Jane Bennett (political theorist)

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Jane Bennett
Born (1957-07-31) 31 July 1957 (age 66)
NationalityNorth American
Alma materUniversity of Massachusetts
Known forVibrant matter: a political ecology of things (book)
SchoolSpeculative realism
Main interests
Political theory
Notable ideas
Vibrant matter

Jane Bennett (born July 31, 1957)[1] is an American professor at the Department of Political Science, Johns Hopkins University School of Arts and Sciences. She is also the editor of the academic journal Political Theory.[2]

Bennett's work considers ontological ideas about the relationship between humans and 'things', what she calls "vital materialism",

"What counts as the material of vital materialism? Is it only human labour and the socio-economic entities made by men using raw materials? Or is materiality more potent than that? How can political theory do a better job of recognizing the active participation of nonhuman forces in every event and every stabilization? Is there a form of theory that can acknowledge a certain ‘thing-power’, that is, the irreducibility of objects to the human meanings or agendas they also embody?"[3]

In her book, Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things,[4] Bennett's argument is that, "Edibles, commodities, storms, and metals act as quasi agents, with their own trajectories, potentialities and tendencies."[5]

Public lectures she has given include "Impersonal Sympathy", a talk theorizing 'sympathy' in which she considered the alchemist-physician Paracelsus (1493-1541) and Walt Whitman's collection of poetry, Leaves of Grass.[6] In 2015 Bennett delivered the annual Neal A. Maxwell Lecture in Political Theory and Contemporary Politics at the University of Utah entitled “Walt Whitman and the Soft Voice of Sympathy.”

Education

Jane Bennett originally trained in environmental studies and political science. She then went on to Cornell University to study environmental science. After Cornell she studied political theory and gained her degree (magna cum laude) in 1979 from Siena College, Loudonville, New York. Whilst at Siena College Bennett met Kathy Ferguson. Bennett then went on to the University of Massachusetts and qualified as a doctor of political science in 1986.[5][7]

Fellowships

  • 1997 - Visiting Fellow, Department of Politics, Goucher College, Australian National University[8]
  • 2007 - Visiting Fellow, Department of Politics, University of Nottingham[9]
  • 2010 - Fellow, Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities, University of London[10]
  • 2011 - Fellow, Oxford University, Keble College[7]

Bibliography

Books

  • Bennett, Jane (1987). Unthinking Faith and Enlightenment: Nature and the State in a Post-Hegelian Era. New York: New York University Press. ISBN 9780814710951.
  • Bennett, Jane (2001). The Enchantment of Modern Life: Attachments, Crossings, and Ethics. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. ISBN 9780691088136.
  • Bennett, Jane (2002). Thoreau's Nature: Ethics, Politics, and the Wild (2nd ed.). Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 9780742521414.
  • Bennett, Jane (2010). Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press. ISBN 9780822346197.
Book review: Princen, Thomas (March 2011). "Critical Dialogue - "Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things." By Jane Bennett. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2010. 176p. $74.95 cloth, $21.95 paper". Perspectives on Politics. 9 (1). American Political Science Association via Cambridge Journals Online: 118–120. doi:10.1017/S1537592710003464. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)CS1 maint: postscript (link)
Bennett's response to five book reviews of Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things: Bennett, Jane (November 2011). "Author response". Dialogues in Human Geography. 1 (3). Sage: 404–406. doi:10.1177/204382061100100310. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)CS1 maint: postscript (link)

