State Anti-Intellectualism & the Politics of Gender and Race. Illiberal France and Beyond
Lecture by Éric Fassin (Université Paris 8 Vincennes-Saint-Denis)
Wednesday, 05.06.2024 18:15-20:00, SFG 0150
In this guest lecture, Éric Fassin will present his new book State Anti-Intellectualism and the Politics of Gender and Race (CEU Press 2024). Using France as his main case study and combining it with reflections on the situation in countries such as Brazil, Turkey, Russia, Hungary and the United States, his book presents a compelling and careful analysis of current anti-intellectualism. He argues that today’s anti-intellectualism can no longer be analyzed in terms of local politics nor along Cold War geopolitical divisions. Instead, we are faced with a global phenomenon, which is not limited to ostensibly illiberal regimes.
Bringing together public interventions, articles and blogs which examine examples of state racism, gender politics, censorship and cancel culture in the period from President Sarkozy until today, as well as direct attacks against academics – both firsthand and against others, Fassin’s book makes an urgent plea for the importance of intellectual work in a global moment of political anti-intellectualism.
Anti-Intellectualism, Attacks on Academic Freedom and Illiberal Neoliberalism
Workshop with Éric Fassin (Université Paris 8 Vincennes-Saint-Denis)
Thursday, 06.06.2023, 10-12, GRA2 0030 (Grazer Str. 2, RTG Contradiction Studies)
This interdisciplinary workshop will address the rise of neoliberal illiberal politics and their connection to anti-intellectualism and discourses around academic freedom. Based on the guest lecture, we will discuss a variety of cases, ranging from the US-American moral panic around ‘Critical Race Theory’, Bolsonaro’s intentional attacks on University funding, discourses around ‘islamo-leftism’ and ‘wokism’ in France to the ban of Gender Studies in Hungary. What do those cases and the growing hostility against researchers tell us about the global state of democracy? How and why are academics and their modes of knowledge production targeted not only by far-right actors but increasingly also by the state?
The workshop is open for students, PhD candidates and Post-Doc researchers from all disciplines.
In preparation of the workshop, participants are asked to read the following chapters from Eric Fassin’s (2024) book State Anti-Intellectualism & the Politics of Gender and Race (available via SUUB):
Introduction: Anti-Intellectualism and the Politics of Truth (pp. 1-23)
Conclusion: Democracy and the Intersectional Politics of Mourning (pp. 149-160)
Epilogue: In the First Person (pp. 161-172)
Registration for the workshop via mail is possible until June 03 (hsteinhauerprotect me ?!uni-bremenprotect me ?!.de)
