QUESTIONING THE PRESENT
OVERVIEW
What is the nature of our present conjuncture? With what contradictions is it wrought? What possibilities does it open?
These questions were long the core of the humanities and social sciences, but over the last half century, their centrality has waned. Driven by a quest for precision, Braudel’s histoire de la longue durée gave way to l’histoire événementielle and even la microhistoireand, among more quantitative studies, narrower topics became increasingly dominant. As scholars across the humanities and social sciences turned their attention to more immediate concerns with discrete texts and narratives, the analysis of big framing concepts like modernity or global capitalism receded. Engagement with the big themes never vanished, but they are back at the center of attention. We live in an unsettled era and a present moment rife with transnational transformations and global challenges. New technologies call our attention to upheavals in capitalism and indeed in our understanding of the human itself. Shifiting political paradigms reflect increasing disorder within different polities and suggest that we might be on the verge of a reconstitution of the modern world-system. Building on the Center’s previous engagements, especially with “alternative modernities,” this forum seeks to explore not just what is going on now, but the significance of ‘now’ in macro-historical and global contexts.
The Center for Transcultural Studies, in collaboration with the Center for Global Culture and Communication (CGCC) at Northwestern University, is launching an online forum titled Questioning the Present. Every two months, we will congregate via a video conferencing service to address these questions and problems.
This is a hybrid forum, fostering dialogue among CTS members at the same time we invite the public to participate, via the co-sponsorship of the CGCC.
The inaugural session, on December 10, 2020, featured Dipesh Chakrabarty discussing his forthcoming book, The Climate of History in a Planetary Age.
Convener: Dilip Parameshwar Gaonkar
Past sessions
Shattered Dreams, Infinite Hope: A Tragic Vision of the Civil Rights Movement
Friday, June 5, 2026
10 a.m. to 12 p.m. CST
Featuring:
Brandon M. Terry, African and African American Studies, Harvard University
Respondents
Martha Biondi, Black Studies, Northwestern University
Chris A. Chambers, Political Science, University of Pennsylvania
Ainsley LeSure, Political Science & Africana Studies, Brown University
Convener:
Dilip Gaonkar (Communication Studies, Northwestern University)
Liberalism Against Itself: Cold War Intellectuals and the Making of Our Times
Friday, April 17, 2026
10 am–12 pm CST
Featuring:
Samuel Moyn, Law and History, Yale University
Respondents:
John Brenkman, Comparative Literature and English, CUNY Graduate Center & Baruch College, Emeritus
Helena Rosanblatt Dhar, History, French, and Political Science, CUNY Graduate Center
Stephen Sawyer, History, American University of Paris
Convener:
Dilip Gaonkar, Rhetoric, Media and Publics, Northwestern University
Watch the video here.
A Precarious Happiness: Adorno and the Sources of Normativity
Friday, February 13, 2026
10 a.m. to 12 p.m. CST
Featuring:
Peter Gordon, History, Philosophy, and German Studies, Harvard University
Respondents:
Gordon Finlayson, Philosophy, University of Sussex
Jacob McNulty, Philosophy, Yale University
Gisèle Sapiro, Sociology, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales
Convener:
Dilip Gaonkar, Rhetoric, Media and Publics, Northwestern University
Watch the video here.
Hijacked: How Neoliberalism Turned Work Ethic against Workers and How Workers Can Take It Back
Friday, January 9, 2026
10am–12pm CST
Featuring:
Elizabeth Anderson, Philosophy, University of Michigan
Respondents:
Daron Acemoglu, Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Axel Honneth, Philosophy, Columbia University
Convener:
Dilip Gaonkar, Northwestern University
Watch the video here.
Democracy and Beauty: The Political Aesthetics of W.E.B Du Bois
Friday, December 5, 2025
10am–12pm CST
Featuring:
Robert Gooding-Williams, Philosophy, Yale University
Respondents
Lawrie Balfour, Politics, University of Virginia
Fred Moten, Performance Studies & Comparative Literature, New York University
Shatema Threadcraft, Philosophy, Vanderbilt University
Convener:
Dilip Gaonkar, Rhetoric, Media and Publics, Northwestern University
Watch the video here.
