the psychoanalyticopolitical implications of exigent sadism applying pressure to a most valued concept in psychoanalytic and political theories reparation repair promises to address injury but because it is de sexualized avgi saketopoulou argues it too often works to bind us instead to relationships personal social and institutional that harm us enthralled by dialogue however stale or non dialogic it may be the reparative keeps us tied to our circumstance magnetizing us by the health conferring prestige of staying in relation the depressive position the reparative operates as psychoanalysis s most potent moralizing power wielding tools exigent sadism offers analytic thinking about the ethical necessity of divesting from harmful relationships institutions to draw out this concept saketopoulou leans on the marquis de sade jean laplanche and fred moten to suggest that psychoanalysis s remarkable and unrealized insurgent potential decays when we turn away from the libidinal which is how the reparative operates holocaust exceptionalism is one such powerful example and will be discussed in this context and traveling through melanie klein and david eng s critique of repair this talk pushes further to show the role that exigent sadism can play in resisting the ruse that our objects individuals or institutions can save us the ongoing student protests in response to israel s genocide in palestine illuminate these ideas in stark and powerful ways ethical sadism is thus a critical tool for the transformations that our institutions in general and psychoanalysis in particular so formidably resist and which as individuals too we are so often afraid to risk discussants lisa duggan professor of social and cultural analysis nyu noëlle mcafee professor and chair of philosophy emory university lara sheehi assistant professor of clinical psychology doha institute for graduate studies futureu forum june 21 june 15 2024 uncategorized faculty perspectives on campus protests with professors jennifer ruth bethany letiecq and noëlle mcafee this virtual forum will be broadcast live on youtube 12 1 30 pm eastern 9 10 30 am pacific friday june 21 2024 link below the subject of campus protests has dominated news cycles across america and worldwide it has been highly publicized largely mischaracterized frequently politicized and widely misunderstood why are students and others including faculty protesting what do they seek what represents acceptable boundaries of protest what should presidents chancellors do how should governing boards respond when and when is police intervention acceptable if ever what say should large donors have if any when if at all should state and federal level legislators get involved those are a few of the myriad questions that those inside and outside higher education are asking while there is and continues to be considerable noise associated with the responses what s generally lacking is a concerted effort to understand what is happening and why how today s actions link historically to past protests and perhaps most importantly how campus protests can be interpreted in terms of the purpose of higher education what a college education is for and the role of higher education and democracy in a free society that is why we have invited a stellar panel of faculty respondents to share their thoughts about what is happening across the country what it means and how to address the complexities jennifer ruth jennifer ruth is a film professor in the college of arts at portland state university and also serves as associate dean of the college she teaches core courses in film history theory and interpretation as well as topic courses she is the co author with michael bérubé of the humanities higher education and academic freedom three necessary arguments 2015 and it s not free speech race democracy and the future of academic freedom 2022 she recently co authored the right to learn resisting the right wing attack on academic freedom with ellen schrecker and valerie johnson 2024 before moving to the school of film in 2015 ruth taught critical theory cultural studies and on the victorian novel in psus english department a member of the aaup s committee a on academic freedom she writes on higher education issues for aaup s academe blog which she also serves as contributing editor bethany letiecq bethany letiecq is an associate professor in the college of education and human development at george mason university where she specializes in community based participatory action research approaches and anti racist research methods in work undertaken in partnership with minoritized and marginalized families her publications have appeared in the journal of marriage and family family relations and journal of family theory and review among other outlets she currently serves as the vice president of the gmu chapter of the american association of university professors aaup and president of the va conference of the aaup noëlle mcafee noëlle mcafee is a professor and chairperson of philosophy at emery university and holds a secondary appointment as a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences in addition she is a faculty member of the emory university psychoanalytic institute the director of emory s psychoanalytic studies program an affiliate faculty member in women s gender and sexuality studies and chairs the faculty of psychoanalysis a critical theorist working in the tradition of the frankfurt school she draws on feminist philosophy psychoanalysis and political theory mcafee is the author of over 80 articles essays and five books fear of breakdown politics and psychoanalysis columbia 2019 which won the american psychoanalytic association s 2020 courage to dream book award feminism a quick immersion tibidabo publishing 2021 democracy and the political unconscious columbia 2008 julia kristeva routledge 2004 and habermas kristeva and citizenship cornell 2000 her current research interests are in critical theory psychoanalysis feminist philosophy and political theory her commentary regarding campus protests university presidents should study how democracy works was published recently in scientific american rubén o martinez frank a fear futureu s founder rubén o martinez right michigan state university professor and director emeritus of the julian samora research institute will co host today s forum frank a fear msu professor and senior associate dean emeritus who serves as futureu s managing editor and produces futureu videos will co host the forum you can watch the forum live on futureu s youtube channel or watch the video following the presentation encampments civil disobedience june 10 2024 uncategorized when i stepped into the fray of police violence against peaceful protesters at emory university on april 25 2024 i didn t think i was about to engage in civil disobedience i just felt compelled to witness and document what was unfolding armed police suddenly attacking a peaceful gathering that had been in place less than a few hours one moment it was all kumbaya some chants some tents people milling around on a beautiful spring morning the next it was utter mayhem i stepped into the fray and watched in horror as police attacked a young student trying to cover her head with her hands as they took turns lifting and then smashing her head to the ground i did everything i could to witness and tape the scene without raising any alarms knowing well how police work my posture neutral me standing a good distance from the scene as i repeatedly yelled stop then one one of the cops stood up and looked me in the eye and said ma am you need to step back i took a few seconds to think this over very carefully and then knowing it would not go well said no that was my civil disobedience this month i ve discussed civil disobedience on two podcasts the overthink podcast hosted by two philosophers in california and the philosopher s zone produced by australia s public broadcasting network abc at first i did not get the connection what did the student demonstrations about gaza have to do with civil disobedience they weren t disobeying any laws since surely there is no law against freedom of expression in fact there is a constitutional amendment defending it nor was there any emory rule against pitching tents on the quad protesting itself is not an act of civil disobedience but the refusal to accept subsequent illegitimate criminalization of free expression is civil disobedience now i realize that it was me and the other onlookers who stood up to protect the students who were engaged in civil disobedience along with the demonstrators who refused to leave the scene this was only possible because the administration and the police suddenly rendered it a crime scene their rationale was that outside agitators had infiltrated campus and so everyone was told to avoid the campus quadrangle so then anyone who remained on the quadrangle after this sudden criminalization of the space was guilty of crim...
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