Henry A. Giroux, McMaster University, Canada
Keynote title: Critical Pedagogy in the Age of Fascist Politics
Presented: Monday, June 12th, 2023 at ISLS Annual Meeting 2023
Abstract: With the rise of authoritarian politics across the globe, echoes of a fascist past are with us once again signaling a looming and dangerous threat to education and democracy. In the current historical moment, knowledge is being censored, books banned, and critical ideas, if not thinking itself, are under siege. In Florida, Texas, Idaho, and other GOP led states, entire fields of studies and programs are being banned, including gender studies, Critical Race Theory, and other programs that deal with important social issues. The far-right is attempting to turn public and higher education into propaganda factories. Education has always been central to politics, but in the last decade it has become less a practice for freedom than an instrumentalized theory and practice for domination by white nationalists and white supremacists. This talk challenges this reactionary ideology and oppressive pedagogy. Drawing upon Freire’s work, the talk explores how critical pedagogy provides a theoretical and practical project for rethinking about the nature of education and politics, and how these two realms are inseparable. The talk examines how critical pedagogy can contribute a foundation for creating those public spheres and critically engaged citizens essential to any substantive democracy.
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Bio: Henry A. Giroux currently holds the McMaster University Chair for Scholarship in the Public Interest in the English and Cultural Studies Department and is the Paulo Freire Distinguished Scholar in Critical Pedagogy. His most recent books include: American Nightmare: Facing the Challenge of Fascism (City Lights, 2018), The Terror of the Unforeseen (Los Angeles Review of books, 2019), On Critical Pedagogy, 2nd edition (Bloomsbury, 2020); Neoliberalism’s War on Higher Education, 2nd edition (Haymarket Books 2020); and Race, Politics, and Pandemic Pedagogy: Education in a Time of Crisis (Bloomsbury 2021), Pedagogy of Resistance: Against Manufactured Ignorance (Bloomsbury 2022). His latest book is Insurrections: Education in the Age of Counter-revolutionary Politics, (Bloomsbury 2023). Giroux is also a member of Truthout’s Board of Directors.