Social Science Research Council

The following is a selection of Craig Calhoun’s recent lectures. SEE ALSO: Transcripts and audio files from the events Calhoun hosts at the NYU-based Institute of Public Knowledge.

“Interdisciplinarity, Innovation and Informing the Public”

For academic research to be truly innovative, it means not just coming up with that one new idea but coming up with effective ways of continually improving your ideas and communicating them to greater numbers of potential beneficiaries, Calhoun said in his 11 Feb 09 lecture for the USC Annenberg School for Communication, part of a series the school is running on sustainable innovation.
? Go to lecture write-up.
? Go to YouTube video.
? Download transcript (pdf: 91 pages, 256kb).

“The Emergency Imaginary: Global Media, Cosmopolitan Cultures, and Humanitarian Action”

In this opening plenary for the conference “Multiplicities: World Cinema, Globalised Media and Cosmopolitan Cultures,” held at Manchester University (UK) on June 16-17, 2008, Calhoun addresses the changing nature of emergency humanitarianism within four distinct periods: post-WWII, post-1960s, post-1989, and post-2001. Specifically, he examines: the role of the media–in particular, visual imagery–in communicating both distant suffering and urgent need of action; the role of colonialism in shaping the misunderstanding that some societies cannot govern or care for themselves; and the role of cosmopolitanism in creating a sense of universal ethical responsibility.

“Humanitarianism: Progress, Charity, and Emergencies”

Calhoun was invited to deliver the 21st annual Sir Robert Birley Memorial Lecture at City University London, held October 2, 2007.

“Nationalism and Cosmopolitanism.”

Calhoun’s Ernest Gellner Nationalism Lecture, the 13th in the annual series sponsored by the Association for the Study of Ethnicity and Nationalism at the London School of Economics (held 16 April 2007), is featured in the July 2008 Nations and Nationalism.

Opening remarks (with Jonathan Adelstein, FCC Commissioner, and Bob McChesney, founder of Free Press)

In this address before the SSRC-Free Press Media Policy Research Pre-conference to the National Conference on Media Reform (held in Memphis, Tennessee, January 11, 2007), Calhoun outlines the purpose of the SSRC’s project Necessary Knowledge for a Democratic Public Sphere, arguing that policy makers stand to benefit from greater collaboration with both academics and activists. Editor’s note: Calhoun’s remarks are available as a transcript (html) and in audio (mp3, 17:26, 8 MB) courtesy of SSRC’s Media Research Hub.

“Focus on the Future of Universities”

In this keynote address marking the 25th anniversary of Thesis Eleven, an Australian journal of social theory, which was commemorated with an all-day seminar on the future of universities, Calhoun argues that we need a stronger analysis of how universities can be public, how funding shapes possibilities, what kinds of benefits can be achieved, how they are distributed and–perhaps most basically–how this can addressed in public discussion both within universities and on national and international levels. This event took place at Thesis Eleven Centre for Social Theory, La Trobe University (Victoria, Australia), on December 5, 2005. Also on this occasion, Calhoun was presented with an honorary doctorate.

Laudatio (pdf, 5 pages, 20 KB) on the occasion of the awarding of the annual Holberg International Memorial Prize to Jürgen Habermas

In Bergen, Norway, in November 30, 2005, Calhoun delivers an encomium to Jürgen Habermas and his extraordinary body of work–in particular, his writings on post-WWII Germany, his dialogues with Niklas Luhmann and Hans-Georg Gadamer, his response to student movements in the 1960s and 1970s, his exploration of ethnic nationalism and integration, and his contributions to the debate on the intellectual significance of religion–to which social scientists, humanists, social activists, and critical theorists are all indebted.

“Culture and Social Change: Disciplinary Exchanges” (pdf, 10 pages, 72 KB)

Delivering the keynote speech for the inaugural conference of the Center for Research on Sociocultural Change (CRESC) at Manchester University, UK (July 11, 2005), Calhoun introduces various disciplinary–sociology, anthropology, geography, economics, history, science and technology studies–approaches to analyzing culture. In his view, how we define the relationship between “public” and “private” profoundly affects how we think about such topics as risk (e.g., the funding of health care or retirement), the place of religion in contemporary life, and even the mission of the university.

“Rethinking the Public Sphere” (pdf, 6 pages, 48 KB)

At this presentation to the Ford Foundation on February 7, 2005, Calhoun discusses how our prevailing notions of “public” and “private” have shaped the relationship between NGOs and  the government, NGOs and the markets. He calls for working together to strengthen public access to the media as well as to institutions that enable public discussion.

“A World of Emergencies: Fear, Intervention, and the Limits of Cosmopolitan Order” (pdf, 24 pages, 1.4 MB)

Delivering the 35th Annual Sorokin Lecture in Saskatchewan, Canada (March 5, 2004), Calhoun addresses  the interventions into “complex humanitarian emergencies,” which have become such a feature of modern-day international affairs. Even when news of atrocities overwhelmingly demand intervention–such as in Sudan–the “social imaginary of emergencies” shapes both our sense of what constitutes a humanitarian emergency as well as our decisions about whether and how to intervene. According to Calhoun, this imaginary reflects, on the one hand, our anxiety in the face of risk and, on the other, a pervasive modern faith in our capacity to manage problems.