Events and live streams

To Challenge our Education System is to Practice Freedom with Richard D. Wolff

The Role of Education in our Catastrophic Times with Dr. Cornel West

In an era defined by creeping fascism, neoliberal hegemony, and the complicity of higher education in suppressing dissent, Dr. Cornel West calls for a radical reimagining of education as a force for democratic renewal. This talk explores the urgent role of higher education, faculty, and students in reclaiming universities as democratic public spheres, where critical thinking and civic engagement thrive. Dr. West critiques the neoliberalization of academia, its alignment with the military-industrial complex, and its failure to challenge rising authoritarianism. He urges academics to embrace their role as public intellectuals, fostering resistance, hope, and the pursuit of justice in these catastrophic times.

The Prophetic and the Crisis of American Democracy

One of the nation’s most prominent scholars, Dr. Eddie S. Glaude Jr., is an educator, author, political commentator, and public intellectual who examines the complex dynamics of the American experience. His writings, including Democracy in Black: How Race Still Enslaves the American Soul, In a Shade of Blue: Pragmatism and the Politics of Black America, and his The New York Times bestseller, Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and Its Urgent Lessons for our Own, take an exhaustive look at Black communities, the difficulties of race in the United States, and the challenges we face as a democracy. His latest book, We Are The Leaders We Have Been Looking For is a radical and passionate call for everyday people to take responsibility for saving democracy. Glaude is the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor in African American Studies at Princeton University. He is also on the Morehouse College Board of Trustees. He frequently appears in the media as an MSNBC contributor on programs like Morning Joe and Deadline Whitehouse with Nicolle Wallace. Glaude is a native of Moss Point, Mississippi.

Schooling for Fascism with Jason Stanley

Across the world, we see attacks on education systems from right wing nationalist leaders and parties, and new education systems put into place that rewrite history to extol the dominant majority. It is no different in the United States, where book bans and attacks on minority perspectives are advanced under the banner of “parental control.” By placing these attacks in transnational and historical perspective, I will argue that they are in fact fascist frontal assaults on democracy.

How Authoritarian Leaders Rule and How They Can be Defeated with Dr. Ruth Ben-Ghiat

Ruth Ben-Ghiat is Professor of History and Italian Studies at New York University. She writes about fascism, authoritarianism, and propaganda. She is the recipient of Guggenheim and other fellowships, an advisor to Protect Democracy, and a historical consultant for film and television. She is an MSNBC opinion columnist and provides commentary on MSNBC, CNN, and other networks. She publishes Lucid, a newsletter on threats to democracy. Her latest is book, Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present (2020; paperback, 2021). This talk looks at how the “authoritarian playbook” of propaganda, corruption, violence, and machismo that has sustained illiberal years for a century. It also addresses how to strike back at authoritarians, drawing on historical cases of their falls from power.

Rethinking the Civic Imagination & Manufactured Ignorance in the Post Pandemic World – Noam Chomsky

The Wilson Institute for Canadian History and the Center for Scholarship in the Public Interest is pleased to present Noam Chomsky “Rethinking the Civic Imagination and Manufactured Ignorance in the Post Pandemic World.” Monday, 4 October, at 7 p.m. This is a joint project sponsored by Dr. Henry A. Giroux, McMaster University and Professor for Scholarship in the Public Interest and Dr. Ian McKay, L.R. Wilson Chair in Canadian History, Professor of History.

Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt with Chris Hedges

Chris Hedges, a senior fellow at The Nation Institute, spent nearly two decades as a foreign correspondent in Central America, the Middle East, Africa and the Balkans. He was part of the New York Times team that won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for the paper’s coverage of global terrorism. He writes a weekly column for Truthdig, and has written for Harper’s magazine, the New Statesman, the New York Review of Books, the Nation, Adbusters, Granta, Foreign Affairs and other publications. He is the author of the bestsellers Death of the Liberal Class, Empire of Illusion, War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning and, most recently, Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt.

The Geopolitics of Cyberspace

Ronald J. Deibert presents “The Geopolitics of Cyberspace”. Dr. Deibert is a Professor of Political Science and Director of the Canada Centre for Global Security Studies and the Citizen Lab at the Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto. Deibert’s lecture will consider the global control of information and how state and non-state actors are contesting the newly evolving terrain of global digital-electronic-telecommunications.

Multitudes in Revolt, from Tahrir to Taksim with Michael Hardt

The McMaster Centre for Scholarship in the Public Interest welcomed Michael Hardt to campus on February 6, 2014 for his talk “Multitudes in Revolt, from Tahrir to Taksim”.

150 Years Later: Abolition in the 21st Century with Angela Y. Davis

Through activism and scholarship over many decades, Angela Davis has been deeply involved in movements for social justice around the world. Her work as an educator — both at the university level and in the larger public sphere — has always emphasized the importance of building communities of struggle for economic, racial, and gender justice. Having helped to popularize the notion of a “prison industrial complex,” she now urges her audiences to think seriously about the future possibility of a world without prisons and to help forge a 21st century abolitionist movement.

This lecture was presented in collaboration with the McMaster Seminar on Higher Education (http://highered.mcmaster.ca) with the generous support of McMaster University’s Office of the President, the Office of the Vice President (Research & International Affairs), the McMaster Centre for Scholarship in the Public Interest, Mac10 Young Alumni network, the Public Intellectuals Project, OPIRG McMaster, Bryan Prince Bookseller and the Hamilton Centre for Civic Inclusion. Research and related activities for this event were supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.