Wendy Brown at McMaster - Thursday, February 10, 2011

All are welcome to join us in taking advantage of the opportunity to see and hear Wendy Brown speak at McMaster this Thursday.

The Graduate Program in Gender Studies and Feminist Research Presents:

Wendy Brown
Heller Professor of Political Science, Berkeley
Thursday, 1:30 pm Council Chambers (Gilmour Hall 111)

Civilizational Delusions:  Equality, Secularism, Tolerance

"Burka bans"—restrictions on Islamic female dress in public—have been established in France, Belgium, and the German state of Hesse.  They have been proposed in Denmark, the Netherlands, French Canada and parts of Spain.   What are the assumptions in Western secularism that make such bans possible and legitimate, despite their patent affront to principles of cultural pluralism, individual choice and religious freedom?   Revisiting certain legacies of the Protestant Reformation in Locke and Marx, and examining the ways that the secular West is depicted by thinkers such as Samuel Huntington, this lecture challenges the conceits of cultural, religious, gender and civilizational neutrality at the heart of Western secular discourse.

reading more Wendy Brown

Our winter schedule continues with two more chapters by Wendy Brown from Edgework - chapters six and seven.

Join us Thursday, February 3 in CNH 332 at 4.30pm. Any and all are welcome.

New term, new meeting time and place, new readings

After much deliberation the Cultural Studies Reading Group has determined our winter schedule, which will be focused around works that make the most of the exciting scholars visiting the university this semester. To this end we will be begin by tackling work by Wendy Brown and Sara Ahmed, before (probably) engaging with the new anthology The Idea of Communism nearer the end of semester.

More specifically, we will be beginning with selections from Wendy Brown's Edgework - chapters two and five - which we will be addressing in our first meeting scheduled for Thursday January 27 in CNH 332 at 4.30pm. Any and all are welcome, and if you need to get your hands on a copy of the reading, please get in touch. Also, if you are interested in maybe dropping in later in the semester, you can email us at readingculturalstudies [at] gmail.com for further information about times and readings, or check out back here at the blog.

Best,
Cultural Studies Reading Group folk