Contesting Narratives: Myth, Memory, and Histories
October 31–November 1, 2024, Scott Hall, Room 212
Keynote speaker: Prof. Linda M.G. Zerilli, University of Chicago
Building on political theory’s increased attention to marginalized experiences, embodied narratives, and thought at the periphery, this conference invites papers from a multitude of perspectives on the role of narrative in political theory. Our conference will revolve around three non-exhaustive primary themes and we will orient our four panels around variations of these themes. The full call for papers can be found here.
To register for the conference, please fill out this form.
For virtual attendance, please RSVP here.
Thursday, October 31
12:00pm: Welcome and Lunch
1:30pm: Narrating the Self
- Hijacked Sexual Violations and the Social Imaginary – Lindy Lane Ortiz, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
- “Embodied Memories”: Navigating Identity as a Survivor of Female Genital Mutilation – Nevin Sulthan S N, Delhi School of Social Work, University of Delhi
- Queering the Archive: Narrative, Memory, and Identity in Contemporary LGBTQ+ Audiovisual Storytelling – João Eduardo Peçanha de Freitas, The New School for Social Research
Chair: Mary G. Dietz, John Evans Professor Emerita of Political Theory and Gender & Sexuality Studies
Discussant: Tim Charlebois
3:30pm: Break
4:00pm: Keynote Address: Radical Imagination and Freedom-Centered Feminist Historiography – Linda M.G. Zerilli, Charles E. Merriam Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science, University of Chicago
6:00pm: Reception
Friday, November 1
9:15am: Breakfast
10:00am: Contending with Time(s)
- Decolonizing Time – Corey McKibbin, Carleton University
- Nietzsche’s Genealogy and Prophetic – Narration as a Form of Political Normativity – Zachary Schroeder, Loyola Marymount University
- Creolizing Marxism: José Carlos Maríategui, Peruvian Reality, and ‘the Indian” – Gabriel Vergara, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Chair: James Farr, Professor Emeritus of Political Science
Discussant: Danielle Ortiz
12pm: Lunch
1:15pm: Writings Between Life and Death
- “Black as a Vault”: Locating Women in the Victorian Attic – Alexandra Roden, Mansfield College, University of Oxford
- Haunting and the Making of Political Life – Noah Blakemore Briggs, University of Illinois at Chicago
- In Praise of Decay, Toward a Politics of Compost – Jessica Croteau, Johns Hopkins University
Chair: Shmuel Nili, Associate Professor of Political Science
Discussant: Sam McChesney
3:15pm: Break
3:30pm: Histories of States and Political Communities
- The Reconstructive Force of Love in James Baldwin’s Political Philosophy – Carol-Armelle Ze-Noah, Brown University
- Dar al-Islam or Dar al-Harb: Locating Jihad in the Sixteenth-Century Anticolonial Mappila Muslim Narratives – Abdul Shafeeque KP, University of Delhi
- On the Promises of Political Asian America: Grace Lee Boggs on Revolution, Self, and History – Andrew Hahm & Darren Yau, Princeton University
Chair: Zekeria Ahmed Salem Denna, Associate Professor of Political Science and Director of the Institute for the Study of Islamic Thought in Africa
Discussant: Emerson Murray
6pm: Dinner
For further information, please contact Jinxue Chen, Amanda Fu, and Charlotte Mencke at politicaltheory.nu@gmail.com.
This conference is generously co-sponsored by Northwestern Department of Political Science, Center for the Study of Diversity and Democracy, Alice Kaplan Institute for the Humanities, Buffett Institute for Global Affairs, Prof. James Farr, Nicholas D. Chabraja Center for Historical Studies, Program in Critical Theory, and Gender and Sexuality Studies Program.