Butler’s final lecture “Toward an Ethics of Co-Habitation” was a tour de force. It would be difficult to summarize the full range of conceptual work performed in the talk, although the other posts have done an admirable job of capturing … Continue reading →

A couple weeks ago, there was a reception for Judith Butler in the Wyndham Alumnae House. Both excited and terrified that I might finally meet her, I asked for a glass of wine and engaged in enjoyable conversations with colleagues … Continue reading →

During the question and answer portion of the last lecture, a student asked Judith Butler to expand on what an ethics of cohabitation might look like at a women’s college/single-sex institution like Bryn Mawr. Butler first explained that there was … Continue reading →

The questions Butler raises in her final lecture are intriguing: What are global obligations near and far? What makes these ethical encounters possible? What does it mean for our ethical obligations when we are joined to those we did not … Continue reading →

Butler’s third and final lecture, “Towards an Ethics of Cohabitation,” was the final piece in her troika on visibility, personhood, and democratic participation. Taking the notion of queer alliances—those alliances of groups or individuals with divergent or different attitudes and … Continue reading →

In Judith Butler’s third and final lecture, she spoke about images as ethical solicitations—ones that ask us to overcome our locality and “negotiate proximal quandaries.”  We are all familiar with the images of starving children that flash across our television … Continue reading →

I was left a little puzzled by Butler’s lecture last Monday evening. The bulk of the lecture was devoted to a deconstruction of Levinas’s and Arendt’s ethical approaches to alterity. The first is a radical prioritization of the other, the … Continue reading →

Judith Butler’s most recent lecture was fascinating to watch on Thanksgiving, a national day of (supposed) reflection and gratefulness. She made astute commentary on ethical obligations, ethical solicitation, and how people are moved to action. She asked, are we ethically … Continue reading →

Butler’s second Flexner lecture, Bodies in Alliance and the Politics of the Street, discussed the power of alliances, especially “queer alliances” to disrupt and challenge the chokehold of neo-liberal policies and politics. When people come together in public spaces in … Continue reading →

I wasn’t able to attend Judith Butler’s second Flexner lecture in person; my body, at that moment, was in alliance with a dozen or so parents at the Haverford Township High School, where I hold a leadership position in the … Continue reading →