Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Plato does not only impersonate/represent Socrates, however. He also impersonates/represents Socrates impersonating/representing Cephalus, Polemarchus, Thrasymachus, Adeimantus, and Glaucon. Embedding the participants in the dialog in this way, to say nothing of thus embedding its author, invites readers to lose sight of who is truly speaking. Not only is identity thus destabilized but character is too for, insofar as Socrates’ account includes only a small portion of narrative in third-person form and a lot of narrative through mimesis, Socrates is depicted as acting not in the manner of a good man (396e) but of a common one (397a). With Plato impersonating/representing Socrates impersonating/representing his interlocutors, this observation redounds back on to Plato as well. What, if anything, does Plato risk in these representations? What is gained? To answer these questions, this essay stays with the material of Book I to orient the “Plato or Socrates” question away from verisimilitude and/or the pursuit of the factual identity of an author and toward a politics of authorship and authority.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Poetry holds an important place in the history of U.S. Latina discourse. It was in fact the predominant literary form among Latinas throughout the 1960’s, 70’s, and 80’s. Fully aware of both the diversity among Latinas and the potentially divisive effects of differences on group solidarity, my essay is a sociological exploration of recurring themes in Latina poetry in an attempt to illustrate the existence of a common identity struggle. What is striking when reading Latina poetry is the very clear persistence of two themes – themes that can possibly overcome, not overlook, the great diversity among Latinas – coping with and expressing identity struggles in terms of culture and gender in the United States. It becomes apparent that the two are closely intertwined and that the state of patriarchy and race relations in the United States means that these issues often translate into oppression, sexism and racism. Furthermore, grounded in the many connections between poetry and the political, I examine the implications that these parallel expressions have for a united Latina feminist identity. By addressing the common themes in Latina poetry, I hope to show that this literary form may be at the forefront of a united Latina feminist movement, in practice and identity.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Even students who complain that history is boring have a close relationship to the past. Our work as teachers of history is to make the academic study of the past come alive. We must encourage students to think critically about how historians turn the past into history. We must help them engage with the material, to experience for themselves what it means to say that history is a dialogue between the present and the past. Over the past year I have been at Harvard School of Education working on creative ways of teaching history; I apply what I learn at Seeds of Peace, where we encourage dialogue about the past without imposing a narrative. I will share exercises that can engage people in history making. If history walks the line between poetry and science--in this workshop, we might see, at least a little bit, how this happens.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: POETRY AND A POLITICS OF VULNERABILITY

That language is central to whatever understanding we have of ourselves and of our political life, a century or so following the linguistic turn, is now a commonplace of theoretical inquiry. Yet insufficient consideration has been given to the connection between the language that is used in philosophical inquiry—or, better, in the ways we use and do not use language—and the possibility for innovation with respect to the ideas that result from such inquiry. If more novel political ideas and ideals are to be generated, greater attention needs to be given to the role of imagination in language, to the poetic understanding and use of language. This is because the generation of new or different theoretical possibilities depends on gaining access to untapped areas of our language, on extending our imaginations farther and deeper into language. A poetic attitude toward and facility with language might enlarge ongoing philosophical discussions with respect to power and democracy, rights and justice and related matters. More than this, a political philosophy that looks to and even gains facility with poetry’s access-ways with might help reorient our conceptions of ourselves and our political circumstances in these vulnerable times when a non-poetic use of language may no longer serve us well.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This paper begins with the question: “Does Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 509 U.S. 579 (1993), apply to expert valuation testimony?” Considering theories of poetry from Aristotle through Shelley and Nietzsche to Eliot and Stevens, and taking “detours” through Plato’s Phaedrus, iterations of the Amleth/Hamlet myth, Derrida’s Spectres of Marx, and case law on both valuation standards and haunted properties, it suggests the question, at least in a legal system devoted to capitalism and the “rule of law,” is the semi-Foucauldian question: “Who is the arbiter of the Supreme Fiction?”