In Memoriam
As we make the traditional turn into summer, we look at the politics of porn, identity, the Middle East, and the United States Constitution. Plus: Andrew Yang, justice, the police and the GOP
This week, as we celebrate Memorial Day, Public Seminar and The New School for Social Research has lost one of our own. Eric Anthamatten-Dominguez, a philosopher, graduate of NSSR, teacher, activist and writer died suddenly last weekend. We extend our deepest sympathies to his family and friends.
Eric is a stellar example of brilliance overlooked in a bad humanities job market, and of resilience mustered to continue on as a left intellectual regardless of how poorly our society supports that. He contributed several articles to Public Seminar over the years, all of which which can still be found on our site. His prescient and widely-republished essay, “Punching Nazis in the Face” (March 6, 2017), published here first, sought to explain an otherwise shocking phenomenon in democratic society—the punch levelled to white supremacist Richard Spencer’s jaw at the Trump inauguration. It asked us to prepare for the worst, and act accordingly.
We will miss him.
William Blake’s The Gates of Paradise (1787-93)/Public Domain Review
Featured Essay
Martin Bernstein and Jane Kamensky, “What Politicians Talk About When They Talk About Porn*:A Tableau™ Vivant.” (May 27, 2021)
Identity Politics
Halleh Ghorashi, “Breaking the ‘Otherness’ Fixation: Diversity is held at the pinnacle of progressive thought, but full inclusion is far from becoming a reality.”(May 25, 2021)
Israeli Politics
Omri Boehm and Arvid Jurjaks, “Israel on the Brink: We just had a warning, a taste of what the future looks like short of post-ethnic politics in our post-two-state era.” (May 27, 2021)
The US Constitution
Marc Robert Stein, “Punish the Voting Rights Villains: The second section of the 14th amendment was written to exact penalties for voting rights violations—why don’t we use it?” (May 26, 2021)
Columnists
Pat Garofalo, “The Curious Case of Andrew Yang: Running for New York City mayor turned a fiery corporate handout critic into something else.” (May 25, 2021)
Heather Cox Richardson, “Justice Moves Slowly–But It Moves: Will George Floyd’s murder lead to police reform–-and can Donald Trump stay out of jail?” (May 26, 2021)
Claire Potter, “What Campus Police Really Do: Private university security forces do mostly deliver social services—and it’s a problem.” (May 26, 2021)
John Stoehr, “Let’s Call the Republican Party by its Proper Name—Fascist: A word that gets the side eye from main stream commentators should be part of the conversation.” (May 25, 2021)