Brown to Deliver PBK Lecture on Neoliberalism and Democracy

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Nov. 11, 2014) — Wendy Brown, the Class of 1936 First Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley, will deliver the 2014-15 Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholars lecture titled "Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism and Political Life." The talk will be held at 7:30 p.m. tonight in the William T. Young Library auditorium.

Brown's lecture will examine the damaging effects of neoliberal reason on democratic principles and ideals.  Brown argues that the value and values of democracy are challenged today not merely by the unrestrained power of finance capital and large corporations, or by extreme and growing economic inequality. Rather, they are undermined by an economic form of reason and governance that is undoing the constituent terms of democracy: freedom, equality, citizenship, rights, and above all, popular sovereignty.

About Wendy Brown

Brown is a scholar of Western political thought, both historical and contemporary, who aims to make political theory illuminate contemporary problems. She is a visiting faculty member of the University of London (Birkbeck) Critical Theory Summer School. Her current research examines challenges for democracy generated by neoliberal governance and austerity politics.

Phi Beta Kappa  is supported by the Chellgren Center for Undergraduate Excellence, which is part of the Academy of Undergraduate Excellence within the Division of Undergraduate Education at UK.