Despina Lalaki
New York City College of Technology, Social Science, Faculty Member
- Historical Sociology, Cultural Sociology, Cultural Sociology and Sociology of Culture, Historical and Comparative Sociology, Sociology of Culture, Comparative/Transnational History, and 40 moreHistoriography, Civilizational Analysis, Sociology of the State, European History, Cultural Identity, Identity (Culture), Modern Greece, Sociology of Knowledge, Civilizational Studies, Inter-civilization contact and conflict, Theory of Civilization, History of Civilization, Western Civilization, Modernity, Empire, Imperialism, Nation building and State making, Nationalism And State Building, National Identity, Nationalism, Greece, Modern Greek Studies, Modern Greek History, social economy in Greece, Hellenic Studies, Greek Archaeology, Reception of Antiquity, Ancient Civilization (Archaeology), Postwar American History, Cold War and Culture, Postwar Greek History, Cultural Cold War, Cold War, Anticommunism (History), Social Movements, Norbert Elias, Historical Macrosociology, Comparative Political Science, History, Shmuel Eisenstadt, History of Science, and Comparative Sociology & History of Scienceedit
- I am a sociologist who works in the areas of historical and cultural sociology, social theory American Studies and Mo... moreI am a sociologist who works in the areas of historical and cultural sociology, social theory American Studies and Modern Greek Studies. I am particularly interested in long-term social and cultural changes, changing modes of consciousness, the history of the state and its ideological and cultural foundations, the role of the intellectuals.
Currently I hold the Marilena Laskaridis Visiting Research Fellowship at the University of Amsterdam 2020-21, while the previous year I held the M. Alison Frantz Fellowship, formerly known as the Gennadeion Fellowship in Post-Classical Studies. I teach as Adjunct Assistant Professor at Baruch College and The New York City College of Technology - CUNY for the Department of Sociology and Anthropology and the Department of Social Science respectively. Previously I held a position as Visiting Research Fellow at The Center for the Study of Culture, Technology and Work at CUNY-The Graduate Center. I have also taught at New York University, the A.S. Onassis Program in Hellenic Studies as Lecturer and Senior Lecturer and I have been a Dean's Fellow at the Eugene Lang College, a division of the New School University. At the New School University I completed my M.A. and Ph.D in Sociology. I have also studied History of Art and Architecture at SUNY-Binghamton University (M.A.) and Archaeology and Art History at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens-Greece (B.A.).
In my book project, tentatively entitled "Digging for Democracy in Greece. Intracivilizational Processes During the American Century," I explore the role that the American political imagination has played in the formulation and transformation of some of the foundational ideas and cultural schemes of the modern Greek nation-state. I try to unravel the political significance of the Greek cultural heritage produced and reproduced through a series of complex and largely uncharted relationships among various national and trans-national agents, primarily Greek and American, organizing and acting in and around the archaeological field. A sociology of archaeology and an archaeology of the Greek state, my project explicates the ways in which Americans engaged with modern Greek political culture as they searched for classical Greek antiquity.
Parts of my research results I have published in Histoire@Politique. Politique, Culture, Société, Revue du Centre d'Histoire de Sciences Po, The Journal of Historical Sociology, Hesperia. The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, the American Hellenic Institute Foundation Policy Journal, the International Journal of Politics, Culture and Society of which I was a Managing Editor for four years. Occasionally I also write for newspapers and magazines such as Al Jazeera, Boston Occupier, New Politics Magazine, Trajectories. Newsletter of the ASA Comparative Historical Sociology Section, The PressProject, Marginalia-Σημειώσεις στο Περιθώριο and contribute commentary to radio, tv programs and social media. I am also founding member of the collective Decolonize Hellas.edit
Our comparative analysis of two case studies, the rise of the Metaxas regime in the 1930s and the advance of Syriza – alongside the re-emergence of Nazi ideology encapsulated by the Golden Dawn – in the 2010s, is not an attempt to... more
Our comparative analysis of two case studies, the rise of the Metaxas regime in the 1930s and the advance of Syriza – alongside the re-emergence of Nazi ideology encapsulated by the Golden Dawn – in the 2010s, is not an attempt to identify any constants or to produce a general theory. Instead we seek to understand and interpret a series of events and underlying causes. This analysis seeks to go beyond apparent resemblances, unproblematic comparisons, and direct causation linking the economic crisis with the rise of the extreme right or the Left during the two periods in question.
