10 | Donna Haraway: Socialist Cyborg Affinities

03/28/21 • 75 min

3 Listeners

In this episode, we discuss Donna Haraway’s distinctive socialist cyberfeminism. We talk through the virtues and vices of her version of postmodern feminism and leftism, the ambivalent character of scientific knowledge production and new technologies, and the strange material powers of metaphor. Ask yourself: would you rather be a cyborg or a goddess?
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References:
Donna Haraway, “A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century,” in Simians, Cyborgs, and Women: The Reinvention of Nature (New York: Routledge, 1991).
Donna Haraway, “Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective,” in Simians, Cyborgs, and Women: The Reinvention of Nature (New York: Routledge, 1991).
Donna Haraway, “The Biopolitics of Postmodern Bodies: Constitutions of Self in Immune System Discourse,” in Simians, Cyborgs, and Women: The Reinvention of Nature (New York: Routledge, 1991).
Sophie Lewis, “Cthulhu plays no role for me,” Viewpoint Magazine, 2017 <https://viewpointmag.com/2017/05/08/cthulhu-plays-no-role-for-me/>
Music: Vintage Memories by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com

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9 | C.L.R. James: Leadership, Organization, Mass Politics (with Dr. William Clare Roberts)

Episode 9 explores the antinomies of autonomy and self-emancipation in the thought of C.L.R. James. Dr. William Clare Roberts joins us to discuss James’ legacy and how it fits into his book project on the history of “history from below.” Please be advised that a side-effect of this episode may be republicanism. (No, you Yanks, not the GOP. It’s the Black Jacobins, get it?)
References:
CLR James, The Black Jacobins, (New York: Vintage Books, 1989).
CLR James, World Revolution 1917-1936: The Rise and Fall of the Communist International (Durham: Duke University Press, 2017)
CLR James. Radical America, vol. IV, no. 4 (May 1970): https://repository.library.brown.edu/storage/bdr:89210/pdf/
Selma James, “The Perspective of Winning,” (1973); in Sex, Race, and Class: A Selection of Writings, 1952-2011 (Oakland, CA: PM Press, 2012).
“CLR James talking to Stuart Hall,” Channel 4, dir. Mike Dibb (1984): https://youtu.be/_Gf0KUxgZfI
William Clare Roberts, “Centralism is a dangerous tool: Leadership in CLR James’ history of principles,” forthcoming in The CLR James Journal (2021).
William Clare Roberts, Marx’s Inferno: The Political Theory of Capital (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2017).
W.E.B. Du Bois, Black Reconstruction in America: 1860-1880 (New York: The Free Press, 1998).
Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition (Chapel Hill: UNC Press, 2000).
Music: "Vintage Memories" by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com

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11 | Climate Politics and Global Justice (with Dr. Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò)

In this episode, we are joined by Professor Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò (@OlufemiOTaiwo) (Georgetown University) to discuss his work on the politics surrounding climate change and generative frameworks for global justice. In this wide-ranging discussion we address the urgency of climate politics for the African continent, what it means to connect the local to the global, and how we can move towards richer forms of collaborative security. We also offer a theory of “vibes” in politics and theory.
patreon.com/leftofphilosophy | @leftofphil
References:
Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò, “Who Gets to Feel Secure?” https://aeon.co/essays/on-liberty-security-and-our-system-of-racial-capitalism
Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò, “Crisis, COVID-19, and Democracy” https://blog.apaonline.org/2020/06/02/crisis-covid-19-and-democracy/
Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò, “Climate Colonialism and Large Scale Land Acquisitions” https://www.c2g2.net/climate-colonialism-and-large-scale-land-acquisitions/
Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò, “Climate Apartheid is the Coming Police Violence Crisis” https://www.dissentmagazine.org/online_articles/climate-apartheid-is-the-coming-police-violence-crisis
Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò, “Want to Abolish the Police? The First Step Is Putting Them Under Democratic Control.” https://inthesetimes.com/article/abolition-communitycontrol-police-abolition-safety-power-whitesupremacy
Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò, “Being-in-the-Room Privilege: Elite Capture and Epistemic Deference” https://www.thephilosopher1923.org/essay-taiwo
Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò, “Identity Politics and Elite Capture” http://bostonreview.net/race/olufemi-o-taiwo-identity-politics-and-elite-capture
Music: Vintage Memories by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com