Monthly Archive: March, 2011

March 22, 2011

Charles Taylor: Why We Need a Radical Redefinition of Secularism

Charles Taylor’s essay in The Power of Religion in the Public Sphere, “Why We Need a Radical Redefinition of Secularism,” argues that democratic societies must allow for respect of various beliefs. However, too much emphasis is placed on religion as...

March 21, 2011

Jurgen Habermas on "The Political"

In The Power of Religion in the Public Sphere, Judith Butler, Jurgen Habermas, Charles Taylor, and Cornel West examine what role does—or should—religion play in our public lives? (Craig Calhoun provided the afterword to the volume.) This week we will...

March 18, 2011

William Duggan on a Marshall Plan for the Middle East

Earlier this month, William Duggan co-author with R. Glenn Hubbard of The Aid Trap: Hard Truths About Ending Poverty, appeared on Bloomberg News to talk about alternatives to existing financial aid models for Middle East countries:

March 17, 2011

Craig Calhoun on Religion's Many Powers

“To say that religion has power in the public sphere is not to say that it can be easily absorbed or that it should be. It is a basis for radical challenges and radical questions; it brings enthusiasm, passion, indignation,...

March 16, 2011

Correction to Inside Al Qaeda, by Rohan Gunaratna

In 2002, Columbia University Press, under license from C. Hurst & Co. (Publishers) Ltd. published a book entitled Inside Al Qaeda: Global Network of Terror by Rohan Gunaratna in which a businessman named Sheikh Muhammad Hussein al-Almadi was identified as...

March 16, 2011

Film Titles on Sale!

We are offering 30% off orders on dozens of titles in Film and Media Studies. Film Theory & History U.S., Canadian, and Latin American Film British, European, and Oceanic Film Asian and African Film Genre Films and Genre Studies Film...

March 15, 2011

Guobin Yang: China's Gradual Revolution

Will China follow in the footsteps of the Arab world and witness an outbreak of protests? In a New York Times op-ed China’s Gradual Revolution, Guobin Yang, author of The Power of the Internet in China: Citizen Activism Online, argues...

March 15, 2011

New Book Tuesday: Religion and International Theory

Just one new book this week: Religion and International Relations Theory Edited by Jack Snyder Includes contributions by Jack Snyder, Timothy Samuel Shah, Daniel Philpott, Elizabeth Shakman Hurd, Michael Barnett, Monica Duffy Toft, Daniel H. Nexon, Il Hyun Cho, J....

March 14, 2011

Patrick Keating Wins Award for Hollywood Lighting from the Silent Era to Film Noir

A belated congratulations to Patrick Keating’s whose book Hollywood Lighting from the Silent Era to Film Noir was selected by the Society of Cinema and Media Studies (SCMS) as the Best First Book in 2011. The award was presented to...

March 11, 2011

Is the War in Afghanistan Necessary? — Talal Asad

Talal Asad, author of On Suicide Bombing, argues in an essay for Religion and Ethics, argues that the war in Afghanistan was not necessary. In examining the rationale for the war, Asad demonstrates the various ways that through rhetoric and...

March 10, 2011

Erica Chenoweth on the Nonviolent Resistance in the Arab Revolts

“Nonviolent resistance is about finding and exploiting points of leverage in one’s own society. Every dictatorship has vulnerabilities, and every society can find them.”—Erica Chenoweth Erica Chenoweth, co-author of the forthcoming Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent...

March 8, 2011

Arshin Adib-Moghaddam: Postmodern Islam and the Arab Revolts

Arshin Adib-Moghaddam, author of A Metahistory of the Clash of Civilisations: Us and Them Beyond Orientalism, recently wrote an op-ed for Open Democracy on the revolutions in the Arab world, in which he argues: What is striking about this moment...