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When in the 1950s C. Wright Mills was writing about the emergence of the new power elites he paid no attention to the presence of women in its midsts. He was not entirely mistaken. Yet there is a particular intertwining of the ideologies... more
When in the 1950s C. Wright Mills was writing about the emergence of the new power elites he paid no attention to the presence of women in its midsts. He was not entirely mistaken. Yet there is a particular intertwining of the ideologies of leadership and masculinity which serves to maintain the status quo, the privilege of an elite and perpetuate preconceptions about political agency and gender. In an attempt to go beyond available models and predominantly masculine images of the postwar America the present article accounts for women's role in the postwar American efforts for cultural hegemony. It focuses on the cases of the American archaeologist Alison Frantz and Ekaterini Myrivili, a Greek cultural administrator and their work with the Fulbright Foundation and Ford Foundation respectively. This article seeks to stress women's role as professionals and members of status groups with great cultural capital responsible for the production and distribution of high-culture integral to the American Cold War efforts. Furthermore, the article contributes to the growing literature on the cultural Cold War in Greece.
Research Interests: Sociology of Culture, American Studies, Gender Studies, Cultural Sociology, Cold War and Culture, and 9 moreCultural Cold War, Cold War, Art and Aesthetics of the Cold War, Cold War International Relations, Women and Gender Studies, Modern Greek Studies, Fulbright Program, Fulbright Exchange Program, and Ford Foundation
On the occasion of his recent visit to Greece, President Barack Obama’s remarks – protracted echoes of familiar pronouncements about the end of history and ideological evolution, endorsements of laissez-faire economics and the individual... more
On the occasion of his recent visit to Greece, President Barack Obama’s remarks – protracted echoes of familiar pronouncements about the end of history and ideological evolution, endorsements of laissez-faire economics and the individual freedom that our Western democracies purportedly serve – not unexpectedly were uttered against a background of Doric columns and numerous invocations to the ancients. Appropriately if rather predictably, President Obama drew from history and stressed the strong connections between his country and his host, emphasizing the political culture shared between Greece and the United States. What caught my attention, however, was the American President’s explicit reference to President Truman, whom he briefly quoted from his famous 1947 speech in the Congress, a speech that encapsulated the post-war US foreign policy of containment and became known as the Truman Doctrine.
Despite the new Republican president-elect’s statements during the campaign, Obama’s trip to Greece, more than anything else, was meant to affirm the U.S. commitment to transatlantic ties and NATO. The insistence that the message would be delivered against the historic backdrop of ancient Greece – allegedly it was the President himself who resolved to visit Greece on his final state tour – is the topic of this brief paper. Here I wish to unpack and further problematize the symbolisms employed to illustrate and operationalize the relationship between the two countries following the end of the Second World War, and raise a few questions regarding the uses of cultural heritage and cultural representations as well as the relationship between history and political imagination.
Despite the new Republican president-elect’s statements during the campaign, Obama’s trip to Greece, more than anything else, was meant to affirm the U.S. commitment to transatlantic ties and NATO. The insistence that the message would be delivered against the historic backdrop of ancient Greece – allegedly it was the President himself who resolved to visit Greece on his final state tour – is the topic of this brief paper. Here I wish to unpack and further problematize the symbolisms employed to illustrate and operationalize the relationship between the two countries following the end of the Second World War, and raise a few questions regarding the uses of cultural heritage and cultural representations as well as the relationship between history and political imagination.
