publicseminar.org Debate for now. Always free. Published by The New School. Subscribe to our newsletter: publicseminar.substack.com/https://bsky.app/profile/publicseminar.bsky.socialhttps://bsky.app/profile/publicseminar.bsky.social/post/3mrg6wvsfjk2r“Hate expressed across different structural positions is received entirely differently: pathologized in some, legitimized in others.” —L. Zhang on Şeyda Kurt’s new book, Hate: The Uses of a Powerful Emotion @versobooks.bsky.social https://publicseminar.org/2026/07/against-peace-and-love/24 Jul 2026 20:29 +0000at://did:plc:z2dtftobjjcamjxp76j4btbe/app.bsky.feed.post/3mrg6wvsfjk2rhttps://bsky.app/profile/publicseminar.bsky.social/post/3mraohbkgo226Shere Hite’s 1976 survey of women’s sex lives “broke the story that sex was not just a private affair between two people.” Speaking with Rachel Potter, Rosa Campbell discusses her new book on Hite, The Book That Taught the World to Orgasm and Then Disappeared. https://publicseminar.org/2026/07/re-revolutionizing-the-female-orgasm/22 Jul 2026 15:50 +0000at://did:plc:z2dtftobjjcamjxp76j4btbe/app.bsky.feed.post/3mraohbkgo226https://bsky.app/profile/publicseminar.bsky.social/post/3mr6hohrvx22nIn a conversation with Gil Bittner, Thomsen discusses how language deployed in the name of queerness and reproductive justice can end up reinforcing the very structures it is meant to challenge. @ucpress.bsky.social https://publicseminar.org/2026/06/queer-reproductive-justice/21 Jul 2026 18:44 +0000at://did:plc:z2dtftobjjcamjxp76j4btbe/app.bsky.feed.post/3mr6hohrvx22nhttps://bsky.app/profile/publicseminar.bsky.social/post/3mr3x6vuuh22oAs American public health infrastructure struggles to contain the parasitic infection cyclosporiasis, we return to a 2020 piece covering the nearly hundred-year history of conservative opposition to funding social programs. https://publicseminar.org/essays/social-programs-are-not-socialism/20 Jul 2026 18:43 +0000at://did:plc:z2dtftobjjcamjxp76j4btbe/app.bsky.feed.post/3mr3x6vuuh22ohttps://bsky.app/profile/publicseminar.bsky.social/post/3mqrs6hfbc22u“The visitor is surrounded by robots, aliens, and cyborgs in all directions. The wealth of content is both a nod to and a strain on attention spans in our current technological age.” —Yazan Ashqar on the New Museum’s exhibition New Humans: Memories of the Future https://publicseminar.org/2026/07/review-new-humans-at-the-new-museum/16 Jul 2026 17:47 +0000at://did:plc:z2dtftobjjcamjxp76j4btbe/app.bsky.feed.post/3mqrs6hfbc22uhttps://bsky.app/profile/publicseminar.bsky.social/post/3mq5y2mmwo22nIn her review of Charlotte Strange’s latest chapbook, Strange Biology, Colette Estelle explores how Strange borrows online, medical, and marketing language about the microbiome to question political resistance, illness, and the body. https://publicseminar.org/2026/06/gut-feeling/08 Jul 2026 20:39 +0000at://did:plc:z2dtftobjjcamjxp76j4btbe/app.bsky.feed.post/3mq5y2mmwo22nhttps://bsky.app/profile/publicseminar.bsky.social/post/3mplqb2tvuk2ySiobhan Kattago reflects on Jeffrey C. Goldfarb’s latest book with an analysis of how our current state of “neo-totalitarianism” must be fought through openness tempered by a critical awareness of when compromise becomes collaboration. @ceu-press.bsky.social https://publicseminar.org/2026/05/goldfarb-neototalitarianism/01 Jul 2026 14:32 +0000at://did:plc:z2dtftobjjcamjxp76j4btbe/app.bsky.feed.post/3mplqb2tvuk2yhttps://bsky.app/profile/publicseminar.bsky.social/post/3mpjbucegzk2z“This right to comfort could both be language to think about the right to air conditioning in prisons [and] it could also help us think about what an abolitionist world might look like.” —Anna Terwiel talks to Madeline Trice on her book Prison Abolition for Realists https://publicseminar.org/2026/06/practical-prison-abolition/30 Jun 2026 15:09 +0000at://did:plc:z2dtftobjjcamjxp76j4btbe/app.bsky.feed.post/3mpjbucegzk2zhttps://bsky.app/profile/publicseminar.bsky.social/post/3mpgxiaaaks2xAs Tamir Bell, Paul Draus, and Anna Müller watched Rwandans grapple with reintegrating perpetrators of the 1994 genocide, they witnessed how trust, vulnerability, and the space for return enables justice. https://publicseminar.org/2026/06/reconciliation-in-rwanda/29 Jun 2026 16:58 +0000at://did:plc:z2dtftobjjcamjxp76j4btbe/app.bsky.feed.post/3mpgxiaaaks2xhttps://bsky.app/profile/publicseminar.bsky.social/post/3mpe5trr75s2b“Any effort to quantify historical judgment involves choices about what counts, how it is weighted, and how it is presented.” —Larry Schwartz on the problem with C-SPAN’s presidential ranking system https://publicseminar.org/2026/06/c-span-presidential-historians-survey/28 Jun 2026 14:13 +0000at://did:plc:z2dtftobjjcamjxp76j4btbe/app.bsky.feed.post/3mpe5trr75s2bhttps://bsky.app/profile/publicseminar.bsky.social/post/3mpbqts3shk24In a review of Attensity!, a new manifesto on the value of living offscreen, Rachel Potter wonders about the efficacy of a book that invokes NPCs and lizard people in its quest to get us off our phones. https://publicseminar.org/2026/06/attensity-book-review/27 Jun 2026 15:15 +0000at://did:plc:z2dtftobjjcamjxp76j4btbe/app.bsky.feed.post/3mpbqts3shk24https://bsky.app/profile/publicseminar.bsky.social/post/3mp53b2lrl22eOn The New School’s past attempts to sell its murals by José Clemente Orozco, Gil Bittner writes that deaccessioning works that were made for specific universities is to betray “the school’s educational mission and intellectual legacy.” https://publicseminar.org/2026/06/when-the-new-school-tried-to-sell-the-orozco-room/25 Jun 2026 18:38 +0000at://did:plc:z2dtftobjjcamjxp76j4btbe/app.bsky.feed.post/3mp53b2lrl22ehttps://bsky.app/profile/publicseminar.bsky.social/post/3moxhxqeics2t“When does a simulacrum mark erasure—and when does it mark latency? When does it hollow out democratic life—and when does it preserve the grammar of its possible return?” —Elzbieta Matynia on how democracy can survive (or expire) through memory https://publicseminar.org/2026/06/simulacra-of-democracy/23 Jun 2026 13:10 +0000at://did:plc:z2dtftobjjcamjxp76j4btbe/app.bsky.feed.post/3moxhxqeics2thttps://bsky.app/profile/publicseminar.bsky.social/post/3mov5g2xqjc2gThe late nun-turned-pop-artist Corita Kent’s legacy is one of engagement with radical change in both art and politics. Julie Allan explores the artist’s life and career in her review of the newly reissued Someday Is Now: The Art of Corita Kent. https://publicseminar.org/2026/06/the-good-word-according-to-sister-corita-kent/22 Jun 2026 14:56 +0000at://did:plc:z2dtftobjjcamjxp76j4btbe/app.bsky.feed.post/3mov5g2xqjc2ghttps://bsky.app/profile/publicseminar.bsky.social/post/3motbynlpi226As our longtime executive editor James Miller retires, he leaves us with a