April 23, 2013 from 6.30 - 8.30 pm, Room 9204/9205
Frantz Fanon’s work is so significant to us today because it
continues to give us an entirely different philosophical perspective on the
ethical and political significance of a new way of being human together. Fanon
both rejects traditional European narratives of why humans are unique and
deserving of dignity and those anti- or post-humanists who argue that we are
already beyond the human, either through evolution or in a political and
ethical sense. To put it simply: the colonial situation is one of systematic dehumanization.
The human, however, is not a set of attributes, whether real or ideal. Instead,
what it means to be human together in a world beyond the terrifying brutalities
of colonialism is only to be found in the revolutionary struggle itself.”
(Drucilla Cornell)
Discussants: David Harvey, Peter Hitchcock, and Kyoo Lee