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“Scientificity” and appeals to political independence are invaluable tools in the efforts of institutions such as the American School of Classical Studies at Athens to maintain their professional autonomy. Yet again, the cooperation of... more
“Scientificity” and appeals to political independence are invaluable tools in the efforts of institutions such as the American School of Classical Studies at Athens to maintain their professional autonomy. Yet again, the cooperation of scientists and scholars at large, among whom the archaeologists affiliated with the ASCSA, with the OSS suggests a constitutive affinity between political and cultural leadership. In this article, I historically map out this relationship while drawing from sociological categorizations of knowledge and its employ in order to situate the archaeologists in their broader social and political context and evaluate their work not merely as agents of disciplinary knowledge but also as agents of culture and cultural change.
Research Interests: Public Sociology, Sociology of Culture, Classics, Greek History, Cultural Sociology, and 41 moreArchitecture, Sociology of Knowledge, Propaganda, Historiography, Cold War and Culture, Cultural Cold War, Labour history, Identity (Culture), Nationalism, Colonialism, Culture, National Identity, Turkey, German Occupation in Greece, Modern Greece, Sculpture, Modern Greek History, Ancient Greece (Anthropology), Greek Archaeology, Intellectual and cultural history, Classical Reception Studies, 20th Century American, Cold War International Relations, Hellenism, Greece and its Balkan neighbors in Modern History, Empire, Material Culture, Cold War history, Greece, Imperialism, Archaic Period, Modern Greek Studies, Athens, Hellenic Studies, Acropolis, Sanctuaries, Colonial Studies, Votive offerings, Comparative/Transnational History, Cyprus; Political History, and Political Currents
Hellenism is one of those overarching, ever-changing narratives always subject to historical circumstances, intellectual fashions and political needs. Conversely, it is fraught with meaning and conditioning powers, enabling and... more
Hellenism is one of those overarching, ever-changing narratives always subject to historical circumstances, intellectual fashions and political needs. Conversely, it is fraught with meaning and conditioning powers, enabling and constraining imagination and practical life. In this essay I tease out the hold that the idea of Hellas has had on post-war Greece and I explore the ways in which the American anti-communist rhetoric and discussions about political and economic stabilization appropriated and rearticulated Hellenism. Central to this history of transformations are the archaeologists; the archaeologists as intellectuals, as producers of culture who, while stepping in and out of their disciplinary boundaries, rewrote and legitimized the new ideological properties of Hellenism while tapping into the resources of their profession.
Research Interests: Cultural History, Sociology of Culture, Cultural Sociology, Reception Studies, Cultural Heritage, and 19 moreHistoriography, Cold War and Culture, Labour history, Cold War, Nationalism, Cultural Identity, National Identity, Turkey, German Occupation in Greece, Modern Greece, Greek Archaeology, Greece and its Balkan neighbors in Modern History, Greece, Imperialism, Modern Greek Studies, Colonial Studies, Comparative/Transnational History, Cyprus; Political History, and Political Currents
In spring of 2006, Michele Lamont, Professor of Sociology and African and African-American Studies at Harvard University, was invited to give a lecture for the New Sociological Imagination Lecture Series, organized by the New School for... more
In spring of 2006, Michele Lamont, Professor of Sociology and African and African-American Studies at Harvard University, was invited to give a lecture for the New Sociological Imagination Lecture Series, organized by the New School for Social Research. This lecture concerned her book Cream Rising: How Peer Review Finds and Defines Excellence in the Social Sciences and the Humanities, which is to be published by Harvard University Press in 2008. Drawing on 81 interviews with panelists serving on five multidisciplinary fellowship competitions in the social sciences and the humanities, the book analyzes (1) the meaning panelists give to academic excellence—including whether they believe in it or not; (2) how excellence is recognized (both through formal criteria of evaluation, such as originality and significance, but also through more evanescent signals such as the display of cultural capital and the proper use of theory); (3) how excellence is combined with other criteria pertaining to interdisciplinarity and diversity (geographic, institutional, disciplinary, racial, and gender diversity) to push proposals over the proverbial line or to promote or criticize proposals. In her talk, she analyzed the customary rules that panelists say they follow, and which allow them to believe that the evaluation process is fair, and that Cream Rises. In the interview below, we asked her to discuss how procedural fairness actually operates in panels and reflect on many other aspects of the phenomenon that she analyzes.
