The Cultural and Political Predicament of Global Modernity

“Our ways of knowing” are in deep crisis. New constituencies demand representation both in the content of learning and its mode of delivery, enriching life and learning but also making it more complicated than ever to determine what is and is not worth knowing. Globally, postcolonial and postrevolutionary states question Eurocentric universalism responsible for the erasure of their pasts and their cultural interests by colonial regimes and imperialist hegemony. Ironically, these challenges more often than not are voiced in discourses that are derivative of the universal values in question, routinely associated with the Enlightenment. The talk will explore problems thrown up by this contradiction, with special attention to the continued cultural and political significance of critical practices that are the legacies of Enlightenment universalism.