Once upon a time in book club . . . I was surprised when a person in my book club expressed an anti-feminist sentiment. I had forgotten that this person had problems with (or, perhaps more charitably, misconceptions about) feminist politics. Imagine that the person in my book club habitually, rather than infrequently, expresses views that I interpret as anti-feminist. If it were not for book club, I likely would not choose to spend time with them. That’s not how I want to spend my down … [Read more...]
Running with Arendt
My name is Janet. I’m an Applied Philosophy PhD student at the University of Waterloo. I’m an advocate for people with addiction. And I’m a runner. Running doesn’t quite fit in with the other descriptors. When I meet new people, I get asked about what I do, where I’m from, or what I hope to do after I graduate. Running, by comparison, is something I only talk about with people who know me more personally. Friends and family are the only ones that know, for example, that I got ‘serious’ about … [Read more...]
Political Activism as Work
Black women’s unpaid political activism deserves acknowledgement. Economist Nina Banks argues that their community work should count as a form of work. And she means “count” literally! Community activism as work Feminist economists have highlighted how neoclassical economics wrongfully excluded domestic work, primarily done by women, as productive work that contributes to the economy. Likewise, Banks argues that both mainstream and feminist economists have missed how the community is a site … [Read more...]
What’s in a tweet?
There’s something almost poetic about a tweet. Consider what Audre Lorde had to say about poetry: “Of all the art forms, poetry is the most economical. It is the one which is the most secret, which requires the least physical labor, the least material, and the one which can be done between shifts, in the hospital pantry, on the subway, and on scraps of surplus paper … poetry has been the major voice of poor, working class, and Colored women. A room of one's own may be a necessity for writing … [Read more...]
Caring for the world and caring for community
Amor mundi, or “love of the world,” was the title Arendt wanted for The Human Condition. In an August 6, 1955 letter to Karl Jaspers, her teacher and friend, she said: I’ve begun so late, really only in recent years, to truly love the world that I shall be able to do that now. Out of gratitude, I want to call my book on political theory ‘Amor Mundi.’ As Samantha Rose Hill notes: Within this statement there is a recognition and reckoning with the events of the past. What does it mean to … [Read more...]
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