Window on Williams – Democracy and Freedom – Language, Struggle, and Belonging
At this conference on Democracy and Freedom Between Past and Future, a distinguished group of panelists examined the theory and practice of two key concepts that have integrally shaped discourses and phenomena from antiquity to our contemporary moment. What is a democracy? What does it mean to refer to a democracy dying or being forged? How are we to understand freedom? Should we link or decouple freedom and slavery? What is the relationship between democracy and freedom? Are democracy and freedom mutually reinforcing or incompatible ideals? To what extent do our interpretations of democracy and freedom impact notions such as statecraft, civil society, family, the individual, groups, and governance? Do conceptions of race, gender, sex, sexuality, class, ability, and nation transform the theoretical frameworks and real-world articulations of the free life and democratic life? Lawrie Balfour, University of Virginia “Toni Morrison’s Word-Work as a Practice of Freedom” John Drabinski, Amherst College “Vernacular Culture and the Question of Belonging” Keisha-Khan Perry, Brown University “The Black Feminist Struggle for Social Democracy in Brazil”