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It is the most recent Black Lives Matter movement that comes to remind us through direct grass roots action, horizontal organization and women’s active participation what the Dream was all about; to restructure American society in its... more
It is the most recent Black Lives Matter movement that comes to remind us through direct grass roots action, horizontal organization and women’s active participation what the Dream was all about; to restructure American society in its entirety. The movement has been underlining the connections between police brutality, state violence and the prison industrial complex and a capitalist system which from its inception has been enabled by racial divisions and racism. Riots—the language of the unheard, as Dr. King once put it—in the American streets and the streets of the world stress the impossibility of racial equality without economic justice and the hypocrisy of the peaceful empire built on militarism at home and abroad.
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Τα αφηγήματα που πλαισίωσαν, και σε ένα βαθμό συνεχίζουν να πλαισιώνουν την τελευταία παγκόσμια υγειονομική κρίση παρουσιάζουν ιδιαίτερο ενδιαφέρον. Πιο συγκεκριμένα η περιγραφή της πανδημίας ως «αόρατη απειλή», οι συζητήσεις περί... more
Τα αφηγήματα που πλαισίωσαν, και σε ένα βαθμό συνεχίζουν να πλαισιώνουν την τελευταία παγκόσμια υγειονομική κρίση παρουσιάζουν ιδιαίτερο ενδιαφέρον. Πιο συγκεκριμένα η περιγραφή της πανδημίας ως «αόρατη απειλή», οι συζητήσεις περί «εμπόλεμης κατάστασης» αλλά και άλλες νοηματικές κατασκευές όπως αυτές περί «ηρώων», «νεκρών» και «θυσιών» χρειάζονται την προσοχή μας. Κάθε αφήγηση αποτελεί μια κατασκευή. Ο ομιλητής – εδώ η κυβέρνηση, για παράδειγμα – χρησιμοποιεί μια σειρά από υλικά – γλωσσικούς όρους και ρεπερτόρια, μεταφορές και αλληγορίες – προκειμένου να επικοινωνήσει πολύπλοκα γεγονότα και έννοιες δημιουργώντας στο μεταξύ συνεκτικές και σαφείς ιστορίες. Ο τρόπος, ωστόσο, με τον οποίο επιλέγουμε να περιγράψουμε ένα γεγονός δεν είναι τυχαίος αλλά αποτελεί κοινωνική πρακτική η οποία ενεργοποιεί συγκεκριμένους μηχανισμούς με συγκεκριμένους συχνά στόχους.
Τα ενημερωτικά δελτία των 6μμ με τους κύριους Τσιόδρα και Χαρδαλιά ή τα αντίστοιχα των Τραμπ και δρ. Άντονι Φάουτσι στις Ηνωμένες Πολιτείες, για παράδειγμα, η επιφυλακτικότητα της ελληνικής κυβέρνησης ως προς το κλείσιμο των εκκλησιών συνιστούν μέρος ευρύτερων πρακτικών οι οποίες στοχεύουν στην καλλιέργεια της εθνικής, σε βάρος συχνά μιας ευρύτερης κοινωνικής συνοχής. Είναι χρήσιμο να εξετάσει κανείς τους τρόπους με του οποίους ενεργοποιούνται και εργαλειοποιούνται οι παραπάνω νοητικές κατασκευές, τους κινδύνους που τις συνοδεύουν αλλά και κάποια ανοίγματα που δημιουργούν τα νέα αφηγήματα και ευκαιρίες, πιθανώς, για επανανοηματοδότηση τους και δημιουργία νέων ηγεμονικών αφηγημάτων.
