Wednesday, April 4, 2018 - 12:00pm
Williams Hall, Room 070
Whiteness and Masculinity in U.S. Gun Culture
Chad Kautzer
Associate Professor of Philosophy
Philosophy Department
The U.S. has a long history of producing and policing race and gender lines through privatized forms of violence, from the colony and plantation to white vigilantes and the family patriarch. Defying the notion that the state has a monopoly on the use of force, these sub-state practices often operate in what Agamben calls the “no-man’s-land between public law and political fact,” undermining or reenforcing group relations of security and vulnerability. In this paper, I situate the contemporary tactical gun culture in the U.S. within this tradition and analyze the notions of freedom and sovereignty at play in the construction of masculinity and whiteness.
Chad Kautzer is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Lehigh University and the author of Radical Philosophy: An Introduction (Routledge, 2016). He is currently working on a book project about race, gender, and the philosophy of self-defense.
April 4 • 12:00 pm • Williams Hall, Room 070
Bring Your Own Lunch • Beverages and Dessert Provided
Department:
Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies
End Date:
Wednesday, April 4, 2018 - 1:00pm