Her Place in Theory

Frigga Haug with Jeta Mulaj

In this episode, Juliette Marchant is joined by Jeta Mulaj, Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Toronto Metropolitan University, to discuss the work of Frigga Haug: Marxist feminist theorist, sociologist, and one of the most important thinkers of social reproduction and collective emancipation in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Together, Mulaj and Marchant explore what makes Haug’s work so enduring and generative: her critique of capitalist social relations, her theory of women’s labor and social reproduction, and her insistence that emancipation must transform everyday life as much as economic structures. From questioning the relationship between victimhood and agency, to the “four-in-one perspective,” the conversation highlights Haug as a thinker who challenged both economistic Marxism and liberal feminism, urging instead a democratic, collective reimagining of work, care, education, and human flourishing under and beyond capitalism. Texts Referenced in the Episode: Selected Writings of Frigga Haug on Experience, Labour, and Critique - Edited by Jeta Mulaj and Alexandra Colligs [https://www.routledge.com/Selected-Writings-of-Frigga-Haug-on-Experience-Labour-and-Critique/Mulaj-Colligs/p/book/9781032768014] The “Four-in-One Perspective”: A Manifesto for aMore Just Life - Frigga Haug [https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/english/currentstudents/undergraduates/modules/literaturetheoryandtime/ltt.haug_four-in-one.pdf]

Mary Wollstonecraft with Sylvana Tomaselli

In this episode, Juliette Marchant is joined by Sylvana Tomaselli, Fellow of St John’s College, Cambridge, and a leading scholar of the history of political thought to discuss the work of Mary Wollstonecraft: writer, philosopher, and a bold critic of the social and political conventions of her time. Together, Tomaselli and Marchant explore what makes Wollstonecraft’s work so striking and enduring: her arguments for women’s education, her critique of inequality and dependency, and her insistence that reason and virtue—not custom or hierarchy—should shape human life. From A Vindication of the Rights of Woman to her reflections on revolution, the conversation highlights Wollstonecraft as a thinker who challenged the assumptions of her age and offered a powerful account of freedom, independence, and moral responsibility. Texts Referenced in the Episode: Wollstonecraft: Philosophy, Passion, and Politics - Sylvana Tomaselli [https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691169033/wollstonecraft] Wollstonecraft: A Vindication of the Rights of Men and a Vindication of the Rights of Woman and Hints - Edited by Sylvana Tomaselli [https://www.cambridge.org/us/universitypress/subjects/politics-international-relations/texts-political-thought/wollstonecraft-vindication-rights-men-and-vindication-rights-woman-and-hints?format=PB&isbn=9780521436335] A Vindication of the Rights of Woman - Mary Wollstonecraft [https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300176476/a-vindication-of-the-rights-of-woman/] The Collected Letters of Mary Wollstonecraft - Mary Wollstonecraft edited by Janet Todd [https://cup.columbia.edu/book/the-collected-letters-of-mary-wollstonecraft/9780231131421/] Reflections on the Revolution in France - Edmund Burke [https://www.sup.org/books/history/reflections-revolution-france] Emile or On Education - Jean-Jacques Rousseau [https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/jean-jacques-rousseau/emile/9780465019311/?lens=basic-books]

Lauren Berlant with Michael Dango

In this episode, Juliette Marchant is joined by Michael Dango, Associate Professor of English at Rice University, to discuss the work of Lauren Berlant: an interdisciplinary theorist of affect, intimacy, and political life, and one of the most original and influential thinkers of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Together, they trace Berlant’s intellectual arc, from their earlywork on national fantasy and citizenship to later writings on affect, precarity, and the ordinary, while reflecting on the attachments and everyday forms through which political life is lived. From The Anatomy of National Fantasy and The Queen of America Goes to Washington City to Cruel Optimism, the conversation highlights Berlant’s distinctive method and the enduring force of concepts that illuminate how what sustains us can also hold us in place. Texts Referenced in the Episode: The Queen of America Goes to Washington City - Lauren Berlant [https://www.dukeupress.edu/the-queen-of-america-goes-to-washington-city] The Anatomy of National Fantasy: Hawthorne, Utopia, and Everyday Life - Lauren Berlant [https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/A/bo3684624.html] The Female Complaint: The Unfinished Business of Sentimentality in American Culture - Lauren Berlant [https://www.dukeupress.edu/the-female-complaint] Cruel Optimism - Lauren Berlant [https://www.dukeupress.edu/cruel-optimism] On the Inconvenience of Other People - Lauren Berlant [https://www.dukeupress.edu/on-the-inconvenience-of-other-people] Sex in Public - Lauren Berlant and Michael Warner [https://www-journals-uchicago-edu.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/448884] Genre Flailing - Lauren Berlant [https://capaciousjournal.com/article/genre-flailing] Crisis Style: The Aesthetics of Repair - Michael Dango [https://www.sup.org/books/literary-studies-and-literature/crisis-style] Madonna's Erotica - Michael Dango [https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/madonnas-erotica-9781501388996/]

