Jane Bennett (political theorist)

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Jane Bennett
Born (1957-07-31) 31 July 1957 (age 66)
Nationality American
Education Siena College
University of Massachusetts
Era Contemporary philosophy
Region Western philosophy
School Continental philosophy
Speculative realism [1]
New materialism
Institutions Johns Hopkins University School of Arts and Sciences
Main interests
Political philosophy
Notable ideas
Vibrant matter, new materialism

Jane Bennett (born July 31, 1957) [2] is an American political theorist and philosopher. She is the Andrew W. Mellon Professor of the Humanities at the Department of Political Science, Johns Hopkins University School of Arts and Sciences. [3] She was also the editor of the academic journal Political Theory between 2012 and 2017. [4] [5]

Contents

Education

Jane Bennett originally trained in environmental studies and political science. She graduated magna cum laude in 1979 from Siena College in Loudonville, New York. Whilst at Siena College Bennett met Kathy Ferguson. Bennett then went on to the University of Massachusetts, where she earned a Ph.D. political science in 1986. [6] [7]

Philosophical work

Bennett's work considers ontological ideas about the relationship between humans and 'things', what she calls "vital materialism":

What counts as the material of vital materialism? Is it only human labour and the socio-economic entities made by men using raw materials? Or is materiality more potent than that? How can political theory do a better job of recognizing the active participation of nonhuman forces in every event and every stabilization? Is there a form of theory that can acknowledge a certain ‘thing-power’, that is, the irreducibility of objects to the human meanings or agendas they also embody? [8]

In her most frequently cited book, Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things, [9] Bennett's argument is that, "Edibles, commodities, storms, and metals act as quasi agents, with their own trajectories, potentialities and tendencies.". [6] Bennett has also published books on American authors Henry David Thoreau and Walt Whitman.

Public lectures she has given include "Impersonal Sympathy", a talk theorizing 'sympathy' in which she considered the alchemist-physician Paracelsus (1493-1541) and Walt Whitman's collection of poetry, Leaves of Grass . [10] In 2015 Bennett delivered the annual Neal A. Maxwell Lecture in Political Theory and Contemporary Politics at the University of Utah entitled “Walt Whitman and the Soft Voice of Sympathy.”

Fellowships

Bibliography

Books

Book review: Princen, Thomas (March 2011). "Critical Dialogue - "Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things." By Jane Bennett. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2010. 176p. $74.95 cloth, $21.95 paper". Perspectives on Politics. 9 (1): 118–120. doi:10.1017/S1537592710003464. S2CID   144328266.
Bennett's response to five book reviews of Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things: Bennett, Jane (November 2011). "Author response". Dialogues in Human Geography. 1 (3): 404–406. doi:10.1177/204382061100100310. S2CID   220591219.

Edited books

Book chapters

Abridged version printed (along with an 'assignment') as: Bennett, Jane (2013), "Powers of the hoard: further notes on material agency", in Sutela, Jenna (ed.), Add metaphysics: essays and assignments, Aalto, Finland: Aalto University Digital Design Laboratory, pp. 52–67, ISBN   9789526049540 Open access link.
Revised and reprinted as Bennett, Jane (2015), "Of sympathies alchemical and poetic", Rare Earth, Vienna: Tyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, pp. 112–118

Journal articles

Also occasionally referred to with the alternative title "The order of nature in Lucretius", this article discusses De rerum natura (On the Nature of Things) by Lucretius.
This article was a response to: White, Stephen K. (Spring 2000). "Affirmation and weak ontology in political theory: some rules and doubts". Theory & Event. 4 (2).
This article was in response to: Harman, Graham (Spring 2012). "The well-wrought broken hammer: object-oriented literary criticism". New Literary History . 43 (2): 183–203. doi:10.1353/nlh.2012.0016. S2CID   145048580.
and: Morton, Timothy (Spring 2012). "An object-oriented defense of poetry". New Literary History . 43 (2): 205–224. doi:10.1353/nlh.2012.0018. S2CID   170397563.

Blog posts

Published interviews

Revised and reprinted as Khan, Gulshan (2012), "Vital materiality and non-human agency: an interview with Jane Bennett", in Prokhovnik, Raia; Browning, Gary; Dimova-Cookson, Maria (eds.), Dialogues with contemporary political theorists, Houndsmill, Basingstoke, Hampshire New York: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 42–58, ISBN   9780230303058

See also

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References

  1. Vibrant Matters: An Interview with Jane Bennett
  2. "Bennett, Jane, 1957-". Library of Congress. Retrieved 25 July 2014. Her Unthinking faith and enlightenment, c1987: CIP t.p. (Jane Bennett) data sheet (b. 7/31/57)
  3. 1 2 Bennett, Jane (2018). "Curriculum Vitae". Johns Hopkins Department of Political Science. Archived from the original on 18 April 2019. Retrieved 18 April 2019.
  4. "Political Theory: An International Journal of Political Philosophy". Sage. Retrieved 25 July 2014.
  5. "Jane Bennett". Political Science. 13 March 2015. Retrieved 21 December 2019.
  6. 1 2 Watson, Janell (October 2013). "Eco-sensibilities: interview with Jane Bennett". Minnesota Review. 81 (1): 147–158. doi:10.1215/00265667-2332147. S2CID   145051920.
  7. 1 2 "Jane Bennett". Department of Political Science, Johns Hopkins University. Retrieved 25 July 2014.
  8. Khan, Gulshan (February 2009). "Agency, nature and emergent properties: an interview with Jane Bennett". Contemporary Political Theory. 8 (1): 90–105. doi:10.1057/cpt.2008.43. S2CID   144483000.
  9. " Strawberries on Life Support by Antónia Szabari & Natania Meeker". Los Angeles Review of Books]
  10. "CISSC Lecture Series: Jane Bennett, Johns Hopkins University: Impersonal Sympathy". Center for Interdisciplinary Studies in Society and Culture, Concordia University, Montreal. 22 March 2013. Archived from the original on 28 July 2014. Retrieved 25 July 2014.
  11. Barclay, Glen St John; Turner, Caroline (1 May 2004). Visiting Fellows and Other Visitors, 1991–2004. Humanities Research Centre, Australian National University. doi: 10.22459/HRC.05.2004 . ISBN   9780975122983 . Retrieved 25 July 2014.
  12. "Visiting research fellows: previous visiting research fellows - Professor Bennett". Centre for the Study of Social and Global Justice (CSSGJ), The University of Nottingham. Retrieved 25 July 2014.
  13. "Past visiting research fellows: Professor Jane Bennett (2010)". Birbeck Institute for the Humanities, University of London. Retrieved 25 July 2014.