Oct 21
Wynia Lecture Series: Ethnoracial Hierarchies and the Fragility of Democratic Society with Dr. Jana Morgan
Join us for this year's Wynia Speaker Series: Ethnoracial Hierarchies and the Fragility of Democratic Society with Dr. Jana Morgan of Rutgers University on October 21, 4:30-6pm (reception immediately following) at the new Multicultural Center.
Ethnoracial hierarchies are endemic to many contemporary democracies. When group-based hierarchies structure persistent and pervasive systems of marginalization, they construct tiers of citizens in which divergent allocations of power and agency accrue to members of different groups. Professor Morgan makes the case that hierarchies of this sort disrupt the societal underpinnings of the democratic system. Drawing on an array of evidence from across Latin America and the United States, she shows how ethnoracial hierarchies are de-democratizing across society, with harmful consequences for privileged as well as minoritized group members, and she examines how group consciousness can sometimes counter these effects among the marginalized.
Prof Morgan’s teaching and research center around issues of inequality, exclusion, and representation across the Americas. Democracies have frequently failed to confront entrenched hierarchies along the axes of race, class, and gender, and she seeks to call attention to these shortcomings and uncover their consequences. In doing so, her work emphasizes how weaknesses in the practical functioning of democracy have significant costs for the lived experiences of ordinary citizens and for the stability and survival of the democratic regime itself.
THE WYNIA SPEAKER SERIES: Gary Wynia was the Kenan Professor of Political Science and former chair of the Political Science Department at Carleton. Widely recognized as one of the world’s top experts on Argentine politics, he was called upon by political leaders, among them former U.S. vice president Walter Mondale and former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, as well as academics for his views of that country’s politics. Upon his death in 2002, his widow Ann created a bequest to Carleton in Gary's name to endow an annual speaker on Latin American politics and political economy. The Wynia Speaker has been an annual event since 2004.