It was a pleasure to be interviewed, along with Claudia de la Cruz, on one of my favorite news and information platforms: The Socialist Program. We discuss socialist lessons from January 6th, including the signs of an inside job, the rapid rehabilitation of Trump, the history and current manifestations of fascism, the limits of the Democratic Party and bourgeois democracy, the need for a United Front from below, and more…
Category Archives: Videos
Lecture on “The Global Theory Industry & Left Anti-Communism”
Interviewed by Chris Hedges on the Past and Present of U.S. Fascism
It was an honor to be featured again on Chris Hedges’ “On Contact” to discuss my ongoing research on the history and present manifestations of fascism, and more specifically my recent article for Liberation School entitled “Fascist Plots in the US: Contemporary Lessons from the 1934 ‘Business Plot.’” Click here to watch.
Excerpt: “We have to recognize that fascism takes different forms and different shapes, and that it’s always an element operative under capitalist rule and bourgeois democracy. As much as it [bourgeois democracy] can help us stave off certain fascist elements, it will keep some of them in the wings in case there’s ever a real threat to bourgeois democratic and hence capitalist rule.”
Lecture: “Critical and Revolutionary Theory”
Here is my opening lecture from the Critical Theory Workshop‘s online summer program 2020. Click here for the call for applications for the 2021 summer program, which will take place online and–hopefully–in person.
TV Interview on Aesthetics & Politics for BIENALSUR 2021
I was very honored and pleased to participate in this dialogue with Diana Wechsler and Leandro Martínez Depietri for BIENALSUR 2021. One of the central points of discussion is the role of culture in class struggle. Drawing on the work I’ve been doing with Jennifer Ponce de León for our current book project, I distinguished between the aesthetics of power–meaning the diverse ways in which the power elite creates an image of itself, and how this image serves its class interests–and the power of aesthetics to both diagnose the various uses of culture as a weapon for the ruling class and channel an alternative world of sense making. All Power to the Creative Labor Power of the People!
TV Interview for BIENALSUR Will Air on 12/5/20
“El imaginario dominante dentro de la coyuntura neoliberal es reductivista, determinista, teleológico y trata de convencernos de que la historia es inevitable y que lo único que podemos hacer es seguir las consecuencias… La contra-historia es un intento de transformar metodológicamente nuestras herramientas de comprensión histórica para tener una aprehensión diferente del orden mundial contemporáneo”, dice el filósofo, crítico cultural y activista Gabriel Rockhill (FRA/USA), con quien BIENALSUR inaugura un ciclo de conversaciones íntimas, de puesta en foco de ideas y pensamientos. Rockhill estudió con algunas de las voces más sobresalientes de la filosofía francesa, incluyendo a Derrida, Irigaray, Balibar y Badiou. Es profesor de filosofía en la Universidad de Villanova y director fundador del Critical Theory Workshop y conocido por sus revolucionarios trabajos sobre historia, estética y política publicados en nueve libros y numerosos artículos, una obra cuya primera compilación en español será publicada por la Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero en 2021 a través de un número especial de la revista Estudios Curatoriales.
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“The dominant imaginary within the neoliberal conjuncture is reductivist, deterministic, teleological and tries to convince us that history is inevitable and that the only thing we can do is to follow the consequences… Counter-history is an attempt to methodologically transform our tools of historical understanding to have a different apprehension of the contemporary world order”, says philosopher, cultural critic and activist Gabriel Rockhill (FRA/USA), with whom BIENALSUR inaugurates a cycle of intimate conversations and focused debatesRockhill studied with some of the leading luminaries of French theory, including Derrida, Irigaray, Balibar and Badiou. He is Professor of Philosophy at Villanova University and Founding Director of the Critical Theory Workshop being known for his revolutionary works on history, aesthetics and politics published in nine books and numerous articles, a work whose first compilation in Spanish will be published by UNTREF in 2021 through a special issue of the journal Estudios Curatoriales.
Featured on Chris Hedges’ “On Contact” to Discuss My Work on Fascism
“The US was recognized by the Nazis as the best model of racial apartheid & statecraft. [In fact,] when Italian fascism first came on the international scene, there were many articles in the US press that recognized that it was the European version of the KKK.” Honored to be featured on Chris Hedges’ “On Contact” to discuss my emerging book project on a counter-history of fascism and liberalism (click here to watch).
The work under discussion is a series of four articles I’ve written:
“Fascism: Now You See It, Now You Don’t!” CounterPunch (October 12, 2020).
“Liberalism and Fascism: Partners in Crime.” CounterPunch (October 14, 2020).
“The U.S. Did Not Defeat Fascism in WWII, It Discretely Internationalized It.” CounterPunch (October 16, 2020). This article was translated into Spanish.
“Liberalism & Fascism: The Good Cop & Bad Cop of Capitalism.” Black Agenda Report (October 21, 2020).
Lecture: “Toward a Counter-History of French Theory”
The lecture I presented at the Critical Theory Workshop’s Summer Program in Paris is now available here on the CTW’s website. It is entitled “Toward a Counter-History of French Theory,” and it took place on July 15, 2019.
Lecture: “Rancière and His Legacy: Contributions and Limitations”
Here is my presentation on “Rancière and His Legacy: Contributions and Limitations.” It took place at the Critical Theory Workshop‘s Summer Program at the EHESS in Paris, France, on July 2, 2019. For information on the 2020 summer program click here.
Lecture on “International Critical Theory”
Here is my presentation on “International Critical Theory” at the Critical Theory Workshop‘s Summer Program at the EHESS in Paris, France, on July 1, 2019. For information on the 2020 summer program click here.