Professors Erik Mueggler, Anne Pitcher, and Silke Weineck, Collegiate Professorship Inaugural Lecture
LSA Collegiate Lecture Series
This event will take place both in person and virtually.
Professor Erik A. Mueggler, the Katherine Verdery Collegiate Professor of Anthropology
Lecture Title: TBD
Lecture Abstract: TBD
Professor Anne Pitcher, the Joel Samoff Collegiate Professor of Political Science and Afroamerican and African Studies
Lecture Title: Disrupting the Border: State Sovereignty, Domestic Corruption, and Transnational Kleptocracy
Lecture Abstract: In recent years, studies of corruption have provided extraordinary insight into the pilfering of state resources by politicians. There are exhaustive case studies of nepotism, bribery, and embezzlement in Azerbaijan or Zimbabwe. Scholars have identified different corruption types and Transparency International provides country rankings according to citizens’ perceptions of corruption. Yet, many of these studies stop at national borders. By contrast, an emerging literature in International Relations documents the features of “transnational kleptocracy” or rather, the cross-border movement of public assets that politicians have hijacked for personal gain. Owing to changes in the global economy, state sovereignty has now become “elastic” and permeable, which has facilitated the transnational flow of capital and the purchase of real estate beyond domestic jurisdictions. My research builds a conceptual bridge between these two literatures and offers a means by which scholars can jointly evaluate the association between corruption and transnational kleptocracy.
Professor Silke Weineck, the Grace Lee Boggs Collegiate Professor of Comparative Literature and German Studies
Lecture Title: On Honor
Lecture Abstract: In the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle asserts that virtue is the condition of being friends with yourself: “a [good] person wishes to spend time with himself, since he finds it pleasant to do so.” While honor has often been understood as a commitment to your external reputation, I want to suggest that honor predominantly safeguards the reputation you have with yourself. We cannot resist the authoritarianism unfolding around us without a commitment to ethical norms of conduct that allow us to remain on good terms with ourselves, and only therefore with others. A sense of honor, in other words, prohibits collaboration with the current regime. Its costs are high, but I want to believe, with Aristotle, that there is no happiness without it. Creating the conditions of possibility for happiness is arguably the core political project for the left.
If you are unable to join us in person, please click the link below to join the webinar.
Join from PC, Mac, iPad, or Android:
https://umich.zoom.us/j/91058514389
Phone one-tap:
+13052241968,,91058514389# US
+13092053325,,91058514389# US
Join via audio:
+1 305 224 1968 US
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+1 689 278 1000 US
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+1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
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+1 780 666 0144 Canada
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Webinar ID: 910 5851 4389
International numbers available: https://umich.zoom.us/u/acBAHNLkJB
Professor Erik A. Mueggler, the Katherine Verdery Collegiate Professor of Anthropology
Lecture Title: TBD
Lecture Abstract: TBD
Professor Anne Pitcher, the Joel Samoff Collegiate Professor of Political Science and Afroamerican and African Studies
Lecture Title: Disrupting the Border: State Sovereignty, Domestic Corruption, and Transnational Kleptocracy
Lecture Abstract: In recent years, studies of corruption have provided extraordinary insight into the pilfering of state resources by politicians. There are exhaustive case studies of nepotism, bribery, and embezzlement in Azerbaijan or Zimbabwe. Scholars have identified different corruption types and Transparency International provides country rankings according to citizens’ perceptions of corruption. Yet, many of these studies stop at national borders. By contrast, an emerging literature in International Relations documents the features of “transnational kleptocracy” or rather, the cross-border movement of public assets that politicians have hijacked for personal gain. Owing to changes in the global economy, state sovereignty has now become “elastic” and permeable, which has facilitated the transnational flow of capital and the purchase of real estate beyond domestic jurisdictions. My research builds a conceptual bridge between these two literatures and offers a means by which scholars can jointly evaluate the association between corruption and transnational kleptocracy.
Professor Silke Weineck, the Grace Lee Boggs Collegiate Professor of Comparative Literature and German Studies
Lecture Title: On Honor
Lecture Abstract: In the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle asserts that virtue is the condition of being friends with yourself: “a [good] person wishes to spend time with himself, since he finds it pleasant to do so.” While honor has often been understood as a commitment to your external reputation, I want to suggest that honor predominantly safeguards the reputation you have with yourself. We cannot resist the authoritarianism unfolding around us without a commitment to ethical norms of conduct that allow us to remain on good terms with ourselves, and only therefore with others. A sense of honor, in other words, prohibits collaboration with the current regime. Its costs are high, but I want to believe, with Aristotle, that there is no happiness without it. Creating the conditions of possibility for happiness is arguably the core political project for the left.
If you are unable to join us in person, please click the link below to join the webinar.
Join from PC, Mac, iPad, or Android:
https://umich.zoom.us/j/91058514389
Phone one-tap:
+13052241968,,91058514389# US
+13092053325,,91058514389# US
Join via audio:
+1 305 224 1968 US
+1 309 205 3325 US
+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
+1 646 876 9923 US (New York)
+1 646 931 3860 US
+1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC)
+1 386 347 5053 US
+1 507 473 4847 US
+1 564 217 2000 US
+1 669 444 9171 US
+1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)
+1 689 278 1000 US
+1 719 359 4580 US
+1 253 205 0468 US
+1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
+1 360 209 5623 US
+1 647 558 0588 Canada
+1 778 907 2071 Canada
+1 780 666 0144 Canada
+1 204 272 7920 Canada
+1 438 809 7799 Canada
+1 587 328 1099 Canada
+1 647 374 4685 Canada
Webinar ID: 910 5851 4389
International numbers available: https://umich.zoom.us/u/acBAHNLkJB
| Building: | Weiser Hall |
|---|---|
| Event Type: | Lecture / Discussion |
| Tags: | African American, Anthropology, Language, Literature, Politics |
| Source: | Happening @ Michigan from The College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, Comparative Literature, Department of Afroamerican and African Studies, Department of Anthropology, Department of Political Science, Germanic Languages & Literatures |
