Eric Heinze, joined in conversation by Shamus Khan, presents his new book, "Coming Clean: The Rise of Critical Theory and the Future of the Left." Registration requested, but not required.
About the book (from the publisher):
What has gone wrong with the left—and what leftists must do if they want to change politics, ethics, and minds.
Leftists have long taught that people in the West must take responsibility for centuries of classism, racism, colonialism, patriarchy, and other gross injustices. Of course, right-wingers constantly ridicule this claim for its “wokeness.”
In "Coming Clean," Eric Heinze rejects the idea that we should be less woke. In fact, we need more wokeness, but of a new kind. Yes, we must teach about these bleak pasts, but we must also educate the public about the left's own support for regimes that damaged and destroyed millions of lives for over a century—Stalin in the Soviet Union, Mao Zedong in China, Pol Pot in Cambodia, or the Kim dynasty in North Korea.
Criticisms of Western wrongdoing are certainly important, yet Heinze explains that leftists have rarely engaged in the kinds of open and public self-scrutiny that they demand from others. Citing examples as different as the Ukraine war, LGBTQ+ people in Cuba, the concept of “hatred,” and the problem of leftwing antisemitism, Heinze explains why and how the left must change its memory politics if it is to claim any ethical high ground.
In conversation:
Eric Heinze is professor of law and humanities at Queen Mary University of London, where he directs the Centre for Law, Democracy and Society (CLDS). After completing degrees in the University of Paris, Eric Heinze earned law degrees from Harvard Law School (JD 1991) and the University of Leiden (PhD 1994). His prior books include "The Most Human Right: Why Free Speech Is Everything" (The MIT Press, 2022), "Hate Speech and Democratic Citizenship" (Oxford University Press, 2016), "The Concept of Injustice" (Routledge, 2013), "The Logic of Constitutional Rights" (Routledge, 2005), "The Logic of Liberal Rights" (Routledge, 2003); "The Logic of Equality" (Routledge, 2003), and "Sexual Orientation: A Human Right" (Nijhoff, 1995). Heinze currently serves as General Editor for major collections including "The Oxford Handbook of Hate Speech" (Oxford University Press, 2025) and "The Criminalisation of Hate Speech" (Springer, 2024). He also serves on the Advisory Boards of The International Journal of Human Rights (2008 – present), University of Bologna Law Review (2018 – present), Heliopolis: Culture Civiltà Politica (2020 – present), Rivista Italiana di Filosofia Politica (journal of the Italian Society of Political Philosophy, 2021 – present); Social Theory and Practice (2022 – present), Law – Human – Environment (2024 – present), Routledge Studies in Law, Rights and Justice (2023 – present).
Shamus Khan is Willard Thorp Professor of Sociology and American Studies at Princeton University. He writes on culture, inequality, gender, and elites. He is the author of over 100 articles, books, and essays, including "Privilege: The Making of an Adolescent Elite at St. Paul’s School" (Princeton), "The Practice of Research" (Oxford, with Dana Fisher), "Approaches to Ethnography: Modes of Representation and Analysis in Participant Observation" (Oxford, with Colin Jerolmack), and "Sexual Citizens: Sex, Power, and Assault on Campus" (W.W. Norton, with Jennifer Hirsch), which was named a best book of 2020 by NPR. He was a co-principal investigator of SHIFT, a multi-year study of sexual health and sexual violence at Columbia University. He directed the working group on the political influence of economic elites at the Russell Sage Foundation, is the series editor of “The Middle Range” at Columbia University Press, and served as the editor of the journal Public Culture. He writes regularly for the popular press such as The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and has served as a columnist for Time Magazine. In 2016 he was awarded Columbia University’s highest teaching honor, the Presidential Teaching Award, and in 2018 he was awarded the Hans L. Zetterberg Prize from Upsala University for “the best sociologist under 40.”
Presented with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this programming do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
AGE GROUP: | Adults |
EVENT TYPE: | Humanities | Civic Life | Author Talks | *Registration Requested |
