Badiou, Universalism and Racial Politics — with Elisabeth Paquette

Below the Radar

Continental philosopher and assistant professor of Philosophy and Women Gender Studies at the University of North Carolina, Elisabeth Paquette, joins Am Johal to speak about her latest book, Universal Emancipation: Race Beyond Badiou. Elisabeth speaks about some of her transformative moments as a continental philosopher, including an essential question posed to her by Paget Henry, and her experience joining the Black Lives Matter Charlotte Protests in 2016. Her and Am also speak about the important questions surrounding ideas of justice, how justice can be emancipatory, and the ways that states fail in enacting justice — due to its deep foundations upon race and culture. Elisabeth spends time critiquing Badiou’s class-first philosophies that undermines possibilities for universality in the sense of race, and then discusses the histories of Marxism centering on whiteness and Eurocentric attitudes. She also speaks about the importance of positive conceptions of race, and draws from Sylvia Wynter to determine that true universal emancipation needs to be filled with the varied and particular knowledges of racialized folks. Full episode details: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/156-elisabeth-paquette.html Read the transcript: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/transcripts/156-elisabeth-paquette.html Resources: — Universal Emancipation: Race Beyond Badiou, by Elisabeth Paquette: https://www.abebooks.co.uk/Universal-Emancipation-Race-beyond-Badiou-Paquette/30926172047/bd — LGBTQ Staff and Faculty Caucus at UNC Charlotte: https://qtsfc.charlotte.edu/about-u — Decolonial Feminist Politics Workshop: https://decolonialthoughtworkshop.wordpress.com/ — Red Skin, White Masks by Glen Coulthard: https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/red-skin-white-masks — Glen Coulthard on Below the Radar: https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/37-glen-coulthard.html — Black Skin, White Masks by Frantz Fanon: http://abahlali.org/files/__Black_Skin__White_Masks__Pluto_Classics_.pdf — Black Marxism by Cedric J. Robinson: https://uncpress.org/book/9780807848296/black-marxism/ Bio: Elisabeth Paquette is an assistant professor of Philosophy and Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of North Carolina, and affiliate faculty with the Department of Africana Studies, the Center for Holocaust, Genocide, and Human Rights Studies. She received her B.A. from Trent University (Peterborough, Ontario, Canada), M.A. from the University of Guelph (Ontario, Canada), and Ph.D. from York University (Toronto, Ontario, Canada). Her research interests include social and political philosophy, decolonial theory, feminist theory, critical race theory, queer theory, and continental philosophy. Her publications can be found in philoSOPHIA, Philosophy Compass, Radical Philosophy Review, Hypatia, Philosophy Today, and Badiou Studies. Her first book — Universal Emancipation: Race beyond Badiou — was published with the University of Minnesota Press in October 2020. Cite this episode: Chicago Style Johal, Am. “Badiou, Universalism & Racial Politics — with Elisabeth Paquette” Below the Radar, SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement. Podcast audio, January 25, 2022. https://www.sfu.ca/vancity-office-community-engagement/below-the-radar-podcast/episodes/156-elisabeth-paquette.html.