[Anthropgrad] Research School of Humanities - 3rd Key Thinkers Lecture

[Sharon Komidar]

The Research School of Humanities presents,

 

The 3rd Key Thinkers lecture, 

Tuesday 1st of July, 5 - 6.30pm, Conference Room,

Old Canberra House, ANU.

 

Hannah Arendt

Dr Ned Curthoys

Post-doctoral Fellow, Research School of Humanities, ANU.

 

Hannah Arendt has been described as one of the most brilliant and
important political theorists of the twentieth century. She was one of
the first scholars to historically contextualise the rise of European
fascism in her landmark book The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951). In
the course of an adventurous life in which she fled Germany as a
stateless refugee, Arendt remained an engaged commentator and energetic
public intellectual, never succumbing to the temptation of a secure
academic existence or to ideological partisanship. Arendt has made an
enormous contribution to the political lexicon, presciently indicating
the need for historical research into European imperialism as a
necessary condition for the genocidal policies of National Socialism,
and defying conventional assumptions with her paradoxical and intriguing
notion of the 'banality of evil'.

 

In this talk Dr Curthoys will discuss Arendt's fascinating life and
work, her complex relationship to Judaism and Zionism, and her radical
rethinking of the purpose of historical understanding.

 

Ned Curthoys completed his PhD in the English Department at the
University of Sydney in 2002. His doctorate focused on the dissemination
of the humanist tradition of classical rhetoric into twentieth century
literary theory, philosophy, and political theory. Post-PhD he has
researched and published on the political theorist Hannah Arendt's
cross-cutting interests in literary narrative and biography.

 

Convenor: Ned Curthoys - ned.curthoys at anu.edu.au

For general enquiries please contact:
Phone: 6125 2434
Email: administration.rsh at anu.edu.au 
Web: http://rsh.anu.edu.au/

All Welcome
Please circulate widely