Τα ενημερωτικά δελτία των 6μμ με τους κύριους Τσιόδρα και Χαρδαλιά ή τα αντίστοιχα των Τραμπ και δρ. Άντονι Φάουτσι στις Ηνωμένες Πολιτείες, για παράδειγμα, η επιφυλακτικότητα της ελληνικής κυβέρνησης ως προς το κλείσιμο των εκκλησιών συνιστούν μέρος ευρύτερων πρακτικών οι οποίες στοχεύουν στην καλλιέργεια της εθνικής, σε βάρος συχνά μιας ευρύτερης κοινωνικής συνοχής. Είναι χρήσιμο να εξετάσει κανείς τους τρόπους με του οποίους ενεργοποιούνται και εργαλειοποιούνται οι παραπάνω νοητικές κατασκευές, τους κινδύνους που τις συνοδεύουν αλλά και κάποια ανοίγματα που δημιουργούν τα νέα αφηγήματα και ευκαιρίες, πιθανώς, για επανανοηματοδότηση τους και δημιουργία νέων ηγεμονικών αφηγημάτων.
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Τρεις μόλις μέρες αφού ανέστειλε την εκστρατεία του για το χρίσμα των Δημοκρατικών, ο Μπέρνι Σάντερς, από την θέση του ως Γερουσιαστής του Βερμόντ αυτή τη φορά, καταθέτει πρόταση στο κόμμα του να προωθήσει νομοθεσία για δωρεάν και πλήρη... more
Τρεις μόλις μέρες αφού ανέστειλε την εκστρατεία του για το χρίσμα των Δημοκρατικών, ο Μπέρνι Σάντερς, από την θέση του ως Γερουσιαστής του Βερμόντ αυτή τη φορά, καταθέτει πρόταση στο κόμμα του να προωθήσει νομοθεσία για δωρεάν και πλήρη ιατροφαρμακευτική περίθαλψη ασφαλισμένων και μη Αμερικανών πολιτών κατά την διάρκεια της πανδημίας. Το κογκρέσο και η κυβέρνηση Τραμπ, έχουν ήδη πάρει μια σειρά μέτρων, μεταξύ των οποίων και η κάλυψη της νοσηλείας των ανασφάλιστων ασθενών από τον ιό. Ωστόσο, η πρόταση του Σάντερς προχωράει πολύ παραπέρα, θέτοντας για μια ακόμα φορά το επίμαχο ζήτημα για καθολική πρόσβαση στο σύστημα υγείας. Την στιγμή που η ανεργία και, κατά συνέπεια, και ο αριθμός των ανασφάλιστων, εν μέσω μάλιστα πανδημίας, εκτοξεύονται στα ύψη, η πρόταση του Σάντερς δεν φαντάζει πλέον τόσο ριζοσπαστική.
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In defiance of this fear, an awakening of political consciousness is taking place in Greece's squares, streets, and online social networks, not merely condemning the policies of austerity and social degradation but collectively working... more
In defiance of this fear, an awakening of political consciousness is taking place in Greece's squares, streets, and online social networks, not merely condemning the policies of austerity and social degradation but collectively working towards new types of political resistance. It is becoming clear that only the people of Greece can deliver and ultimately save themselves from the racketeering, criminal practices of their "protectors".
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The bicentennial of the Greek Revolution coincides with contemporary world revolts and renewed struggles against the colonial legacies of white supremacy, nationalisms and racial capitalism. The Greek nation-state has long been described... more
The bicentennial of the Greek Revolution coincides with contemporary world revolts and renewed struggles against the colonial legacies of white supremacy, nationalisms and racial capitalism.
The Greek nation-state has long been described as the “cradle of Western civilization” and “birthplace of democracy”, its 1821 uprising lauded as the first national revolution in Europe. In these formulations, Europe and the West, are assumed to be synonymous with progress, rationality, justice and freedom. Yet, for decades now, anticolonial struggles and decolonial/postcolonial theory have critiqued capitalist exploitation, nationalist divisions, genocidal violence, white patriarchy, antisemitism and Islamophobia as essential features – indeed the very material and ideological basis – of Europe.
The initiative Decolonize Hellas foregrounds the ambivalent and reciprocal relations between the Greek nation-state and Europe’s colonial genealogies. While Greece has been analyzed in the past as a “colonial scheme”, “crypto-colony” and, recently, as a “debt-colony”, it is urgent to foreground the role of “Hellas” in co-constituting the European colonial project.
