BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Talks.cam//talks.cam.ac.uk//
X-WR-CALNAME:Talks.cam
BEGIN:VEVENT
SUMMARY:Denialism\, Post-Denialism and the Boundaries of the Speakable - D
 r Keith Kahn-Harris\, Birkbeck College and Institute of Jewish Policy
DTSTART:20180605T160000Z
DTEND:20180605T180000Z
UID:TALK106483@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Rachael Taylor
DESCRIPTION:Speaker: Dr Keith Kahn-Harris - Sociologist and writer \n\nThe
  term 'denialism' has come to be applied to a cluster of 'alternative' for
 ms of knowledge\, including Holocaust denial\, global warming denial\, ant
 i-vaxxers\, 911 conspiracism\, creationism and more. In my forthcoming boo
 k Denial: The Unspeakable Truth\, I argue that denialism arose in modernit
 y as a result of a process in which\, post-enlightenment\, certain desires
  and political projects were rendered 'unspeakable' and impossible to legi
 timate publicly. Denialism is therefore a covert forms of advocating for a
 nd legitimating certain courses of action and ways of being in the world.\
 n\nThe 'alternative' to denialism is \, therefore\, a dystopian prospect\;
  a world in which the unspeakable becomes speakable again. This alternativ
 e is more than a hypothetical possibility. There are signs of a transition
  occurring from denialism to 'post-denialism'. Post-denialism\, embodied i
 n the discourse of Donald Trump\, eschews the masquerade of science and sc
 holarship that defines denialism\, in favour of a visceral kind of quasi-a
 cknowledgement of that which is denied. This may signal a weakening of the
  boundaries of the speakable and a concomitant shift in the language of po
 litical possibility. \n\nDr Keith Kahn-Harris is a sociologist and writer.
  He is a senior lecturer at Leo Baeck College an associate lecturer at Bir
 kbeck College\, and a Fellow of the Institute for Jewish Policy\nResearch.
 \n\nThe talk will be followed by a drinks reception in the Alison Richard 
 Building foyer.\n\nThis event is being hosted by the Conspiracy & Democrac
 y research project\, a five-year project funded by The Leverhulme Trust an
 d based at CRASSH.
LOCATION: Room SG1\, Alison Richard Building\, 7 West Road\, Cambridge\, C
 B3 9DT
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR