Events

Many of our events are video-recorded. You can see a list of available videos on our website. If you subscribe to our YouTube channel, you will be notified when new videos are available.

SPRING 2018

JANUARY

Wednesday, January 31 | 5:00-7:00pm 

Innocence and Violence: The Theology of a Gun Culture

Dominic Erdozain, Freelance Writer

Gun rights are typically identified with the Second Amendment – a legal, indeed constitutional, prerogative. This lecture argues that they are better understood as part of a culture and a belief system, centering on ideas of innocence and legitimate violence. I argue that this belief system is apparent in the contemporary gun culture’s confidence in the ‘law-abiding citizen’ as a stable and fixed category, and then I seek to explore its origins. The claim is that gun rights, while modern in form and intensity, rest upon older narratives of national righteousness and popular sovereignty, among them, Puritan concepts of salvation and judgment. Although the more sophisticated defenses of gun rights cite natural law and the notion of self-defense as a universal right, I argue that gun rights remain a set of special privileges – almost a code of entitlement. To engage this culture effectively, we need better understanding of the particular theologies from which it has emerged.

3335  Dwinelle Hall

Sponsor: Berkeley Center for the Study of Religion

Co-sponsors: The Townsend Center for the Humanities, the Berkeley Center for Right Wing Studies, and the History Department.

MARCH

Thursday, March 15 I 4:00-5:30pm

Is the Alt-Right Collapsing?​

George Hawley, Assistant Professor of Political Science, The University of Alabama

In 2015 and 2016, the so-called Alt-Right – the latest iteration of the American white nationalist movement – experienced exponential growth. In 2017, it made headlines across the globe. Some feared it represented a serious threat to racial progress and even American democracy. However, the Alt-Right has also faced extraordinary setbacks, and it is not clear that it will even continue existing as a meaningful political or cultural force.  In this talk, Professor Hawley will reflect on the past, present and future of the Alt-Right in American politics.

Wildavsky Conference Room, ISSI, 2538 Channing Way

Sponsor: Berkeley Center for Right-Wing Studies, UC Berkeley

APRIL

Tuesday, April 10 I 4:00-5:30pm

Popular Neoliberalism: Readers' and Viewers' Reactions to Milton Friedman

Dr. Maurice Cottier, Visiting Fellow, History Department, Harvard University

Milton Friedman was not only a leading neoliberal economist in the second half of the 20th century but, due to his popular books and appearances on TV, also a well-known public intellectual. Focusing on the reactions by viewers and readers of his book Capitalism and Freedom (1962) and book and TV series Free to Choose (1980), Maurice Cottier’s paper discusses how the broader public received Friedman’s message. Cottier's analysis of letters to and from Friedman makes it possible to investigate why people outside of academics, politics and the media were attracted by neoliberal free market ideas. 

Wildavsky Conference Room, ISSI, 2538 Channing Way

Sponsor: Berkeley Center for Right-Wing Studies, UC Berkeley