Dr. James P. Burns | Associate Professor of Curriculum and Instruction, School of Education and Human Development, Florida International University, USA
Friday, February 25, 2022 | 12:30 – 2:00 pm (PST) | via Zoom
Faculty Host: Dr. William Pinar
To view seminar poster, click here
Abstract
The Presidency of Donald Trump in the United States has provoked considerable reflection—often uninformed and dehistoricised—on the resurgence of authoritarian populism, or as Masha Gessen has written, the rise of aspiring autocrats. The resurgence of authoritarianism in the US, Europe, Latin America, and India poses significant questions for curriculum scholars, particularly considering discourses of neoliberal nationalism, military Keynesianism, and white identitarianism. How, for example, can the study of the historical tenets of fascism illuminate what Umberto Eco called an ever-present set of social features around any one of which a fascist nebula can coalesce? What historical conditions of possibility have produced persistent global militarism in the US that has gone politically unchallenged? How has US militarism contributed to the explosion of the carceral state? How do these phenomena reflect histories of biopolitics, particularly when read through Foucault’s reading of state racism? How, in the context of the study of violence, might we theorize a biopower that does not lapse into its thanatopolitical death function? This talk will not offer any firm answers but will discuss some possibilities to provoke curricular dialogue related to the pursuit of ethics of non-violence.
Bio
James P. Burns is an Associate Professor in the Department of Teaching and Learning at Florida International University in Miami. He teaches courses on curriculum theory and research, current issues and trends in curriculum and instruction, and education policy. He also offers advanced readings courses in curriculum studies annually. Prior to entering the professoriate, he taught high-school history and social studies in Fairfax County, Virginia, after having served for eight years in the US Marine Corps. His research interests include curriculum studies and theorizing, masculinities studies, institutional power, militarism, fascism, and non-violence education. Burns is the author of Power, Curriculum, and Embodiment: Re-thinking Curriculum as Counter-Conduct and Counter-Politics (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018).