Porous Sovereignty, Walled Democracy

"Porous Sovereignty, Walled Democracy" Wendy Brown is Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley. She is the author of numerous influential books, including Regulating Aversion: Tolerance in the Age of Empire and Identity (2006), Politics Out of History (2001), and States of Injury: Power and Freedom in Late Modernity (1995). Known for her subtle and sophisticated interpretations of political theory and practice, her work elucidates the contemporary knots tying subordination and freedom, exclusion and equality, markets and democracy, state institutions and social movements. In her Katz lecture, Brown will address the curious phenomenon that finds nation-states building physical walls at their borders. In an ostensibly connected global world, such walls raise a series of questions. What is the relationship between these walls and the erosion of national sovereignty by transnational forces? Do the walls assert sovereignty or confess its failures? What is the relationship of economy and security at the site of walls? And what transformation in democracy do the new walls herald? This talk was delivered on April 22, 2008 at the University of Washington. This file is made available courtesy of the Walter Chapin Simpson Center for the Humanities at the University of Washington.