Is the Western idea of freedom fundamentally anti-democratic? The political theorist Annelien de Dijn argues that it has become so, but need not be. De Dijn brings today’s limited concept of freedom back to life by immersing it in a 2500-year panorama of intellectual and political conflict.

Freedom inspires important questions: Why has freedom often been hostile to government and public services? Why has freedom so often defined itself through the domination of women and racial others? As authoritarian regimes spread around the world, can we be optimistic about democratizing freedom in the coming years?

Professor De Dijn will offer an overview of her book, and then discuss it with Dr Manjeet Ramgotra (SOAS), a scholar of postcolonial republicanism, and Professor Mark Whitehead (Aberystwyth University), author of Neuroliberalism: Behavioural Government in the 21st Century. A discussion will follow, moderated by Professor Christopher Newfield, Director of Research, ISRF.

Registrants will receive a Zoom link by email, in advance of the event.

You may wish to read Professor De Dijn's recent Time Magazine article - ‘Freedom’ Means Something Different to Liberals and Conservatives. Here’s How the Definition Split—And Why That Still Matters - at https://time.com/5882978/freedom-definition-history/.