The Greek nation-state has long been described as the “cradle of Western civilization” and “birthplace of democracy”, its 1821 uprising lauded as the first national revolution in Europe. In these formulations, Europe and the West, are assumed to be synonymous with progress, rationality, justice and freedom. Yet, for decades now, anticolonial struggles and decolonial/postcolonial theory have critiqued capitalist exploitation, nationalist divisions, genocidal violence, white patriarchy, antisemitism and Islamophobia as essential features – indeed the very material and ideological basis – of Europe.
The initiative Decolonize Hellas foregrounds the ambivalent and reciprocal relations between the Greek nation-state and Europe’s colonial genealogies. While Greece has been analyzed in the past as a “colonial scheme”, “crypto-colony” and, recently, as a “debt-colony”, it is urgent to foreground the role of “Hellas” in co-constituting the European colonial project.
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To this day, Hellenism, a term largely used to describe the confluence of ancient Greek culture with Western modernity, conditions our cultural dispositions and political imagination. The paper explores its social history at the second... more
To this day, Hellenism, a term largely used to describe the confluence of ancient Greek culture with Western modernity, conditions our cultural dispositions and political imagination. The paper explores its social history at the second half of the twentieth century at the trajectory of the post war Greek state re-building, cultural internationalism and market networks.
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Black Lives Matter (BLM), the movement that rose to challenge police brutality at home has evolved into an international movement calling into question the legacies of slavery and colonialism, white supremacy and global racial and... more
Black Lives Matter (BLM), the movement that rose to challenge police brutality at home has evolved into an international movement calling into question the legacies of slavery and colonialism, white supremacy and global racial and cultural hierarchies which have been built into place for hundreds of years now. Indigenous groups, inner-city communities, disenfranchised youth of various creeds, races and ethnic groups, fed up with injustices, marginalization and outright oppression rise up in protest. In their passing they are doing away with statuses and symbols of the past – in the U.S. many of them erected as a calculated response to the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Governments around the world and transnational blocs such as the European Union vie to take a tougher stand against racism while allegedly committing to take a closer look at their histories of racism and oppression at home and abroad. In Greece, the movement has brought forward discussions about a whole generation of Greeks whose lives are largely ignored by any mainstream identity narratives, the Afro-Greeks. It has also given rise to another message: “Refugee Lives Matter.”
Slavery, colonialism, genocide and racism have been from the outset bound up with liberalism, a philosophical position and ideology which against all its assertions historically has espoused the most illiberal policies and practices. Liberalism is defined as a framework for the fundamentals of political life that prioritize the value of individual rights and liberties, limited and representative government, private property and free markets, constitutionalism and rule of law, always open to contestation and change. In its name the West vied to civilize the world’s Rest for over four centuries while, following the Second World War, invocations of the free world and talk of Western values were meant to assert Western democracy’s superiority over communism and socialism. Placing private property over any other individual right and drawing a wedge between individuals and society, liberalism has served to perpetuate inequalities and racism.
In this brief presentation I will attempt not a theoretical analysis of liberalism but will try to shed some light on its applications as I explain the historical relations between the Greek American community and Black America. I will try to show how liberalism, the variant largely developed after the Second World War, has on the one side informed Greek identity at home and in the diaspora while it has also undermined the liberation struggles of African-Americans.
Slavery, colonialism, genocide and racism have been from the outset bound up with liberalism, a philosophical position and ideology which against all its assertions historically has espoused the most illiberal policies and practices. Liberalism is defined as a framework for the fundamentals of political life that prioritize the value of individual rights and liberties, limited and representative government, private property and free markets, constitutionalism and rule of law, always open to contestation and change. In its name the West vied to civilize the world’s Rest for over four centuries while, following the Second World War, invocations of the free world and talk of Western values were meant to assert Western democracy’s superiority over communism and socialism. Placing private property over any other individual right and drawing a wedge between individuals and society, liberalism has served to perpetuate inequalities and racism.
In this brief presentation I will attempt not a theoretical analysis of liberalism but will try to shed some light on its applications as I explain the historical relations between the Greek American community and Black America. I will try to show how liberalism, the variant largely developed after the Second World War, has on the one side informed Greek identity at home and in the diaspora while it has also undermined the liberation struggles of African-Americans.