parting question: What if modern politics isn’t a battle of Left versus Right but between “capitalism and governance”? https://publicseminar.org/2026/06/has-conservatism-outlived-its-usefulness/21 Jun 2026 21:12 +0000at://did:plc:z2dtftobjjcamjxp76j4btbe/app.bsky.feed.post/3motbynlpi226https://bsky.app/profile/publicseminar.bsky.social/post/3monxuzfccc2k“Despite its leaders’ efforts to distance themselves from Trump’s anti-immigrant excesses, Canada is not the immigration utopia it purports to be.” —Rachel Charney McKenzie on Canada’s increasingly hostile policies for asylum seekers https://publicseminar.org/2026/06/roxham-canada-immigration-law/19 Jun 2026 18:28 +0000at://did:plc:z2dtftobjjcamjxp76j4btbe/app.bsky.feed.post/3monxuzfccc2khttps://bsky.app/profile/publicseminar.bsky.social/post/3mokvp3yplc22Dominick DeJoy discusses the paradox of the Artist Status in Belgium: a much-needed social safety net that obscures the growing casualization of cultural labor. https://publicseminar.org/2026/06/belgium-artist-status/18 Jun 2026 13:11 +0000at://did:plc:z2dtftobjjcamjxp76j4btbe/app.bsky.feed.post/3mokvp3yplc22https://bsky.app/profile/publicseminar.bsky.social/post/3moiyl7wd422o“No matter the outcome of this war, one result is already clear: The United States is more isolated in the world than ever before.” —Sylvia Taschka on the Trump administration abandoning even the pretense of democratic idealism. https://publicseminar.org/2026/05/the-waning-of-the-american-illusion/17 Jun 2026 18:57 +0000at://did:plc:z2dtftobjjcamjxp76j4btbe/app.bsky.feed.post/3moiyl7wd422ohttps://bsky.app/profile/publicseminar.bsky.social/post/3moigkftzoc2jReflecting on José Clemente Orozco’s series of frescoes at The New School, Xavier Moyssén Álvarez asks: Without the presence of students and lively debate, can the mural’s dynamic symmetry be activated in the way that Orozco intended? https://publicseminar.org/2026/06/an-artwork-animated-by-its-audience/17 Jun 2026 13:35 +0000at://did:plc:z2dtftobjjcamjxp76j4btbe/app.bsky.feed.post/3moigkftzoc2jhttps://bsky.app/profile/publicseminar.bsky.social/post/3mog6roteck2c“Strong parties once provided individuals with a sense of belonging and refuge from the loneliness of modernity.” Austin Tannenbaum reviews Anton Jäger’s newest book, Hyperpolitics, documenting neoliberalism’s erosion of the public sphere. https://publicseminar.org/2026/06/review-hyperpolitics/16 Jun 2026 16:10 +0000at://did:plc:z2dtftobjjcamjxp76j4btbe/app.bsky.feed.post/3mog6roteck2chttps://bsky.app/profile/publicseminar.bsky.social/post/3modlcr66pk2yIn their new book, Quinn Slobodian and Ben Tarnoff analyze the world’s richest person as representative of a new political-economic model. In a conversation with L. Zhang, the authors explore the future implications of “Muskism.” @harpercollins.bsky.social https://publicseminar.org/2026/06/interview-slobodian-tarnoff-muskism/15 Jun 2026 15:17 +0000at://did:plc:z2dtftobjjcamjxp76j4btbe/app.bsky.feed.post/3modlcr66pk2yhttps://bsky.app/profile/publicseminar.bsky.social/post/3mob2zdsc5c22In an interview with Colette Estelle, author Giada Scodellaro discusses her inspirations for Ruins, Child, including jazz vocals, landscape design for shared space, and the immediacy of cinema. @ndbooks.bsky.social https://publicseminar.org/2026/06/writing-rooted-in-community/14 Jun 2026 15:20 +0000at://did:plc:z2dtftobjjcamjxp76j4btbe/app.bsky.feed.post/3mob2zdsc5c22https://bsky.app/profile/publicseminar.bsky.social/post/3mo42kat5js2eJeffrey C. Isaac explores how Jeffrey C. Goldfarb’s intellectual projects and relationship with Polish dissident Adam Michnik inform his dedication to “the radical center.” @ceu-press.bsky.social https://publicseminar.org/2026/05/goldfarbs-radical-center/12 Jun 2026 15:28 +0000at://did:plc:z2dtftobjjcamjxp76j4btbe/app.bsky.feed.post/3mo42kat5js2ehttps://bsky.app/profile/publicseminar.bsky.social/post/3mnv3bqb4sc2i“Asserting that gray is beautiful offers a tool against absolutism—of regimes, institutions, and individuals that attack democracy with lies, and of black-and-white solutions.” –Irit Dekel on Jeff Goldfarb’s latest book on democracy https://publicseminar.org/2026/05/goldfarbs-gray-is-beautiful-2/09 Jun 2026 20:52 +0000at://did:plc:z2dtftobjjcamjxp76j4btbe/app.bsky.feed.post/3mnv3bqb4sc2ihttps://bsky.app/profile/publicseminar.bsky.social/post/3mnkcmvoxss2gNatasha Lennard and Adam Tooze discuss the current energy crisis, its long history, and the global forces shaping the future of energy. @adamtooze.bsky.social @natashalennard.bsky.social https://publicseminar.org/2026/05/interview-tooze-climate-politics/05 Jun 2026 14:05 +0000at://did:plc:z2dtftobjjcamjxp76j4btbe/app.bsky.feed.post/3mnkcmvoxss2ghttps://bsky.app/profile/publicseminar.bsky.social/post/3mni3xulisk2d“Rubio invokes Dante as a totem of Western excellence, but in a predictable irony, fails to realize that he summons a poet who indicts the very rhetorical mode in which Rubio operates.” —Daniel DiMassa on Marco Rubio’s Dante-inspired rhetorical turn https://publicseminar.org/2026/05/marco-rubio-in-dantes-inferno/04 Jun 2026 17:00 +0000at://did:plc:z2dtftobjjcamjxp76j4btbe/app.bsky.feed.post/3mni3xulisk2dhttps://bsky.app/profile/publicseminar.bsky.social/post/3mndigtpbx22lIn Julia Foulkes’s playful imagining of the internal dialogue of José Clemente Orozco’s New School mural, revolutionaries butt heads and shout from the walls, hashing out decades-old spats. https://publicseminar.org/2026/05/orozco-mural-talks-back/02 Jun 2026 21:00 +0000at://did:plc:z2dtftobjjcamjxp76j4btbe/app.bsky.feed.post/3mndigtpbx22lhttps://bsky.app/profile/publicseminar.bsky.social/post/3mmohj4ut722uSpeaking with Cleo Levin, Megan Milks describes how their new collection of essays, Mega Milk, delves into gender, eugenics, and the “vast library of milk books in the world.” https://publicseminar.org/2026/05/interview-megan-milks/25 May 2026 12:17 +0000at://did:plc:z2dtftobjjcamjxp76j4btbe/app.bsky.feed.post/3mmohj4ut722uhttps://bsky.app/profile/publicseminar.bsky.social/post/3mmhnbwypdc2t“Stagg delicately suspends her narrator between the book’s two poles: the intensity of memory and the skepticism of the present.” —Katie Pruden reviewing Natasha Stagg’s latest novel, Grand Rapids. @semiotexte.bsky.social https://publicseminar.org/2026/05/review-grand-rapids/22 May 2026 19:12 +0000at://did:plc:z2dtftobjjcamjxp76j4btbe/app.bsky.feed.post/3mmhnbwypdc2thttps://bsky.app/profile/publicseminar.bsky.social/post/3mmevoilra22yRida Chaudhry speaks with filmmaker Areeb Zuaiter about the making of her documentary, Yalla Parkour. https://publicseminar.org/2026/05/the-defiant-spirit-of-palestinian-parkour/21 May 2026 17:04 +0000at://did:plc:z2dtftobjjcamjxp76j4btbe/app.bsky.feed.post/3mmevoilra22y