The Privatized State
Friday, May 16, 2025
10 a.m. to 12 p.m. CST
Featuring:
Chiara Cordelli, Political Science, University of Chicago
Respondents:
Leah Downey, Human, Political and Social Sciences, St. John’s College, University of Cambridge
Blake Emerson, Law and Political Science, University of California, Los Angeles
Nadia Urbinati, Political Science, Columbia University
Convener:
Dilip Gaonkar, Rhetoric, Media and Publics, Northwestern University
Watch the video here.
The Culmination: Heidegger, German Idealism, and the Fate of Philosophy
Friday, 11 April 2025
10am–12pm CST
Featuring:
Robert B. Pippin, Social Thought & Philosophy, University of Chicago
Respondents:
Mark Alznauer, Philosophy, Northwestern University
Peter Gordon, History, Philosophy, German Studies, Harvard University
Andreja Novakovic, Philosophy, University of California, Berkeley
Convener:
Dilip Gaonkar, Rhetoric, Media and Publics, Northwestern University
Watch the video here.
The Working Sovereign:
Labor and Democratic Citizenship
Friday, January 24, 2025
10am – 12pm CST
Featuring:
Axel Honneth, Philosophy, Columbia University
Respondents:
Elizabeth Anderson, Philosophy, University of Michigan
Alex Gourevitch, Political Science, Brown University
Stephen Sawyer, History, American University of Paris
Convener:
Dilip Gaonkar, Rhetoric, Media and Publics, Northwestern University
Watch the video here.
Justice Is an Option:
A Democratic Theory of Finance for the Twenty-First Century
Friday, November 1, 2024
10am–12pm CST
Featuring:
Robert Meister, History of Consciousness, University of California, Santa Cruz
Respondents:
Nina Boy, Research Fellow, University of Warwick
Jonathan Ira Levy, History, University of Chicago
Timothy Mitchell, Middle Eastern, South Asian, & African Studies, Columbia University
Convener:
Dilip Gaonkar, Communication Studies, Northwestern University
Watch the video here.
Cannibal Capitalism:
How Our System is Devouring Democracy, Care, and the Planet—and What We Can Do about It
Friday, April 5, 2024
10am CST
Featuring:
Nancy Fraser (Philosophy, The New School)
Respondents:
Ashley Bohrer (Gender and Peace Studies, University of Notre Dame)
Michael Dawson (Political Science, University of Chicago)
Johanna Oksala (Philosophy, Loyola University-Chicago)
Convener:
Dilip Gaonkar (Communication Studies, Northwestern University)
Making Space for Justice:
Social Movements, Collective Imagination and Political Hope
Friday, February 2, 2024
10am CST
Featuring:
Michele Moody-Adams (Philosophy, Columbia University)
Respondents:
Robin Celikates (Philosophy, Freie Universität Berlin)
Juliet Hooker (Political Science, Brown University)
José Medina (Philosophy, Northwestern University)
Organizer:
Dilip Gaonkar (Communication Studies, Northwestern University)
Free and open to the public. On Zoom.
Insurgent Universality:
An Alternative Legacy of Modernity
Friday, April 5, 2024
10am CST
Featuring:
Massimiliano Tomba, History of Consciousness, University of California, Santa Cruz
Respondents:
John Brenkman, Comparative Literature and English, CUNY Graduate Center and Baruch College, Emeritus
Anne Norton, Political Science, University of Pennsylvania
Uday Mehta, Political Science, CUNY Graduate Center
Convener:
Dilip Gaonkar, Communication Studies, Northwestern University
Neither Settler Nor Native:
The Making and Unmaking of Permanent Minorities
Friday, September 29, 2023
10am CST
Featuring:
Mahmood Mamdani, Political Science, Columbia University
Respondents:
Craig Calhoun, Social Sciences, Arizona State University
Linford Fisher, History, Brown University
Nandita Sharma, Sociology, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
Convener:
Dilip Gaonkar, Communication Studies, Northwestern University
The Force of Non-Violence
Friday, June 2, 2023
10am CST
Featuring:
Judith Butler, Distinguished Professor in the Graduate School, Comparative Theory and Critical Theory, UC Berkeley
