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Scholarship, Activism, and the Autonomy of Social Spheres
This talk is an attempt to clarify a longstanding controversy in the history of humanities scholarship in the university, namely its relation to political activism, and to the political in general. Guillory’s hypothesis is that the appropriate frame for understanding this relation is the autonomy of social spheres, as expressed in the historical tendency of different spheres to become depoliticized over time. The paradigm case for this tendency is the depoliticization of the religious sphere with the end of the wars of religion at the beginning of the eighteenth century. He argues that depoliticization enabled the development of autonomous social spheres, resulting in many social benefits, beginning with the condition of peace following the wars of religion. At the same time, autonomous social spheres are periodically subject to re-politicization for various reasons, a tendency manifest in university scholarship at the present moment. Guillory examines several recent arguments defending the identity of scholarship with political activism, attempting to grasp thereby the forces impelling politicization and depoliticization.
Date:
22 May 2025, 11:00
Venue:
Rothermere American Institute, 1A South Parks Road OX1 3UB
Venue Details:
Downstairs Seminar Room
Speaker:
John Guillory
Organising department:
Faculty of English Language and Literature
Organisers:
Professor Nicholas Gaskill (University of Oxford),
Professor Nicole King (University of Oxford)
Part of:
American Literature Research Seminar
Booking required?:
Not required
Audience:
Members of the University only
Editors:
Katy Terry,
Hope Lukonyomoi-Otunnu
