At a time when liberal democracy appears exhausted by the erosion of citizens’ trust, this lecture proposes a “living critique of domination” grounded in three gestures for radically rethinking politics and rediscovering emancipatory horizons: understanding, refusing, and finding inspiration. To understand is to mobilize analytical capacities to better grasp contemporary forms of domination and the pathways opened by the politics of emancipation. To refuse is to undertake a relentless critique of the mechanisms that allow for the illegitimate control over others. Finally, to find inspiration is grounded upon a charitable understanding of the power of emancipatory political experiences—plebeian secessions such as Black Lives Matter—that embrace conflict, plurality, and indeterminacy as engines of freedom, equality, and solidarity. Together, these three gestures outline a bold political program aimed at breaking out of the ruts of the present and confronting the challenges of the twenty‑first century by reconnecting with a living, inventive, and resolutely democratic politics.
About the speaker
Martin Breaugh is a political theorist whose work explores the critical traditions of political thought, particularly those that interrogate freedom, emancipation, and plebeian forms of collective action. A full professor of politics at York University (Toronto), he is one of the leading contemporary theorists of plebeian political experiences, notably through his book The Plebeian Experience: A Discontinuous History of Political Freedom (CUP, 2016). He has published numerous articles, book chapters and edited volumes, including Thinking Radical Democracy: The Return to Politics in Post-war France (University of Toronto Press, 2015) and A Politics of Emancipation: The Miguel Abensour Reader (SUNY Press, 2024).