The Student-Faculty Theory Reading Group will have its first meeting of the semester on Tuesday, September 23rd, from 11:00am – 12:00pm in Anderson 1006. The reading for the first meeting, Susan Buck-Morss’ “Democracy: An Unfinished Project”, has been distributed via the graduate student listserv. New and returning members are welcome to join the group for what is sure to be an engaging semester of thinking and discussion. Contact Colleen Kropp for more information.
“Democracy: An Unfinished Project” abstract:

This essay criticizes Ahmet Davutoğlu’s proposal that Islamic civilization complete the “unfinished project of modernity” (Jürgen Habermas), by challenging the concept of civilization itself. As scholars in multiple disciplines have demonstrated, civilizations are hybrid constructions that cannot be contained within a uniform conceptual frame, such as Islamic “authenticity.” The past is shared, and the present is as well. The Arab Spring demonstrates that modernity confronts political actors with similar problems, whatever their background. The essay addresses successive paradoxes within the unfinished project of democracy: the contradiction between free markets (capitalist inequality) and free societies (political equality), the hierarchical relationship between the people and their leaders (Jacques Ranciére’s Ignorant Schoolmaster is discussed), and the lack of democracy between nations within the present world order.