Featured Article
In Memoriam: Dora Amelan
We at the Hannah Arendt Center mourn the death of Dora Amelan (1920-2020). Dora was a remarkable French Jewish woman who worked with the Children’s Aid Society in the French internment camps during WWII, saving many children and adults. Dora was the mother of Bjorn Amelan and mother-in-law to his partner Bill T. Jones, who has long collaborated with the Hannah Arendt Center and Bard College. Dora passed away this week in Paris, from complications associated with Covid-19.04-03-2020
All Categories
What We're Reading:
Thinking
By Samantha HillLiane Carlson writes about thinking for The Revealer, and what happens when we lose faith in thinking as scholars. Echoing Hannah Arendt’s critique of academic thinking, and those who rank among the professional thinkers, Carlson emphasizes the communal nature of thinking as an activity that we engage in, while reflecting on the declining state of academia today.
08-19-2019
Editing
By Samantha HillMagdalena Edwards offers a brilliant account of her experience translating Clarice By Lispector in the LA Review of Books. Navigating the unmarked side streets of publishing, Edwards walks readers through the process of translation while thinking about the gray line between editing and ideas, who gets credit for their work, and who gets thanked for devotion.
08-19-2019
What We're Reading
This week, we're reading Thomas Chatterton Williams on The Great Replacement 08-17-2019
Authoritarianism Around the World
By Roger BerkowitzWith all the craziness going on here in the United States, it is sometimes hard to remember to pay attention to the world. But a number of essays this week remind us that the revolt against elite norms and elite institutions is a worldwide phenomenon. Siddhartha Deb writes about the decision of the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party in India to revoke the special status of Kashmir, the only Muslim-majority state in India.
08-12-2019
An Interview with Uday Mehta
Zelda May Bas interviews Uday Mehta as part of the Hannah Arendt Center dinner and lecture series, "The Courage to Be." This video was first recorded in 2015.08-12-2019
Power, Violence, & Political Action
By Yasemin SariPower is indeed of the essence of all government, but violence is not. Violence is by nature instrumental; like all means, it always stands in need of guidance and justification through the end it pursues. And what needs justification by something else cannot be the essence of anything.— Hannah Arendt
08-12-2019
What We're Reading
This week, we're reading tributes to Theodor Adorno and Toni Morrison08-11-2019
Gaffes on the Campaign Trail
By Roger BerkowitzJoe Biden made news with another racial gaffe when he said “We have this notion that somehow if you’re poor, you cannot do it. Poor kids are just as bright and just as talented as white kids.” John McWhorter argues that these gaffes, while problematic, are also indicative of a paradoxical tension around black achievement.
08-11-2019
What We're Reading
This week we're reading Marilynne Robinson's essay, "Which Way to the City on a Hill?" in the The New York Review of Books.08-04-2019