Date:
Location:
FRANCE AND THE WORLD
SPEAKER: Bruno Perreau, MIT
Bruno Perreau will be presenting on his latest book, Sphères d'injustice: pour un universalisme minoritaire (Spheres of Injustice: A Defense of Minority Universalism), published in October 2023 with La Découverte. Spheres of Injustice proposes a new theory of justice based on a cross-cultural study of minority politics and anti-discrimination law in France and the United States.
Spheres of Injustice analyzes the challenges faced by the notion of minority today on both sides of the Atlantic:
- “Minority” has become so complex a denomination that it is difficult to use in law and spawns its own, whole diversity industry.
- Reactionary instrumentalizes it by demanding, in the name of their freedom of expression, to be protected as minorities.
- The lists of protected groups encourage competition among minorities, as is the case, regarding affirmative action, between Asian-American and African-American students.
Spheres of Injustice attempts to overcome these challenges and restore sharpness to the notion of minority. In the wake of Jacques Derrida and Jean-Luc Nancy, the book proposes a theory of subjectivity as a sort of co-appearance with others on the social stage. This demonstrates that we are governed by the way others are governed.
As a rereading of Michael Walzer’s classic work, Spheres of Justice, Perreau's book shows that responsibility to others and protecting the planet require a conception of justice based not only on abstract moral principles in different spheres of life but also on the concrete experience of injustice. Spheres of Injustice thus defends a minority ethics of learning rather than a morality of interest (classical liberal theories), recognition (multiculturalist theories), or empathy (care theories). Spheres of Injustice demonstrates the need for a universalist philosophy based on the minority part that runs through each of us.
About the Speaker
Bruno Perreau is the Cynthia L. Reed Professor of French Studies and Language. He specializes in critical theory, politics, and contemporary French literature and culture. His research focuses more specifically on gender in translation, queer theory in France and the US, kinship, adoption and bioethics, minority politics in a global context, narratives of class, race and sexuality, legal hermeneutics, and social theories of justice.
Perreau received his PhD in political science from the University of Paris 1, and taught for ten years at Sciences Po. He was a fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study (Princeton), the University of Cambridge (Jesus College), Stanford Humanities Center, UC Berkeley, and the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences. He received awards from the British Academy, the European Commission, the European University Institute, the French government (academic palms), and the American Council of Learned Societies. Since 2012, he has been affiliated with the Center for European Studies, Harvard.
Perreau is the author of eleven books and about thirty articles and book chapters. His most recent book (Sphères d’injustice. Pour un universalisme minoritaire, La Découverte, October 2023) proposes a new theory of justice based on a cross-cultural study of minority politics and anti-discrimination law in France and the US.
Perreau is the founding chair of the MIT Global France Seminar, and founder of the French+ Initiative @ MIT.