Joel Alden Schlosser - "Earthborn Democracy" - Evan H. Carver

Monday, October 21, 2024 - 6:00pm - 7:00pm
Event Presenter/Author: 
Joel Alden Schlosser

Joel Alden Schlosser will discuss Earthborn Democracy: A Political Theory of Entangled Life. He will be joined in conversation by Evan H. Carver. A Q&A and signing will follow the discussion. 

At the Seminary Co-op 

RSVP HERE 

About the Book: Ecological crises threaten all forms of life on earth. Democracy too is endangered, as popular discontent, elite malfeasance, and unresponsive institutions imperil its survival. Present political concepts have proven inadequate to meeting these challenges, and their inadequacies are themselves symptoms of the failures of prevailing political, cultural, and ecological stories and practices.

This book offers a new vision of ecological and participatory democratic life for a time of crisis. Identifying myth and ritual as key resources for contemporary politics, Earthborn Democracy excavates practices and narratives that illustrate the interdependence necessary to inspire ecological renewal. It tells stories of multispecies agency and egalitarian political organization across history, from ancient Mesopotamia and the precolonial Americas to contemporary social movements, emphasizing Indigenous traditions and resistance. Resonating across these practices and stories past and present is a belief that we are all--human as well as nonhuman--earthborn, and this can serve as the basis for reimagining democracy. Allying visionary political theory with environmental activism, Earthborn Democracy provides a foundation and a guide for collective action in pursuit of earthly flourishing.

About the Author: Joel Alden Schlosser is Professor of Political Science at Bryn Mawr College, where he has been a faculty member since Fall 2014. Prior to that, he held the Julian Steward Chair in the Social Sciences at Deep Springs College, where his teaching was featured in the CNN Documentary Film Ivory Tower (2014). He has published articles and chapters on topics ranging from ancient figures such as Thucydides, Herodotus, and Euripides to contemporary writers such as James Baldwin, Don DeLillo, Joan Didion, and Claudia Rankine. His first book, What Would Socrates Do?, was published by Cambridge University Press in 2014 and was featured in an interview by Andy Fitch in the Los Angeles Review of Books. His second book, Herodotus in the Anthropocene, was published by University of Chicago Press in 2020. His teaching ranges from classic texts like Plato’s Republic to current figures such as Angela Davis. At Deep Springs, he especially loved teaching Public Speaking, one of only two curricular requirements at the college. At Bryn Mawr, he has enjoyed interdisciplinary collaborative courses (called 360 Clusters) as well as first year writing courses, named for Bryn Mawr’s Nobel Prize recipient, Emily Balch. Since 2020, Joel has also led summer seminars at both Outer Coast, a nascent liberal arts college in Sitka, Alaska, and as part of Tidelines Institute’s Glacier Bay Semester in Gustavus, Alaska.

About the Interlocutor: Evan H. Carver is a professor in the Committee on Environment, Geography, and Urbanization at the University of Chicago, where he teaches courses that explore public space, participation, and sustainable urban development.

Event Location: 
The Seminary Co-op
5751 S. Woodlawn Ave
Chicago, IL 60637