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The paper explores the ways in which women contributed to the postwar American cultural offensive. Based on two case studies and expanding on a modestly growing literature on the subject, the presentation seeks to better understand the... more
The paper explores the ways in which women contributed to the postwar American cultural offensive. Based on two case studies and expanding on a modestly growing literature on the subject, the presentation seeks to better understand the ways and the terms in which women contributed to the post-war American cultural wars.
Embedded in trans-Atlantic networks of cultural and social elites, which carried out the cultural wars of the time, women did not merely perform clerical work occupying the “front stage,” in Goffman’s terms.Middle and upper-middle class highly educated women like the two in discussion – the American archaeologist Alison Frantz and Ekaterini Myrivili, a Greek upper lever cultural administrator – were directly involved in the development and management of programs and institutions – the Fulbright and the Ford Foundations in this case – with long-lasting effects.
The paper capitalizes on the rich archival materials available at the Gennadius Library and the Archives of the American School and focuses on the work of Alison Frantz and Ekaterini Myrivili not in order to trace any gender-specific ways in their influential careers but to stress, depending on their professional and personal trajectories, the ways in which they swayed and directed the institutions and programs they built. By way of doing so the paper challenges the patriarchal portrait of the cultural cold warrior and puts The Power Elite by C. Wright Mills under a new light.
Embedded in trans-Atlantic networks of cultural and social elites, which carried out the cultural wars of the time, women did not merely perform clerical work occupying the “front stage,” in Goffman’s terms.Middle and upper-middle class highly educated women like the two in discussion – the American archaeologist Alison Frantz and Ekaterini Myrivili, a Greek upper lever cultural administrator – were directly involved in the development and management of programs and institutions – the Fulbright and the Ford Foundations in this case – with long-lasting effects.
The paper capitalizes on the rich archival materials available at the Gennadius Library and the Archives of the American School and focuses on the work of Alison Frantz and Ekaterini Myrivili not in order to trace any gender-specific ways in their influential careers but to stress, depending on their professional and personal trajectories, the ways in which they swayed and directed the institutions and programs they built. By way of doing so the paper challenges the patriarchal portrait of the cultural cold warrior and puts The Power Elite by C. Wright Mills under a new light.
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The values and desires that motivated revolutionary political movements and guided radical political thinking in previous generations appear to be completely absent in the present. The political agenda that dominates contemporary... more
The values and desires that motivated revolutionary political movements and guided radical political thinking in previous generations appear to be completely absent in the present. The political agenda that dominates contemporary societies, when not limited to questions of how to foster economic growth and accommodate the needs of transnational capitalism, revolves around the reactionary and fascistic political values of purity and cleanliness. Absent is any notion of politics as citizens contemplating the ethical question of what the best way of living might be and exploring how to transform their societies into something new and better.
Within this moment of the overwhelming ideological triumph of liberalism, Marxism is faced with the difficult task of explaining the conditions that resulted in this dominance as well as the reasons why Marxist and other allied traditions cannot present a compelling alternative to the vulgar utilitarian, fascistic and anti-political, values of liberalism. How is it that liberalism has come to so completely displace any radical alternatives?
Within this moment of the overwhelming ideological triumph of liberalism, Marxism is faced with the difficult task of explaining the conditions that resulted in this dominance as well as the reasons why Marxist and other allied traditions cannot present a compelling alternative to the vulgar utilitarian, fascistic and anti-political, values of liberalism. How is it that liberalism has come to so completely displace any radical alternatives?
The Global Financial Crisis has radically changed the cultural landscape in the countries hit the hardest. Those countries include Spain and Greece, whose shared experience of the crisis reaches far beyond their similar-looking... more
The Global Financial Crisis has radically changed the cultural landscape in the countries hit the hardest. Those countries include Spain and Greece, whose shared experience of the crisis reaches far beyond their similar-looking statistics. Both of these countries have seen a comparable efflorescence of cultural production and political engagement (especially in the form of the new populist parties Podemos and SYRIZA) born of the new economic and social realities. Although the Social Science disciplines may seem the most logical to account for the political and economic fallout of the 2008 crash, scholars in the Humanities are increasingly contributing to debates about economic crisis and political renewal, in scholarly and popular writings, news media, and activism.
