Silverstein Forum, Stiteler Hall First Floor (Accessibility)
Free and open to the public
Co-sponsored by the The Penn Political Theory Workshop and the Political Science Department at Swarthmore College

Attendees are encouraged to read excerpts from Prof. Farris's book.
Please contact mitchell-center@sas.upenn.edu for the chapters.

PLEASE JOIN US for a lecture by Sara Farris, which draws on her recently published book, "In The Name Of Women's Rights: The Rise of Femonationalism" (Duke University Press, 2017). In her book Farris examines the demands for women's rights from an unlikely collection of right-wing nationalist political parties, neoliberals, and some feminist theorists and policy makers. Focusing on contemporary France, Italy, and the Netherlands, Farris labels this exploitation and co-optation of feminist themes by anti-Islam and xenophobic campaigns as “femonationalism.” She shows that by characterizing Muslim males as dangerous to western societies and as oppressors of women, and by emphasizing the need to rescue Muslim and migrant women, these groups use gender equality to justify their racist rhetoric and policies. This practice also serves an economic function. Farris analyzes how neoliberal civic integration policies and feminist groups funnel Muslim and non-western migrant women into the segregating domestic and caregiving industries, all the while claiming to promote their emancipation. "In the Name of Women's Rights" documents the links between racism, feminism, and the ways in which non-western women are instrumentalized for a variety of political and economic purposes.

Silverstein Forum, Stiteler Hall First Floor (Accessibility)
Free and open to the public / Cosponsored by the Penn Religious Studies Department and The Jack Miller Center
Discussant: Vincent Lloyd (Villanova University Dept. of Theology and Religious Studies)

All attendees are encouraged to read Prof. Schmidt's paper, available here.

THE QUESTION WHETHER AMERICAN RELIGIOUS FREEDOM included equal rights and liberties for unbelievers, infidels, and atheists was unsettled from the founding through the middle decades of the twentieth century.  In a series of Supreme Court cases stretching from 1948 through 1965, the playing field got a lot leveler for atheists, agnostics, and humanists.  But, a principle of neutrality -- that believers and unbelievers shared the same liberties and protections -- remained fraught.  The “fastidious atheist” or “devout atheist” was often still counted a nuisance by the court, and, when such irreligious objectors did succeed, they were often treated with such hostility as to make their legal victories look pyrrhic.

LEIGH E. SCHMIDT is the Edward C. Mallinckrodt Distinguished University Professor in the Humanities at Washington University in St. Louis. He joined the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics in 2011. He is the author of numerous books, including Hearing Things: Religion, Illusion, and the American Enlightenment (2000), which won the American Academy of Religion Award for Excellence in Historical Studies and the John Hope Franklin Prize of the American Studies Association; Heaven’s Bride: The Unprintable Life of Ida C. Craddock, American Mystic, Scholar, Sexologist, Martyr, and Madwoman (2010); and Restless Souls: The Making of American Spirituality (2005 and updated in 2012). 

All attendees are encouraged to read Prof. Schmidt's paper, available here.

College Hall, 4th Floor (Philomathean Society)

College Hall, Room 209 (Accessibility)
Free and open to the public / Lunch provided

Rob Goodman (Columbia University, Political Science)
"Say Everything: Frank Speech and the Characters of Style in Demosthenes"

Brian Palmiter (Harvard University, Government)
"The Architecture of Impeachment: Making Impeachment 'Political in the Right Way'"

College Hall, Room 200

Co-sponsored by the Pi Sigma Alpha Political Science Honor Society, The Jack Miller Center, and the Penn Wharton Public Policy Initiative.