The RelSec (Religion, Secularism, and Political Belonging) Project at the University of Arizona is pleased to welcome internationally distinguished scholar Judith Butler to campus on Tuesday, Sept. 29. Butler is Maxine Elliot Professor in the Department of Comparative Literature and the Program of Critical Theory at the University of California, Berkeley. There, she served as Founding Director of the Critical Theory Program. She is also Hannah Arendt Chair at the European Graduate School.
She will deliver the public lecture, “Said With Buber: Versions of Binationalism.” The lecture is open to the public and will be held from 7-9 p.m. in the new Environment and Natural Resources 2 Building (ENR2), Room N120. The talk on binationalism will bring out the resonance between past visions of binational co-habitation as well as the divergence of their views. Butler will examine how both Said and Buber establish an historical point of departure for thinking about the possibility of dispossession as one condition of ethical responsiveness and responsibility, as well as political solidarity among Jews, Palestinians, and all other inhabitants of the land.
Butler, widely regarded as one of the most influential thinkers of our time, is the author of numerous works including Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (1990), Precarious Life: Powers of Violence and Mourning (2004), Who Sings the Nation-State?: Language, Politics, Belonging (with Gayatri Spivak, 2008), and Is Critique Secular? (co-written with Talal Asad, Wendy Brown, and Saba Mahmood, 2009). Her recent books include: Parting Ways: Jewishness and the Critique of Zionism (2012) and Dispossessions: The Performative in the Political (co-authored with Athena Athanasiou, 2013). Her forthcoming book, Notes Toward a Performative Theory of Assembly, will appear in November 2015. She is also the author of numerous articles and contributions on philosophy, feminism, and queer theory.
Active in gender and sexual politics and human rights as well as anti-war politics, Butler serves on the advisory board of Jewish Voice for Peace. She was the recipient of the Andrew Mellon Award for Distinguished Academic Achievement in the Humanities (2009-13). She received the Adorno Prize from the City of Frankfurt (2012) in honor of her contributions to feminist and moral philosophy, the Brudner Prize from Yale University for lifetime achievement in gay and lesbian studies, and the Research Lecturer honor at UC Berkeley in 2005. She is also the recipient of several fellowships and honorary degrees. In 2014, she was awarded the diploma of Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters from the French Cultural Ministry.
The RelSec Project is an ambitious international collaboration, including universities in Utrecht, Tel Aviv, Hong Kong, and Portland. Dr. Lee Medovoi, UA English Department Head, oversees the project and is partnered here in Tucson by Dr. Karen Seat (Religious Studies) and Dr. Peter Foley (Institute for Religion and Culture). RelSec is further represented by over twenty other departments here at the University of Arizona and supported by a generous grant from the Mellon Foundation and the Consortium of Humanities Centers and Institutes (CHCI). More information can be found at relsec.arizona.edu and chcinetwork.org. For information related to the visiting scholars or workshops, please contact csloman@email.arizona.edu.