Judith Shklar with Bernard Yack

In this episode, Juliette Marchant is joined by Bernard Yack, Lerman-Neubauer Professor of Democracy and Political Science at Brandeis University, to discuss the work of Judith Shklar: political theorist, historian of ideas, and one of the most incisive liberal thinkers of the twentieth century. Together, Yack and Marchant explore what makes Shklar’s work so bracing and enduring: “the liberalism of fear,” her insistence that cruelty is the worst political evil, and her distinctive approach to injustice, hypocrisy, and exile. From Ordinary Vices to The Faces of Injustice, the conversation highlights Shklar as a thinker who challenged both complacent liberal optimism and abstract moralism, urging instead a vigilant, historically grounded defense of freedom against the ever-present dangers of cruelty and abuse of power. Texts Referenced in the Episode: Nationalism and the Moral Psychology of Community - Bernard Yack [https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/N/bo12893566.html] The Problems of a Political Animal - Bernard Yack [https://www.ucpress.edu/books/the-problems-of-a-political-animal/paper] Liberalism without Illusions - Edited by Bernard Yack [https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/L/bo3614599.html] Legalism - Judith Shklar [https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674523517] The Liberalism of Fear - Judith Shklar [https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674306639] The Faces of Injustice - Judith Shklar [https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300056709/the-faces-of-injustice/] Ordinary Vices - Judith Shklar [https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674641761] After Utopia: The Decline of Political Faith - Judith Shklar [https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691200859/after-utopia?srsltid=AfmBOoqCWL4q5p31IfqmkH6s_Bo3Ehn7Aus6dPLyW2YC36QPlHwj-VC5] Who Needs a Theory of Justice? Judith Shklar and the Politics of Injustice - Robin Douglass [https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/american-political-science-review/article/who-needs-a-theory-of-justice-judith-shklar-and-the-politics-of-injustice/5B25A4AF90526DAE217F93E87765E074]

Elinor Ostrom with Aurelian Craiutu

In this episode, Juliette Marchant is joined by Aurelian Craiutu, Arthur F. Bentley Professor of Political Science at Indiana University, Bloomington, to discuss the work of Elinor Ostrom — Nobel Prize–winning political economist and one of the most original thinkers about governance in the late twentieth century. Together, Craiutu and Marchant explore what makes Ostrom’s work so enduring and provocative: her challenge to the conventional state-versus-market dichotomy, her theory of polycentric governance, and her insistence that ordinary citizens are capable of self-government. From Governing the Commons to the broader intellectual legacy of the Bloomington School, the episode highlights Ostrom as a thinker who redefined how we understand collective action, institutional diversity, and the fragile art of making democracy work. Texts Referenced in the Episode: Liberalism under Siege: The Political Thought of the French Doctrinaires  - Aurelian Craiutu [https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/liberalism-under-siege-9798765184295/] A Virtue for Courageous Minds: Moderation in French Political Thought, 1748-1830 - Aurelian Craiutu [https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691146768/a-virtue-for-courageous-minds?srsltid=AfmBOopcWdvaFl8_p8XJYtVfBTG54LsHSMYJ40CKIEQ3y7-wOT-LY93W] Faces of Moderation: The Art of Balance in an Age of Extremes - Aurelian Craiutu [https://www.pennpress.org/9780812224092/faces-of-moderation/] Why Not Moderation? Letters to Young Radicals - Aurelian Craiutu [https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/why-not-moderation/E1207BABEEE580C1E5BC823B28351A2B] Governing the Commons - Elinor Ostrom [https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/governing-the-commons/A8BB63BC4A1433A50A3FB92EDBBB97D5] Beyond Markets and States: Polycentric Governance of Complex Economic Systems (Nobel Prize Lecture) - Elinor Ostrom [https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/economic-sciences/2009/ostrom/lecture/] Actual World, Possible Future - Short Documentary [https://www.pbs.org/video/actual-world-possible-future-09rkab/] The Tragedy of the Commons - Garrett Hardin [https://math.uchicago.edu/~shmuel/Modeling/Hardin,%20Tragedy%20of%20the%20Commons.pdf]