Format:

(a) Pre-Recorded Lecture by Prof. Evans (b) Discussion sessions on the GCAS Online Platform

Schedule:

GCAS live free public lecture on our Youtube channel: Sunday August 15 at 8pm GMT.

Session 1: Sun Sep 5 at 8pm GMT (40-60 mins)

Session 2: Sun Sep 12 at 8pm GMT (40-60 mins)
Session 3: Sun Sep 19 at 8pm GMT (40-60 mins)

Session 4: Sun Sep 26 at 8pm GMT (40-60 mins)

Limited Enrollment

Title: “Ecce Humanitas: Beholding the Pain of Humanity”

Instructor: Professor Dr. Brad Evans

Level: Open to all

Description:

This seminar will examine the core idea of humanity in the wake of its own identity and categorical crisis. Prof. Evan will explore this critical topic through the following four lectures:

1) A Natural History of Violence (Sep 5)

2) Violence & the Sacred (Sep 12)

3) Violence & Technology (Sep 19)

4) Violence & Art (Sep 26)

“Born in the ashes of devastation after the slaughter of millions, the liberal conception of humanity imagined a suffering victim in need of salvation. Today, this figure appears less and less capable of galvanizing the political imagination. But without it, how are we to respond to the inhumane violence that overwhelms our political and philosophical registers? How can we make sense of the violence that was carried out in the name of humanism? And how can we develop more ethical relations without becoming parasitic on the pain of others?

Through a critical exploration of violence and the sacred, Ecce Humanitas recasts the fall of liberal humanism. Brad Evans offers a rich analysis of the changing nature of sacrificial violence, from its theological origins to the exhaustion of the victim in the contemporary world. He critiques the aestheticization that turns victims into sacred objects, sacrificial figures that demand response, perpetuating a cycle of violence that is seen as natural and inevitable. In novel readings of classic and contemporary works, Evans traces the sacralization of violence as well as art’s potential to incite resistance. Countering the continued annihilation of life, Ecce Humanitas calls for liberating the political imagination from the scene of sacrifice. A new aesthetics provides a form of transgressive witnessing that challenges the ubiquity of violence and allows us to go beyond humanism to imagine a truly liberated humanity.”

From the book description.

Videos by Brad Evans

Required Reading

Brad Evans, “Ecce Humanitas: Beholding the Pain of Humanity” Columbia University Press, 2021