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Democracy and Dissent
Today, it is worth recalling Arendt’s foundational defense of public dissent as well as her outspoken resistance to legalized denaturalization based on political opinions.03-16-2025
Articles
Power to the Politicians
Roger BerkowitzThe voting reform agenda seems dead in Congress. One can argue about the quality of the two bills being proposed. And one can argue about the filibuster. Lawrence Lessig reminds us that the real problem is the untethered pursuit of partisan political power that has taken over our political system.
01-16-2022
Why A Mugging?
Roger BerkowitzAdam Shatz, who has taught with me at Bard and spoken at Arendt Center Conferences and events, writes about his being assaulted, beaten up, and mugged in New York last month.
01-16-2022
The Multiracial Anti-Woke Candidate
Roger BerkowitzSimon van Zuylen-Wood has a profile of J.D. Vance that looks beyond the diatribes and tries to understand Vance’s evolution and his popular appeal. He argues that Vance represents an “alienated worldview” that appeals not only to disaffected white voters, but increasingly to multiracial working-class voters.
01-09-2022
American Values
Roger BerkowitzSabrina Tavernise does a deep dive into the way the pandemic has intensified a larger fight over what it means to be an American.
01-09-2022
Literally Unmentionable
Roger BerkowitzProfessor David Bleich of the University of Rochester has been suspended from teaching because he spoke aloud the n-word while reading from a short story.
12-03-2021
Arendt’s Anti-Racism
Roger BerkowitzConnor Grubaugh argues that Hannah Arendt’s often-maligned essay “Reflections on Little Rock” offers clues to overcoming new clashes between what he calls “race-conscious and colorblind” advocates in anti-racist movements today.
11-26-2021
The Catherine Project
Roger BerkowitzScott Samuelson reports on his experience teaching the humanities for free with the Catherine Project, named for “Catherine of Alexandria, the scholar who refuted the crusty academics who’d been hired to refute her—and then suffered an ancient form of cancellation.”
11-26-2021
Hard to Take
Roger BerkowitzRobert Zaretsky looks back to Arendt’s account of the trial of Adolf Eichmann to help make sense of our own failures in thinking through the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse.
11-26-2021
Building a Race-Conscious University One Administrator at a Time
Roger BerkowitzJonathan Kay reports on a conference of academic administrators in Canada. There was, Kay writes, barely a mention of Covid, virtual education, or the financial crisis facing many Canadian universities. Instead, the "centerpiece" of the meeting was a report titled Building a Race-Conscious Institution: A Guide and Toolkit for University Leaders Enacting Anti-Racist Organizational Change.
11-19-2021