DEMOS21 Inaugural Event

"DEMOS21 INAUGURAL EVENT “WHAT IS ENGAGEMENT?” WITH ÉTIENNE BALIBAR

On Friday, December 11, 2020, the Center for Critical Democracy Studies (CCDS) hosted Étienne Balibar for the inaugural lecture in its year-long lecture series, Demos21. In Balibar’s talk he discussed the fundamental question: “What is engagement?”, stressing that the French word “engagement” is a concept that translates in English as both engagement and commitment. “To speak about engagement is inevitably to speak, reflect, meditate or ruminate about oneself,” he explained. “One’s history, one’s life, one’s actions, one’s achievements, one’s errors, one’s failures and one’s mistakes.” Balibar’s focus was on the partisan activity of intellectuals who had decided to defend, illustrate and support some kind of political, social or moral code and who, therefore, found it necessary to join some kind of movement. Aiming to provide a broad, introductory overview of his response to the evening’s principal question, Balibar drew on the works of thinkers such as Jean Paul Sartre, Theodor Adorno and Karl Marx to explore how engagement can be defined in the context of intellectualism.

Following the talk, an audience discussion was moderated by Professor Philip Golub (AUP) and AUP alumna Zona Zaric (IFDT). The lecture was organized in partnership with the Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory (IFDT) at the University of Belgrade and the Center for Advanced Studies – Southeast Europe (CAS SEE) at the University of Rijeka.