Michael McGinnis's blog

film

Submitted by Michael McGinnis on September 1, 2009 - 1:28pm

Because I think some Blogora readers might find this of interest, a trailer for the upcoming film Agora, which purports to be a biopic of Hypatia. Here, the agora is apparently the public forum for crowds and soliders on horseback to tussle with one another.

Strange Intruder

lecture
SCT

Submitted by Michael McGinnis on July 22, 2009 - 10:53am

Yes, yes ... at this rate I'll be home long before I can finish blogging all my lecture notes. Anyway. Today's notes are from Brian Massumi's 7 July lecture, titled "Strange Intruder: The Politics of Pure Feeling."

After Utopia

lecture
SCT

Submitted by Michael McGinnis on July 20, 2009 - 12:19pm

Still catching up on SCT lecture notes as my time in Ithaca runs down. Today's notes are from Leela Gandhi's talk titled "After Utopia: Notes on an Ethics of Newness."

Two talks on fascism

Submitted by Michael McGinnis on July 19, 2009 - 4:18pm

Fascism week in Ithaca ... SCT participants heard two talks about fascism the week of 29 June. Since there is some clear overlap between the two, I've combined them into one post. The first talk was by Geoff Eley and the second by Dominick LaCapra.

Geoff Eley: "Where are we now with theories of fascism?"

Freedom of the Maker

Submitted by Michael McGinnis on July 15, 2009 - 1:30pm

Apologies for the slow posting, Blogora readers. I'll be using the next couple of days to catch up on my reports from the Cornell SCT lectures.

Is Literary Criticism a Failed Project?

Submitted by Michael McGinnis on June 28, 2009 - 7:35pm

Some notes on Simon During's talk this past week at Cornell University. Dr. During is professor of literature at Johns Hopkins University.

Stonewall, 40 Years On

Submitted by Michael McGinnis on June 28, 2009 - 5:38pm

Just as a (slightly late) reminder to Blogora readers, this weekend marks the 40th anniversary of the raid on the Stonewall Inn and the subsequent riots in Greenwich Village. An interesting archive of contemporary reports on Stonewall is available here, from a Columbia exhibit celebrating Stonewall's 25th anniversary.

Bleak Liberalism

Submitted by Michael McGinnis on June 19, 2009 - 11:25am

Some notes about Amanda Anderson's lecture earlier this week. I'm going from my notes here, so any errors in reporting are fully mine and shouldn't be attributed to Dr. Anderson's scholarship.

Dr. Anderson's talk began with a detailed summary of her claim in The Way We Argue Now that ethical appeals and identity politics have trumped reason and rational argument in contemporary intellectual discourse. This tendency, she argues, suggests a limit to liberal political and intellectual thought, a limit defined by two structural challenges.

First, Anderson argues that liberalism is defined by a tension between a long-view perspective of humanity and an emphasis on the situated actor. The long view, Anderson has it, represents a sociological perspective that tends to emphasize the bleakest traits of human populations, whereas liberalism's tradition of the situated actor emphasizes the subject as a moral agent capable of self-examination and critique.

More after the break!

Amanda Anderson public lecture

Submitted by Michael McGinnis on June 15, 2009 - 5:08pm

To all Blogora readers:

If you happen to be in the Ithaca, NY or Cornell University area tomorrow (Tuesday, 16 June), Amanda Anderson (Caroline Donovan Professor of English Literature, Johns Hopkins University) will be delivering a public talk at 4:00 pm in the Hollis E. Cornell Auditorium in Goldwin Smith Hall. The title of Dr. Anderson's talk is "Bleak Liberalism." This lecture is offered as part of Cornell University's School of Criticism and Theory.