In this one-day event, invited speakers and Brown faculty will explore how the Humanities can respond to economic crisis and political change, bringing Humanists and Social Scientists into a more substantive and timely two-way dialogue.
Featuring:
Luis Moreno Caballud, Hispanic Studies, University of Pennsylvania
Sebastiaan Faber, Hispanic Studies, Oberlin College
Despina Lalaki, Social Science, New York City College of Technology, CUNY
Konstantinos Poulis, The Press Project, Greece
10:30-12:40: Working Groups. Separate area meetings for those working on Spain and Greece, followed by full group session. Please sign up to participate in this working group here.
5:45-7:45: Presentations and Roundtable, featuring invited guests and Brown faculty. Moderated by Cornel Ban, Boston University. The respondent at the evening event is Alex Gourevitch, Political Science, Brown University ─ Joukowsky Forum (Open to the public, no sign up required)
This event is organized by Johanna Hanink, Classics and TAPS and Sarah Thomas, Hispanic Studies, Brown University
Sponsored by the Dean of the Faculty, Watson Institute, Cogut Center for the Humanities, and Department of Hispanic Studies
In this one-day event, invited speakers and Brown faculty will explore how the Humanities can respond to economic crisis and political change, bringing Humanists and Social Scientists into a more substantive and timely two-way dialogue.
Featuring:
Luis Moreno Caballud, Hispanic Studies, University of Pennsylvania
Sebastiaan Faber, Hispanic Studies, Oberlin College
Despina Lalaki, Social Science, New York City College of Technology, CUNY
Konstantinos Poulis, The Press Project, Greece
10:30-12:40: Working Groups. Separate area meetings for those working on Spain and Greece, followed by full group session. Please sign up to participate in this working group here.
5:45-7:45: Presentations and Roundtable, featuring invited guests and Brown faculty. Moderated by Cornel Ban, Boston University. The respondent at the evening event is Alex Gourevitch, Political Science, Brown University ─ Joukowsky Forum (Open to the public, no sign up required)
This event is organized by Johanna Hanink, Classics and TAPS and Sarah Thomas, Hispanic Studies, Brown University
Sponsored by the Dean of the Faculty, Watson Institute, Cogut Center for the Humanities, and Department of Hispanic Studies
Mιλάω για τα αφηγήματα που πλαισιώνουν αυτές τις μέρες την πολιτική οικονομία της πανδημίας – τον λόγο περί εμπόλεμης κατάστασης και αόρατης απειλής, πάντα εξωγενής αυτή, περί ηρώων και νεκρών – αλλά και για τον ρόλο των ειδικών της... more
Mιλάω για τα αφηγήματα που πλαισιώνουν αυτές τις μέρες την πολιτική οικονομία της πανδημίας – τον λόγο περί εμπόλεμης κατάστασης και αόρατης απειλής, πάντα εξωγενής αυτή, περί ηρώων και νεκρών – αλλά και για τον ρόλο των ειδικών της επιστήμης και της πολιτικής, τις αντιδράσεις στο κλείσιμο των εκκλησιών και τον ρόλο της ορθοδοξίας ως συστατικό στοιχείο της ταυτότητας του έθνους. Εν συντομία εξηγώ τις διαδικασίες δημιουργίας μιας εθνικής συνοχής, σε βάρος της ευρύτερης κοινωνικής συνοχής και τους τρόπους με τους οποίους αυτή εργαλειοποιείται οδηγώντας στο ρατσισμό, τη ξενοφοβία αλλά και την καταστρατήγηση των πολιτικών μας δικαιωμάτων και ελευθεριών. Και βέβαια δυο λόγια για τα ρήγματα που μπορεί κανείς να δημιουργήσει σ’ αυτά τα αφηγήματα και τις ευκαιρίες δημιουργίας νέων ηγεμονικών αφηγημάτων.