Adam Kotsko

Yesterday I had a great “book launch” seminar on Agamben’s Philosophical Trajectory with the Agamben Working Group at the University of Toronto. I had presented an early version of my theory on the composition history of The Use of Bodies to the group a couple years ago, and they have discussed my translations and other articles at times, so it was the perfect setting. Thank you to John Ricco and Philippe Theophanidis for the invitation!

I was invited to review David Tracy’s massive new two-volume Selected Essays for Critical Inquiry. I took the opportunity to reflect on what Tracy’s approach can tell us about the place of academic theology in contemporary intellectual life.

I have updated my Teaching History page to include syllabi for the courses I am teaching this spring:

• Music, Verse, and Drama: a Shimer Great Books course on the relationship between the three title artforms in various cultural traditions.
• Theology: Structures of Meaning: a Shimer Great Books course that looks at a range of religious traditions through the lens of personal narrative.
• Cardinal Directions Senior Seminar: an interdisciplinary seminar for graduating seniors of all majors, which is meant to be the capstone for their General Education experience. Faculty members are able to choose their own topic — mine is “Utopia and Dystopia.”

I was invited by a promising new left-wing Christian publication, The Bias Magazine, to comment on the disturbing events of Wednesday, January 6.

My review essay “Moving Forward to Move Back,” on several works by Agamben, has been translated into Chinese, and my essay “The Evangelical Mind” has been translated into Hebrew.

My article “American Politics in the Era of Zombie Neoliberalism” is now de-paywalled, as are a couple other pieces in the same issue of Public Culture.

After doing several podcast interviews on Neoliberalism’s Demons and Agamben’s Philosophical Trajectory, I was pleased to be invited to speak with David Dault about The Prince of This World on his radio show Things Not Seen. 

All systems are go for my essay collection, What is Theology?, the subtitle of which has been changed to the more user-friendly Christian Thought and Contemporary Life. I received two positive peer reviews this fall and revised the manuscript in light of their suggestions and critiques, in anticipation of official approval by the Editorial Board at Fordham University Press — which finally happened today! It is scheduled for publication in Fall of 2021. The current table of contents is listed below for your enjoyment.

I was honored to be invited to contribute a piece to the journal Public Culture on Trump and neoliberalism. Entitled “American Politics in the Era of Zombie Neoliberalism,” it is unfortunately available only to those with institutional access. Meanwhile, an earlier piece on a related theme, “Trump as Neoliberal Heretic” (which appeared in The Philosopher), has recently been made open-access.

I have a piece up in The Baffler on how the party duopoly subverts democracy.