With Theda Skocpol, Harvard University
To explain the distinct but intertwined popular and elite roots of Republican extremism in the United States, Skocpol draws on her research on the Tea Party, on the Koch political network, and on local developments in eight pro-Trump counties in non-big-city areas of North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Wisconsin. In that latter project, she is repeatedly visiting the study counties and conducting interviews with residents, local media, and community leaders to discover their reactions to political conflicts and policy shifts in the unfolding Trump presidency.

With Rogers M. Smith

Even as controversies continue to rage over preferential treatment for racial and ethnic minorities, many religious conservatives are contending with mounting intensity that their religious liberty is endangered if they are not exempted from a wide range of statutory and even constitutional requirements, including duties to provide medical insurance coverage for contraceptives; to refuse to serve LGBTQ customers; to refrain from endorsing political candidates if they wish to retain tax exemptions; and others. This paper argues that public policymakers, including courts, should subject all denials of such accommodations to strict scrutiny, granting exemptions unless their denial is necessary for compelling state interests. Religious accommodations, like other forms of differential treatment, often can advance goals of egalitarian civic inclusion and reduce resentments that contribute to conservative populist movements-- so long as the exemptions do not go so far as to represent acquiescence in denials of basic rights of persons.

With José Casanova

We are witnessing a global emergence of populist movements throughout the world, reacting diversely to discontents connected with ongoing processes of globalization and with the crisis of representation of liberal democracy. Most of the populisms are not per se “religious” but there are some intriguing religious dimensions to many of them. In Europe, one can discern various combinations of anti-EU and anti-globalist nationalist populisms, anti-immigrant nativist populisms, anti-Muslim and anti-Semitic Christian and secularist populisms, and paradoxically the formation of transnational alliances of right-wing anti-liberal, anti-feminist and anti-gay religious populisms sponsored by Putin’s Russia and the Moscow Patriarchate. In the US, a country with an old historical tradition of WASP nativist populism, we witnessed diverse forms of right-wing religious and not-religious populism coalescing in the election of Trump. A comparison with the left-wing populism of Bernie Sanders, with transnational popular movements such as the 3 T’s (Tierra, Techo y Trabajo) or the pan-Amazonian indigenous movements sponsored by Pope Francis and the Catholic Church in Latin America, or the anti-liberal and anti-parliamentarian populism of the Italian Five Star movement, Spanish Podemos or the Catalan CUP( Candidatura d’Unitat Popular) points to the global crisis of legitimation of liberal democracy.

With Danish Husain

In South Asia, each region of India has its own style and tradition of storytelling in its local languages. Expanding and building on these traditions, Qissebaazi is a multilingual theatrical presentation performed by Danish Husain. On September 18th, 2017, Husain will perform a section of the classic Urdu romance Dastan-e- Amir Hamza. Leading us through the magical realm of Hoshruba, Husain will narrate the tale of Ijlal Jadoo and Amar Aiyyaar, whisking us away from the present and transporting us into an enchanted past.

With Dr. Elad Lapidot and Dr. Gil Anidjar

Under this title, Dr. Elad Lapidot of Freie Universitat Berlin will introduce his critical reflections on anti-Semitism and, more importantly, on the critique of anti-Semitism (anti-anti-Semitism). His critique is done from the perspective of political epistemology, namely the relation between knowledge theory and political theory. He indicates the problematic role that anti-anti-Semitic discourse plays in post-WWII and contemporary political epistemology, in disassociating knowledge from politics. There is a certain problematic figure of the Jew, he argues, that anti-anti-Semitism and anti-Semitism share. Following Dr. Lapidot's initial presentation, he will be joined by interlocutor, Dr. Gil Anidjar of Columbia University. This conversation will draw on the works of Heidegger, Adorno, Sartre, Arendt, Badiou, and Nancy. Time for Q&A will be provided at the conclusion of the event.