What's Left of Philosophy

In this episode, we are joined by Assistant Professor of Law Lucien Ferguson  (Chicago-Kent College of Law) to discuss the ambiguities of freedom and labor in the constitutional interpretation of the Reconstruction Amendments that were passed after the US Civil War. Our discussion is guided by the landmark Slaughter-House Cases of 1873 that narrowly construed the federal rights protected by the 14th amendment and set the stage for the failure of Reconstruction at the end of the 19th century. We discuss the divergences between liberal and republican accounts of freedom, whether the constitution should remain the grammar for leftist political strategy, and how the collapse of reconstruction shapes debates around citizenship and belonging to this day.
leftofphilosophy.com | @leftofphil | @leftofphilosophy.bsky.social 
References:
William E. Forbath, “The Ambiguities of Free Labor: Labor and the Law in the Gilded Age” Wisconsin Law Review 4 (1985): 767-817. 
Music:
“Vintage Memories” by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
“My Space” by Overu | https://get.slip.stream/KqmvAN

Just a quick word about upcoming events you should join us for!
SPEP Webinar: Philosophy and Environmental Injustices, with Matthias Fritsch, Romy Opperman, and Michael Peterson, May 25, 5pm Eastern Standard Time
https://us.list-manage.com/1tRnwaVjgii?e=e22f097f7b&c2id=b595b31be157b5b356d9b3d96de5843f
As noted in the audio, a previous version of this announcement wrongly identified the date of the webinar as May 21. It's May 25. Sorry for the confusion!
BISR Chicago Course: Anti-Oedipus with Gil Morejón
https://thebrooklyninstitute.com/items/courses/new-york/deleuze-and-guattari-anti-oedipus-chicago/
Hope to see you soon!

Hello! Just dropping in with a few announcements about some cool upcoming stuff. Hope you'll join us!
SPEP Webinar: Philosophy and Environmental Injustices, with Matthias Fritsch, Romy Opperman, and Michael Peterson, May 21, 5pm Eastern Standard Time
https://us.list-manage.com/1tRnwaVjgii?e=e22f097f7b&c2id=b595b31be157b5b356d9b3d96de5843f
BISR Chicago Course: Anti-Oedipus with Gil Morejón
https://thebrooklyninstitute.com/items/courses/new-york/deleuze-and-guattari-anti-oedipus-chicago/

In this episode we discuss Kathi Weeks’ 2011 book The Problem with Work: Feminism, Marxism, Antiwork Politics and Postwork Imaginaries. The text brings together social reproduction feminism and autonomist Marxism to develop a critique of work as the organizing principle of life and dominant ethos in capitalist society. Weeks argues that the valorization of work is taken for granted even in certain strains of socialist criticism. We agree that work sucks, but we admit we have a hard time developing the postwork imaginary Weeks wants. We may just be the kind of modernists she’s calling out, but we’re very sympathetic and would love to see more idleness all around!
This is just a short teaser of the full episode. To hear the rest, please subscribe to us on Patreon:
patreon.com/leftofphilosophy
References:
Kathi Weeks, The Problem with Work: Feminism, Marxism, Antiwork Politics, and Postwork Imaginaries (Durham: Duke University Press, 2011)
Music:
“Vintage Memories” by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
“My Space” by Overu | https://get.slip.stream/KqmvAN

This episode engages with Glen Coulthard’s 2014 book Red Skin, White Masks: Rejecting the Colonial Politics of Recognition. Coulthard weaves a rich and varied tradition of radical Indigenous thought and practice with Marxism and the anti-colonial thought of Frantz Fanon into a distinctive vision of emancipation. Together, we interrogate his claims that dispossession rather than exploitation, or the expropriation of land rather than the expropriation of labour, constitutes the paradigmatic mode of domination for colonized peoples. More than anything, we contend with the notion that state ‘recognition’ is not only insufficient, but inimical to the kind of emancipatory Indigenous politics Coulthard envisions.  
leftofphilosophy.com | @leftofphil | @leftofphilosophy.bsky.social 
References:
Glen Sean Coulthard, Red Skin, White Masks: Rejecting the Colonial Politics of Recognition (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2014).
Music:
“Vintage Memories” by Schematist | schematist.bandcamp.com
“My Space” by Overu | https://get.slip.stream/KqmvAN