Ali Shames-Dawson, Author at Public Seminar

Feature

Why Does Patriarchy Persist?

A review of Carol Gilligan and Naomi Snider’s book on the price of patriarchy

February 26, 2019 • by Ali Shames-Dawson

There are books that do what they set out to do: they make their points clearly, they argue something new, they uncover something for us. Carol Gilligan and Naomi Snider’s new book, Why Does Patriarchy Persist?, does more than that. It is a spark. It is something like a book-length speech ...

Feature

Remembering Jeremy

The Dedication of the Safran Reading Room at NSSR

December 12, 2018 • by Ali Shames-Dawson

Below are reflections on the dedication ceremony held last week in honor of Jeremy D. Safran and the The Safran Reading Room created in his memory. Click here to read the introductory comments of Howard Steele. One week ago, on Wednesday December 5th, the Safran Reading Room was dedicated in honor ...

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The #MeToo Moment and the Reproduction of Silence

Can we talk and listen at the same time?

March 1, 2018 • by Ali Shames-Dawson

On February 8, 2018, The New School hosted an event entitled "Sexual Harassment and Assault: Eros, Power, Violation, and Consent." Psychologist Jeremy Safran moderated a panel featuring Lew Aron and Adrienne Harris from NYU Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis, Katie Gentile from John Jay College of Criminal Justice, and ...

The #MeToo Moment and the Reproduction of Silence

Sex & Gender

Sexuality and Agency

A course at the New School for Public Engagement

February 21, 2018 • by Ali Shames-Dawson

This course is an exploration of various perspectives addressing the enabling and constraining conditions for sexual agency. Beginning with the question of how we might define agency as a psychological construct, we chart a course along theoretical, empirical, ethnographic, autobiographical, and popular renderings of what it means to have -- ...

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What Makes for Ethical Sex?

The status of the ‘other’ in hetero-sex

January 31, 2018 • by Ali Shames-Dawson

On February 8, 2018, The New School will host an event entitled "Sexual Harassment and Assault: Eros, Power, Violation, and Consent." Psychologist Jeremy Safran will moderate a panel featuring Lew Aron and Adrienne Harris from NYU Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis, Katie Gentile from John Jay College of Criminal ...

Education

Myths on the Body

What Candice Jackson would know about sexual consent if she read the research

July 24, 2017 • by Ali Shames-Dawson

The recent Title IX Listening Sessions of July 13 2017 sponsored by U. S. Department of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has prompted this week's forum at Public Seminar. As part of the process, Secretary DeVos also hosted men's rights activists who champion the cause of individuals claiming to be falsely ...

Multi Media

International Women’s Strike

March 8 Rally

April 3, 2017 • by Ali Shames-Dawson

On March 8th, the International Women’s Strike struck a chord similar to the Women’s March on Washington 46 days prior. As much a celebration as a show of resistance, in a defiant and yet jubilant declaration of solidarity across difference, all variations of women, their loved ones and allies of ...

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The Promises and Pitfalls of Crucifying Trump

October 19, 2016 • by Ali Shames-Dawson

In his New Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis, Freud (1933) states that “pathology, in making things larger and coarser, can draw our attention to normal conditions which would have otherwise escaped us.” Though Freud here was talking of the psyche of the neurotic, I think we can apply this insight to ...

The Promises and Pitfalls of Crucifying Trump

Feature

The Business of Being Made

March 8, 2016 • by Ali Shames-Dawson

Two weeks ago The New School’s Ferenczi Center hosted Katie Gentile and a panel of contributors to celebrate the launch of a new book and a new series. The book, The Business of Being Made: The Temporalities of Reproductive Technologies in Psychoanalysis and Culture, is the first to critically analyze ...

Education

Adjusting the Lens on Rape Culture

September 10, 2015 • by Ali Shames-Dawson

Notably absent from Zaretsky’s idyllic depiction of the college campus as an outpost of sexual freedom and experimentation is any discussion of the role of the drug and alcohol culture in such settings. Zaretsky’s campus thrums with intellectual and cultural exchange -- as he says, in classes, athletic and cultural ...