In conditions of shrinking private liberty and growing public apathy and personal anomie, what is meaningful individuality? How is individual freedom to be thought fruitfully in the face of the threat of surveillance, by the state as well as private actors? What are origins of individual docility, and possible sources of resistance? This conference brings together scholars from various fields to examine in an interdisciplinary discussion the meaning of individuality and individual liberty in today’s society.
Conference Program:
Friday, October 14: Law School, Jerome Greene Annex
4.30- 5pm Introduction
5 – 6.30pm Keynote speech:
George Kateb (Princeton University), “Tyranny and the Fate of Democratic Individuality”
Saturday, October 15: The Heyman Center, 2nd floor Common Room
9.30-11am Panel 1: Market, Privacy and Docility
Alex Zakaras (University of Vermont), “Depoliticizing the Market: Nature and Providence in Early American Political Thought”
Helen Nissenbaum (New York University), “Can Use Regulation Replace Privacy in a Free Society?”
11-11.30am Coffee break
11.30- 1pm Panel 2: Social Surveillance & Individual Freedom
Nancy Rosenblum (Harvard University), “Minding Our Own Business, Minding Our Neighbors”
Luise Papcke (Columbia University), “Individuality in the Age of Marketed Surveillance”
2.30- 4pm Panel 3: Docility and Resistance
Nancy Hirschmann (University of Pennsylvania), “Docile Body, Docile Will: A Feminist Disability Perspective”
Bernard Harcourt (Columbia Law School), “Rethinking Docility in the Digital Age: A Postmortem”
4pm Closing Remarks
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