Edited books

Book chapters

  • Bennett, Jane; Shapiro, Michael J. (2002), "Introduction", in Bennett, Jane; Shapiro, Michael J. (Eds) (eds.), The politics of moralizing, New York: Routledge, pp. 1–10, ISBN 9780415934787
  • Bennett, Jane (2002), "The Moraline Drift", in Bennett, Jane; Shapiro, Michael J. (Eds) (eds.), The Politics of Moralizing, New York: Routledge, pp. 11–26, ISBN 9780415934787
  • Bennett, Jane; Connolly, William E. (2002), "Mouths, bodies and the state", in Honig, Bonnie; Mapel, David R. (eds.), Skepticism, Individuality, and Freedom: The Reluctant Liberalism of Richard Flathman, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, pp. 244–265, ISBN 9780816639700
  • Bennett, Jane (2004), "Approaches to Contemporary Political Theory", in Kukathas, Chandran; Gaus, Gerald F. (Eds) (eds.), Handbook of Political Theory, London Thousand Oaks, California: SAGE, pp. 46–56, ISBN 9780761967873
  • Bennett, Jane (2005), "In parliament with things", in Tønder, Lars; Thomassen, Lasse (Eds) (eds.), Radical Democracy: Politics between Abundance and Lack, Manchester New York: Manchester University Press, ISBN 9780719070440
  • Bennett, Jane (2008), "Modernity and its Critics", in Phillips, Anne; Bonnie, Honig; Dryzek, John S. (Eds) (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Political Theory, Oxford: Oxford University Press, ISBN 9780199548439
  • Bennett, Jane (2006), "The Agency of Assemblages and the North American Blackout", in de Vries, Hent; Sullivan, Lawrence E. (eds.), Political Theologies: Public Religions in a Post-Secular World, New York: Fordham University Press, pp. 602–616, ISBN 9780823226450
  • Bennett, Jane (2009), "Thoreau's Techniques of Self", in Turner, Jack (ed.), A Political Companion to Henry David Thoreau, Lexington, Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky, pp. 294–325, ISBN 9780813124780
  • Bennett, Jane (2009), "Thing-Power and an Ecological Sublime", in White, Luke; Pajaczkowska, Claire (eds.), The Sublime Now, Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars, pp. 24–35, ISBN 9781443813020
  • Bennett, Jane (2010), "A vitalist stopover on the way to a new materialism", in Coole, Diana; Frost, Samantha (eds.), New Materialisms: Ontology, Agency, and Politics, Durham North Carolina London: Duke University Press, pp. 47–69, ISBN 9780822347729
  • Bennett, Jane (2010), "Thing-Power", in Whatmore, Sarah; Braun, Bruce (eds.), Political Matter: Technoscience, Semocracy, and Public Life, Minneapolis, Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press, ISBN 9780816670895
  • Bennett, Jane (2011), "Thing-Power", in Seery, John (ed.), A Political Companion to Walt Whitman, Lexington, Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky, pp. 131–148, ISBN 9780813126548
  • Bennett, Jane (2012), "Thing-Power", in Elkins, Jeremy; Norris, Andrew (eds.), Truth and Democracy, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, pp. 154–158, ISBN 9780812243796
  • Bennett, Jane (2012), "Powers of the Hoard: Further Notes on Material Agency", in Cohen, Jeffrey (ed.), Animal, Vegetable, Mineral: Ethics and Objects, Washington, DC: Oliphaunt Books an imprint of Punctum Books, pp. 237–269, ISBN 9780615625355
Abridged version printed (along with an 'assignment') as: Bennett, Jane (2013), "Powers of the hoard: further notes on material agency", in Sutela, Jenna (ed.), Add metaphysics: essays and assignments, Aalto, Finland: Aalto University Digital Design Laboratory, pp. 52–67, ISBN 9789526049540 Open access link.
  • Bennett, Jane; Connolly, William (2012), "The Crumpled Handkerchief", in Herzogenrath, Bernd (ed.), Time and History in Deleuze and Serres, New York: Continuum, pp. 153–172, ISBN 9781441163868
  • Bennett, Jane (2012), "Stones", in Sæbjörnsson, Egill (Editor); Herzogenrath, Bernd (Editor) (eds.), Stones According to Egill Sæbjörnsson, New York: Revolver Publishing / Continuum, pp. 27–36, ISBN 9781441163868 {{citation}}: |editor1-first= has generic name (help)
  • Bennett, Jane; Connolly, William (2013), "Earthling: Now and Forever?", in Ellsworth, Elizabeth; Kruse, Jaime (eds.), Making the Geologic Now: Responses to Material Conditions of Contemporary Life, Brooklyn, New York: Punctum Books, pp. 244–246, ISBN 9780615766362
  • Bennett, Jane; Khan, Gulshan A. (2012), "Vital Materiality and Non-Human Agency: An Interview with Jane Bennett", in Prokhovnik, Raia; Dimova-Cookson, Maria; Browning, Gary (eds.), Dialogues with Contemporary Political Theorists, Houndsmill, Basingstoke, Hampshire New York: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 42–57, ISBN 9780230303058 {{citation}}: Unknown parameter |editorlink1= ignored (|editor-link1= suggested) (help)
  • Bennett, Jane (2013), "From Nature to Matter", in Archer, Crina; Ephraim, Laura; Maxwell, Lida (eds.), Second Nature: Rethinking the Natural Through Politics, New York: Fordham University Press, pp. 149–160, ISBN 9780823251421
  • Bennett, Jane (2014), "Of Material Sympathies, Paracelsus, and Whitman", in Iovino, Serenella; Oppermann, Serpil (eds.), Material Ecocriticism, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, pp. 149–160, ISBN 9780253013958
  • Bennett, Jane (2014), "Odradek: A Shape and a Speed", in Klingan, Katrin; Sepahvand, Ashkan; Rosol, Christoph; Scherer, Bernd M. (eds.), Textures of the Anthropocene: Grain Vapor Ray, Berlin: Haus der Kulturen der Welt - forthcoming.
  • Bennett, Jane (2014), "Systems and Things: A Reply to Graham Harman and Timothy Morton", in Grusin, Richard (ed.), The Nonhuman Turn, Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press - forthcoming.
  • Bennett, Jane (2014), "Green Materialism", in Kennedy, T. Frank; Keenan, James (eds.), Nature as a Force: Scientists, Social Scientists, and Ethicists in a Dialogue of Hope, Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto Press - forthcoming.

