What I've been up to, 2016

Obviously I haven't been using this blog much, but for something of such narrow interest as "the year in me" (really, pretty much of interest only to me), this is a better venue than Bleeding Heart Libertarians.

It was an active year, some of which had to do with follow-up to Rationalism, Pluralism, and Freedom but most of which involved new projects.

(Not going to worry about categories here, since this is a blog post not a CV.)

Symposium on Rationalism, Pluralism, and Freedom at BHL

Symposium on Rationalism, Pluralism, and Freedom at the Online Library of Liberty

“There Is No Such Thing as Ideal Theory”, 33(1-2) Social Philosophy & Policy 312-333 (Oct 2016)


"Pluralism without Privilege? Corps Intermédiaires, Civil Society, and the Art of Association," forthcoming in Naomi R. Lamoreaux and John J. Wallis, eds., Organizations, Civil Society, and the Roots of Development, NBER/ University of Chicago Press

“Toward a Non-Lockean Libertarianism”, forthcoming in Jason Brennan, Bas van der Vossen, and David Schmidtz, eds., The Routledge Handbook of Libertarianism

“Against Fraternity: Democracy Without Solidarity”, final version forthcoming in Keith Banting and Will Kymlicka, eds., The Strains of Commitment: The Political Sources of Solidarity in Diverse Societies, Oxford University Press. (The linked version is a much earlier draft, but the final version isn't available online.)

"Cotton, Coercion, and Capitalism," review of Sven Beckert, Empire of Cotton, in Reason

Review of Jeremy Waldron, Political Political Theory, forthcoming in The Review of Politics (not yet online)

"Authoritarianism and Post-Truth Politics," Niskanen Center

"The Defense of Liberty Can't Do Without Identity Politics," Niskanen Center

(I've joined the Niskanen Center's project on revitalizing liberalism, and will be writing a lot more for them.)

"Safe spaces, academic freedom, and the university as a complex association," lecture at Georgia State University.

(I gave other talks at Texas A&M, Princeton, Harvard, Chicago, Oxford, King's College London, APSA, Liberty Fund, and Yale, mostly based on one of the papers linked to above except that APSA and Yale were a draft on "Satirical Enlightenment," and Harvard was remarks on Nancy Rosenblum's On the Side of Angels for her retirement conference.)

Podcast of a discussion of Rationalism, Pluralism, and Freedom at George Mason University

Editing:
Entries in the Oxford Handbook of Classics in Contemporary Political Theory that were published online in 2016 were:

• Alasdair MacIntyre, After Virtue: An Study in Moral TheoryJohn R. Wallach
• Robert Dahl, A Preface to Democratic TheoryEric MacGilvray
• Joseph Raz, The Morality of FreedomColin Bird
• Charles Taylor, Sources of the SelfMichael Zuckert
• G. A. Cohen, Karl Marx’s Theory of History—A DefencePeter Dietsch
• Robert Paul Wolff, In Defense of AnarchismAnna Stilz
• Simone de Beauvoir, The Second SexLori Marso
• Hans-Georg Gadamer, Truth and MethodJoshua Foa Dienstag
• H. L. A. Hart, The Concept of LawMatthew H. Kramer
• Axel Honneth, The Struggle for RecognitionD. Clifton Mark
• Leo Strauss, Natural Right and HistoryRyan Balot
• Will Kymlicka, Multicultural CitizenshipJeff Spinner-Halev
• Bonnie Honig, Political Theory and the Displacement of PoliticsNicholas Tampio
• Sheldon Wolin, Politics and VisionLucy Cane
• C. B. Macpherson, The Political Theory of Possessive Individualism: Hobbes to LockeHugh Breakey
• Michael Walzer, Spheres of JusticeMargaret Moore
• Carole Pateman, The Sexual ContractMary G. Dietz

My course on medieval and Renaissance political theory was recognized by the Political Science Students' Association as "Political theory course of the year" for 2016-17, which absolutely delighted me.

Other things with which I was involved:
The Yan P. Lin Centre for the Study of Freedom and Global Orders in the Ancient and Modern Worlds was formally inaugurated with a lecture by Orlando Patterson. The Research Group on Constitutional Studies hosted lectures by Jenna Bednar and Jack Jackson as well as a debate on "Individualism, Liberty, and Self-Ownership" between Cécile Fabre and Eric Mack and the Annual Law and Religion Roundtable. The Groupe de Recherche Interuniversitaire en Philosophie Politique (GRIPP) maintained its usual busy schedule; I'll look ahead a bit and note that the submission deadline for the GRIPP book manuscript workshop prize is January 15. 

To conclude the year, I got the gift of thoughtful and engaged readership from Adam Gurri in "Jacob Levy's Liberalism of Tragedy."

More looking ahead, to the beginning and end of 2017:

I will be speaking on “Justice in Babylon” at the January 5-7 2017 annual meeting of the UK and Ireland Association for Political Thought at St. Catherine’s College, Oxford, in a lecture sponsored by the Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy (CRISPP).

In December 2017 I will be the Dan and Gwen Taylor Fellow visiting in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Otago (New Zealand).