in theory | #4 Lewis Gordon

In this fourth edition of in theory, we will be in a personal conversation with Lewis R. Gordon and explore his life trajectory and the implicit and explicit boundaries of philosophy as a discipline and their continuous transgression. What does it mean to address Blackness in philosophy? What is the place for a critique of European philosophy’s colonial conditions? How  is it possible to be simultaneously inside and outside philosophy? What are the im/possible reverberations between philosophy, music and physics? How do fiction, biography, and (philosophical) theory resonate together? And where does philosophy, finally, begin to groove? The conversation will be mediated by Juliana M. Streva.

Lewis R. Gordon is an Afro-Jewish public intellectual, academic, and musician. He teaches at the University of Connecticut, where he is a Professor and Head of the Philosophy Department. He lectures and is involved in political and artistic projects across the globe and holds research and teaching appointments in several countries. Lewis Gordon is the author of many books, including What Fanon Said: A Philosophical Introduction to his Life and Thought (2015), and most recently, Freedom, Justice, and Decolonization (2021) and Fear of Black Consciousness (2022), to be published in German translation later this year.