Public Feelings Salon

The inaugural event in BCRW’s new Salon series, this engaged dialogue brings together several prominent and influential scholars whose work explores how affect and emotion influence public life. Just as feminism has sought to identify the ways in which the personal and the political are linked, the study of “public feelings” draws our attention to how and why feelings and emotion (assumed to be a private, personal experience) influence politics and notions of social belonging and intimacy. This interactive conversation, moderated by BCRW Director and Professor of Women’s Studies Janet Jakobsen, will focus on how perceptions of citizenship and solidarity are often bound up in emotions—like optimism, rage, and disgust—and how feelings can govern policy and political debates.  

Lauren Berlant is the George M. Pullman Professor of English at the University of Chicago. Ann Pellegrini is director of the Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality at New York University and an associate professor of performance studies and religious studies at NYU. José Muñoz is chair of the department of performance studies at NYU.

Lisa Duggan is a professor of social and cultural analysis at NYU. Tavia Nyong’o is an associate professor of performance studies at NYU.