The Politics of Disavowal: What Syria Can Tell Us about American Authoritarianism
A Crown Seminar with Lisa Wedeen
Wednesday, April 3, 2024
Recording available on our YouTube channel.
Can the survival of Bashar al-Asad's regime in Syria offer insights into emerging forms of authoritarianism in the West? And what might the Syrian example suggest about how authoritarian leaders exploit digital media to create uncertainty, political impasses, and fractures among their citizens? In this Crown Seminar, Lisa Wedeen, in conversation with Daniel Neep, draws on the ethnographic and theoretical findings of her book, Authoritarian Apprehensions: Ideology, Judgment, and Mourning in Syria (Chicago 2019), to reflect on lessons from the Syrian experience for the current attractions of authoritarianism in the United States.
Lisa Wedeen is the Mary R. Morton Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science and the College and co-director of the Chicago Center for Contemporary Theory at the University of Chicago.
Daniel Neep teaches Middle East politics at the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University and is a non-resident fellow at the Crown Center.