A lecture series honoring the legacy and thought of Hannah Arendt
The De Gruyter-Arendt Center Lecture in Political Thinking series aims to promote and foster the legacy of Hannah Arendt’s thought. A partnership between the Hannah Arendt Center (HAC) at Bard College and De Gruyter Brill publishing, the lecture will be delivered annually by a prominent scholar. De Gruyter Brill explicitly intends for the lecture series to be open to a broad approach to Arendt across the disciplines of not only philosophy and political theory but the humanities and social sciences more generally.
The 4th Annual Lecture (April 23, 2026): Uday Mehta
Uday Singh Mehta is Distinguished Professor of Political Science at the CUNY Graduate Center and the 2022 Yehuda Elkana Fellow (awarded by Central European University and the Hannah Arendt Center at Bard College). Professor Mehta has taught at several universities, including Princeton, Cornell, MIT, University of Chicago, University of Pennsylvania, Hull and Amherst College. He is the author of The Anxiety of Freedom: Imagination and Individuality in the Political Thought of John Locke(Cornell University Press, 1992) and Liberalism and Empire, (University of Chicago Press, 2000). Liberalism and Empire was awarded the J. David Greenstone prize for the best book in Political Theory by the American Political Science Association in 2002. In 2003, Mehta was one of ten recipients of the prestigious “Carnegie Scholars” prize given to “scholars of exceptional creativity.” His forthcoming book is titled A Different Vision: Gandhi’s Critique of Political Rationality.
Free and open to the public, the lecture will take place at Bard’s Campus Center North (33 Robbins Rd.), in the Multi-Purpose Room, on April 23rd at 5p EST and will be livestreamed here.
The 3rd Annual Lecture (2025): Neil Roberts
A conference on Hannah Arendt and Black political thought may be jarring, if not altogether improbable, for some persons to comprehend. Yet it very well might be needed now more than ever. This keynote address examined strivings for the revolutionary spirit and what such strivings reveal about the contours of modern Black political thought and Arendt studies between past and future. Learn more about the 2025 Spring Conference on Hannah Arendt and Black Revolutionary Thought.
The 2nd Annual Lecture (2024): Peg Birmingham
The U.S. Supreme Court today faces a crisis of legitimacy. More than half of Americans have an unfavorable view of the Court—the lowest in over three decades. Dr. Peg Birmingham gave the keynote at our 2024 Spring Conference: Between Power and Authority: Arendt on the Constitution and the Courts.
The Inaugural Lecture (2023): Linda Zerilli
The inaugural lecture was delivered by Professor Linda Zerilli, Charles E. Merriam Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science and the College at The University of Chicago. Her lecture, entitled “Arendt and the Problem of Political Persuasion,” took place on Thursday, March 2, 2023. Professor Zerilli’s lecture also served as the keynote address for a two-day interdisciplinary humanities conference, Judgment, Pluralism, and Democracy: On the Desirability of Speaking with Others.
More Details
Award amount: $2,100.00 USD to cover all the costs related to the Lecture.
Selection: The Lecturer is selected by the HAC in consultation with previous Lecturers and De Gruyter.
Coordinator: Jess Feldman, Klemens von Klemperer Post Doctoral Fellow at Bard College. Contact them at [email protected]
Benefits for members
As a Hannah Arendt Center Member you can receive a 50% discount on De Gruyter hardback editions and 20% discount on paperback editions from the Philosophy, Social Sciences and Cultural Studies lists. Review the eligible books and place your order here.