Journal articles

This article was a response to: White, Stephen K. (Spring 2000). "Affirmation and weak ontology in political theory: some rules and doubts". Theory & Event. 4 (2). Johns Hopkins University Press. doi:10.1353/tae.2000.0013. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)CS1 maint: postscript (link)
This article was in response to: Harman, Graham (Spring 2012). "The well-wrought broken hammer: object-oriented literary criticism". New Literary History. 43 (2). Project MUSE: The Johns Hopkins University Press: 183–203. doi:10.1353/nlh.2012.0016. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)CS1 maint: postscript (link)
and: Morton, Timothy (Spring 2012). "An object-oriented defense of poetry". New Literary History. 43 (2). Project MUSE: The Johns Hopkins University Press: 205–224. doi:10.1353/nlh.2012.0018. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)CS1 maint: postscript (link)

Blogs

Further reading

Interviews with Jane Bennett

References

  1. ^ "Bennett, Jane, 1957-". Library of Congress. Retrieved 25 July 2014. Her Unthinking faith and enlightenment, c1987: CIP t.p. (Jane Bennett) data sheet (b. 7/31/57)
  2. ^ "Political Theory: An International Journal of Political Philosophy". Sage. Retrieved 25 July 2014.
  3. ^ Khan, Gulshan (February 2009). "Agency, nature and emergent properties: an interview with Jane Bennett". Contemporary Political Theory. 8 (1). Palgrave Macmillan: 90–105. doi:10.1057/cpt.2008.43. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)CS1 maint: postscript (link)
  4. ^ " Strawberries on Life Support by Antónia Szabari & Natania Meeker". Los Angeles Review of Books]
  5. ^ a b Watson, Janell (October 2013). "Eco-sensibilities: interview with Jane Bennett". Minnesota Review. 81 (1). Duke University Press: 147–158. doi:10.1215/00265667-2332147. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)CS1 maint: postscript (link)
  6. ^ "CISSC Lecture Series: Jane Bennett, Johns Hopkins University: Impersonal Sympathy". Center for Interdisciplinary Studies in Society and Culture, Concordia University, Montreal. 22 March 2013. Retrieved 25 July 2014.
  7. ^ a b "Jane Bennett". Department of Political Science, Johns Hopkins University. Retrieved 25 July 2014.
  8. ^ "Visiting Fellows and Other Visitors, 1991–2004". Humanities Research Centre, Australian National University. Retrieved 25 July 2014.
  9. ^ "Visiting research fellows: previous visiting research fellows - Professor Bennett". Centre for the Study of Social and Global Justice (CSSGJ), The University of Nottingham. Retrieved 25 July 2014.
  10. ^ "Past visiting research fellows: Professor Jane Bennett (2010)". Birbeck Institute for the Humanities, University of London. Retrieved 25 July 2014.

External links

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