Respondents:
Jay Bernstein, Philosophy, The New School
Anne Boyer, Poet, Essayist, and Writer, Kansas City Art Institute
José Medina, Philosophy, Northwestern University
Convener:
Dilip Gaonkar, Communication Studies, Northwestern University
Elementary Aspects of the Political: Histories from the Global South
Friday, February 3, 2023
10am CST
Featuring:
Prathama Banerjee, History and Political Theory, Center for the Study of Developing Societies-CSDS, New Delhi
Discussants:
Humberto Beck, Center for International Studies, El Colegio de México
Murad Idris, Political Science, University of Michigan
Rochona Majumdar, South Asian Languages & Civilizations and Cinema & Media Studies, University of Chicago
Convener:
Dilip Gaonkar, Communication Studies, Northwestern University
The Populist Century
Friday, December 2, 2022
10am CST
Featuring:
Pierre Rosanvallon, Modern and Contemporary Political History, Collège de France
Discussants:
Michael Sandel, Government, Harvard University
Charles Taylor, Philosophy, McGill University
Nadia Urbinati, Political Science, Columbia University
Convener:
Dilip Gaonkar, Communication Studies, Northwestern University
History 4° Celsius: Search for Method in the Age of Anthropocene
Friday, October 7, 2022
10am CDT
Presenter: Ian Baucom
Discussants: Prathama Banerjee, Claire Colebrook, and Debjani Ganguly
Convener:
Dilip Gaonkar (Communication Studies, Northwestern University)
Free and open to the public. On Zoom.
Slum Acts
Friday, April 22, 2022
10am CDT
Presenter:
Veena Das
Respondents:
Piergiorgio Donatelli
Sameena Mulla
Brighupati Singh
Convener:
Dilip Gaonkar, Communication Studies, Northwestern University
The Tyranny of Merit: What’s Become of the Common Good?
Friday, February 4, 2022
10am CST
Presenter: Michael Sandel
Discussants: Charles Taylor, Nilüfer Göle, and Craig Calhoun
Convener:
Dilip Gaonkar (Communication Studies, Northwestern University)
Free and open to the public. On Zoom.
Colegio Nacional Lectures on State and Violence in Contemporary Mexico
Friday, December 10, 2021
10am CST
Presenter: Claudio Lomnitz
Discussants: Veena Das and Fernando Escalante
Convener:
Dilip Gaonkar (Communication Studies, Northwestern University)
Free and open to the public. On Zoom.
Cultivating Democracy:
Politics and Citizenship in Agrarian India
Friday, October 29, 2021
10am CDT | 4pm BST | 8:30pm IST
Presenter: Mukulika Banerjee
Discussants: Deepak Mehta and Lisa Mitchell
Convener:
Dilip Gaonkar (Communication Studies, Northwestern University)
Free and open to the public. On Zoom.
Postcolonial Bergson
June 3, 2021
Presenter: Souleymane Bachir Diagne
Discussants: Naveeda Khan, Charles Taylor, and Gary Wilder
Convener:
Dilip Gaonkar (Communication Studies, Northwestern University)
Free and open to the public. On Zoom.
Theory of the Gimmick:
Aesthetic Judgment and Capitalist Form
April 29, 2021
Presenter: Sianne Ngai
Discussants: Mark Greif, Joseph Jonghyun Jeon, and Leigh Claire LaBerge
Convener:
Dilip Gaonkar (Communication Studies, Northwestern University)
Free and open to the public. On Zoom.
I Am the People:
Refletions on Popular Sovereignty Today
April 8, 2021
Presenter: Partha Chatterjee
Discussants: Paulina Ochoa Espejo, Ritty Lukose, and Lars Tønder
Convener:
Dilip Gaonkar (Communication Studies, Northwestern University)
Free and open to the public. On Zoom.
China's Heart of Darkness:
Prince Han Fei and Chairman Xi Jinping
February 25, 2021
Presenter: Zha Jianying
Discussants: Loubna El Amine, Geremie Barmé, and Pratap Bhanu Mehta
Convener:
Dilip Gaonkar (Communication Studies, Northwestern University)
Free and open to the public. On Zoom.
The Climate of History in a Planetary Age
December 10, 2020
Presenter: Dipesh Chakrabarty
Discussants: Craig Calhoun, Hartmut Rosa, Michael Warner, and Mukulika Banerjee
Convener:
Dilip Gaonkar (Communication Studies, Northwestern University)
Free and open to the public. On Zoom.
