Fac Chats

Join the Intercultural Center and the Library for our second Fac Chat, on October 24 at 1:00 p.m., on the Library 2nd Floor, Quad Side. 

Dr. Joseph Drexler-Dreis, Assistant Professor, Theology and Religious Studies, will chat about "Contests Among Freedoms within Global Capitalism."

The historical process of violently laying the foundations for global capitalism—which is a process that mutates and repeats itself with each crisis in global capitalism—involves legitimizing classifications of the human person within class, ethnic, and sexual distinctions. Within this arena of social classifications, religious categories have often functioned to justify the violent accumulation of capital. Granting this entanglement between religious thought and the violent dynamics of global capitalism, in what ways can theological reflection still be a tool for critically analyzing and transforming our present historical situation?

Joe's Suggested Readings

1. Interview with Sylvester Johnson on contests of freedom in the North Atlantic, and how religion has shaped these contests: https://marginalia.lareviewofbooks.org/conversations-in-black-sylvester-a-johnson/

2. Essay by Walter Johnson on racial capitalism: http://bostonreview.net/forum/walter-johnson-to-remake-the-world

3. Essay by Stephanie Smallwood that proposes a way to analyze the commodity form within capitalism: http://bostonreview.net/forum/remake-world-slavery-racial-capitalism-and-justice/stephanie-smallwood-what-slavery-tells-us