New & Noteworthy
Joy: Loving the World in Dark Times with Roger Berkowitz
This talk by Roger Berkowitz was delivered on Thursday, October 16th, at the Hannah Arendt Center's 17th annual fall conference on JOY: Loving the World in Dark Times at Bard College. With an introduction by Deirdre D'Albertis, the Vice President and Dean of Bard College.
Sometimes We Have to Choose Humanity Over Justice
Roger Berkowitz on Hannah Arendt, world alienation, and why we need friendships in which we can tell inappropriate jokes
Hannah Arendt and the meaning of friendship: an interview with Roger Berkowitz
One of the most delicate and profound threads in Hannah Arendt’s thought concerns friendship. Arendt regarded friendship as the foundation of both ethical and political life: a relationship that allows individuals to appear before one another as free and distinct beings. In contrast to love, which fuses two people into one, friendship preserves independence while cultivating respect and trust over time. We asked Roger Berkowitz, an American scholar fascinated by Hannah Arendt, to shed light on her understanding of friendship.
Learning to Think Again
Hannah Arendt warned that real thinking demands courage and solitude. In an age of algorithms, outrage, and fear of speaking out, Roger Berkowitz shows why her voice is more urgent than ever and considers whether Arendt would succeed as an influencer today.
Hannah Arendt taught us that civil disobedience is essential to American democracy
Scholar Roger Berkowitz shares how Hannah Arendt saw civil disobedience as a collective and political act that renews democracy by holding power accountable to justice and constitutional principles.
The World in Time, Episode 9: Roger Berkowitz
On this episode of the podcast, Donovan Hohn speaks with Roger Berkowitz about the life and work of Hannah Arendt and two essays titled “Civil Disobedience,” one by Arendt and the other by Thoreau, recently collected in a volume he edited. Their conversation explores the writers’ differences, the political upheavals that shaped their work, and the lessons their ideas hold for today.
“In tyranny, you may not have a whole lot of political freedom, but you can still live a pretty free life under tyranny. In your private world, you can live under a dictator and still read what books you want and talk to people so long as you don’t act out in the public sphere. Totalitarianism is quite different…”
The Bulletin, Episode 174: The Politics of Tyranny with Roger Berkowitz
The Bulletin starts the week with headline commentary and a conversation with Roger Berkowitz.
The Revolution Against Legitimacy
To the new revolutionary class, legitimacy itself is an unjust claim of power
Chapter 8: Prejudice and Thinking: Hannah Arendt on Prejudice, Racism, and Politics
Roger Berkowitz is a contributor to Creolizing Hannah Arendt (2024), which brings Arendt’s ideas into conversation with Caribbean political thought, Africana philosophy, and existential phenomenology.
Roger Berkowitz’s TEDx talk, Speak Your Mind: Why Free Speech and Listening Matter
Roger’s TEDxBard College talk “argues that democracy thrives on open dialogue and the exchange of differing viewpoints, rather than a commitment to facts or to truth. Drawing on Hannah Arendt’s philosophy, he emphasizes that politics is about persuasion, understanding, and civic friendship—where even those who disagree engage in meaningful conversation to build a common world together.”
The Hannah Arendt Prize for Political Thought
I am thrilled to receive the Hannah Arendt Prize for Political Thought, given by the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Bremen.
This annual award was created to honor individuals who identify critical and unseen aspects of current political events and who are not afraid to enter the public realm by presenting their opinion in controversial political discussions. The Hannah Arendt Award is a public prize, and therefore not based solely on academic achievement. It is funded by both the state government of Bremen and the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Bremen. The prize is endowed with €10000 and is awarded by an international jury.