WINPEC Research Seminar:
‘“I sure miss George W. Bush:” Deconstruction, Post-Truth and Trump’
Professor Lasse Thomassen (Queen Mary University of London)
Date: Tuesday 24 June, 3.05pm–4.45pm
Venue: Room 1105 (11th floor), Building 11, Waseda Campus, Waseda University (https://www.waseda.jp/top/en/access/waseda-campus)
Language: English
Organiser: Kei Hiruta, Faculty of Political Science and Economics, Waseda University (kei.hiruta{at}waseda.jp)
Abstract
How do we respond to post-truth and populist demagogy? It is common to think of deconstruction as a postmodernist precursor to post-truth. In this talk, I will argue that deconstruction is in fact a very serious way to respond to post-truth discourse. Deconstruction is nothing but the unconditional search for truth. To show this, I enlist Jacques Derrida, Stephen Colbert and Donald Trump.
Speaker bio
Lasse Thomassen is Professor of Politics at Queen Mary University of London. His research interests include debates within radical democratic theory and radical politics, identity politics and the politics of inclusion, and new approaches to the concept of representation. He is the author of British Multiculturalism and the Politics of Representation (Edinburgh UP, 2017), Habermas: A Guide for the Perplexed (Continuum, 2010) and Deconstructing Habermas (Routledge, 2007), and editor of The Derrida-Habermas Reader (Edinburgh UP, 2006) and co-editor of Radical Democracy (Manchester UP, 2005). He has just finished a book on Derrida, Deconstruction and Political Theory to be published by Edinburgh UP in 2025.
