Wendy Brown is the UPS Foundation Chair in the School of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton. She is also Professor Emerita of Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley. As the author and editor of more than a dozen books, Brown is well-known for her explorations of identity politics and state power; the effects of neoliberalism on democratic principles, institutions, and civil rights; and her analyses on nation-state isolation in times of eroding national sovereignty and increasing globalization. In her most recent book, Nihilistic Times: Thinking with Max Weber (2023), she investigates the nihilism degrading political and academic life today.

In her lecture at Freie Universität, “Listening for Political Freedom,” Brown will question the ability of liberal democracy to address current global issues, whether these be crises surrounding the climate and biological diversity or serious political deformations and inequalities. As Brown herself claims, “Global problems, lingering damages, narrowing futures, nonhuman life – these have never been democracy’s strong suits.” In her Hegel Lecture, she will advocate for “reparative democracy” as a potential successor to liberal democracy and democratic socialism, focusing on the concept of listening as an important aspect of political freedom.

Brown will be offering a workshop for a limited number of master’s degree students and doctoral candidates in the humanities on the day after the Hegel Lecture.