2022 Hardt-Nickachos Lecture in Peace Studies

Race, Gender, and Dehumanization

Today I fly back to the east coast after two days at a workshop at Arizona State University’s Center for the Study of Religion and Conflict. There were thirteen participants who converged from all over the United States and Europe to discuss their work on the topic of Minorities and Belonging.

I was the only philosopher in the group. All of the others were sociologists, historians, and scholars in law, women’s and gender studies, religious studies, and peace studies, most of whom do hands-on research into the plight of refugees and displaced persons in South Asia, in Greece, and in the squalid refugee camps of Northern France. Participants spoke of horseback processions of Native Americans visiting the sites of horrific massacres to heal the still-raw wounds of genocide, the desecration of sacred sites on the southern border of the United States, the horrific dehumanization of Muslims in the Indian state of Assam, and much, much more.

I was asked to give a public-facing talk—the 2022 Hardt-Nickachos Lecture in Peace Studies—the only component of the meeting that was open to the public. My presentation was titled Real Horror: Race, Gender, and Dehumanization. Here is a video of what I had to say.

Listening to the presentations of fellow participants was both mind-stretching and heart-rending, driving home yet again the ways that dehumanization continues to fuel violence, oppression, and human suffering.