EMPLOYMENT
Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Oregon; Sept. 2011-present.
Collegiate Assistant Professor, Social Sciences Collegiate Division, University of Chicago; Sept. 2008-Aug. 2011.
EDUCATION
Ph.D. Political Science, University of Chicago, June 2008.
Dissertation Title—The Reification of the Political: Critical Theory and Postcapitalist Politics. (Dissertation Committee: Patchen Markell (chair), Lisa Wedeen, Moishe Postone)
M.A. Political Science, University of Chicago, June 2003.
B.A. Philosophy and Government, Georgetown University, 2001. Graduated with High Honors and Phi Beta Kappa.
PUBLICATIONS
Peer reviewed monographs
A Political Economy of the Senses: Neoliberalism, Reification, Critique. Columbia University Press, New Directions in Critical Theory series, 2015.
Peer reviewed Journal Articles
Anita Chari, “The Political Potential of Mindful Embodiment.” New Political Science, vol. 38, Issue 2 (March) 2016, pp. 226-240.
Anita Chari, “The Embodiment of Conscience,” Philosophy and Social Criticism. Advanced online publication March 8, 2016, pp. 1-13.
Ira Allen and Anita Chari, “Dialectical and Comic Reflections: On Translating Benjamin’s Radio Work,” Theory and Event, June 2015 (online publication, n.p).
Anita Chari, “Toward a Political Critique of Reification: Lukács, Honneth, and the Aims of Critical Theory.” Philosophy & Social Criticism, June 2010; vol. 36, 5: pp. 587-606.
Anita Chari, “Exceeding Recognition” in Sartre Studies International, Volume 10, No. 2, 2004, pp. 110-122.
Peer Reviewed Encyclopedia articles
Anita Chari “Reification,” in Encyclopedia of Philosophy and the Social Sciences, ed. Byron Kaldis. (London: Sage), 2013. (n.p.).
Peer Reviewed Digital Humanities Publications
Anita Chari, “Bezerillo” and “Madagascar,” Philosophical sound translation and theoretical score accompanying Ira
Allen and Anita Chari, “Dialectical and Comic Reflections: On Translating Benjamin’s Radio Work,” Theory and Event, June 2015.
Critical Exchanges, Commentaries and Reviews
Anita Chari, “Political Fabulation and the Creativity of Perception: Neoliberalism and Affective politics, on Brian Massumi’s The Power at the End of the Economy.” Theory and Event, October 2015 (online publication, n.p).
Anita Chari, “Crisis and Redemption: Claire Fontaine on the Critique of Neoliberalism.” Contemporary Political Theory, August 2013, pp. 28-38.
Scholarly Interviews
Max Blechman, Anita Chari, Rafeeq Hasan. “Human Rights are the Rights of the Infinite: An Interview with Alain Badiou,” Historical Materialism,Vol. 20, No. 2, 2012, pp. 162-186.
Max Blechman, Anita Chari, Rafeeq Hasan. “Democracy, Dissensus and the Aesthetics of Class Struggle: An Exchange with Jacques Rancière” Historical Materialism, Vol. 13, No. 4, 2005, pp. 285-301.
Non Peer Reviewed Digital Humanities Publications and Projects
Hannes Bend et. al, “mYndful,” a Virtual Reality project integrating research on neuroscience, mindfulness, and somatics, conducted in collaboration with the University of Oregon Department of Psychology and Department of Physics. Embodied soundscape by Anita Chari.
Anita Chari, Cogito Ergo, philosophical sound score for two voices. Bailliwik, Issue 9, Autumn 2012.
http://www.bailliwik.org/issue09/index.php/artists/anita-chari–carol-genetti/
EMBODIMENT/PEDAGOGICAL TRAINING
Embodiment Process Foundational Training, 2016, Santa Monica
270 hour training completed under the direction of Angelica Singh. Includes training in Biodynamic Craniosacral Work, somatic embodiment counseling, Trauma Work, leadership and empowerment group facilitation.
Continuum Wellsprings Practitioner Training, 2014, Santa Monica
100 hour training completed under the direction of Gael Rosewood and Robert Litman, 200 hours of prerequisites completed with Continuum Movement founder Emilie Conrad. Included training in somatic education, healing dimensions of sound, movement pedagogy, and sensate/perceptual learning.
Inside Out Prison Education Project Instructor Training, 2013, Silver Falls, OR
60 hour training completed with Inside-Out directors Lori Pompa and Melissa Crabbe. Training included instruction in transformative, democratic pedagogies, education about teaching in prisons, hands on course design, and practice instruction within Oregon State Penitentiary.
GRANTS
Junior Faculty Professional Development Grant, awarded by the University of Oregon to fund research in 2015-16, 2014-15, 2013-14 and 2012-13. $1,000.
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation/ACLS Dissertation Completion Fellowship, awarded for the 2007-2008 academic year. $23,000.
DAAD Dissertation Research Fellowship, awarded to complete research at the Goethe University, Frankfurt a.M. during the 2006-2007 academic year, $18,000.
Mellon Project Dissertation Research Fellowship, awarded for the 2005-2006 academic year through the Mellon Project to support dissertation research on the theme “New Perspectives on the Disciplines” at the Franke Institute for the Humanities at the University of Chicago, $19,000.
Grodzins Prize, Department of Political Science, The University of Chicago, April 2005
Prize awarded to teach a course in the Department of Political Science.
DAAD Intensive Summer Language Study Grant, August 2005, $5,000.
Doolittle-Harrison Travel Grant, January 2005, $2,000.
AWARDS AND HONORS
Leo Strauss Award nominee, Nominated for the APSA Leo Strauss Award for best dissertation in Political Philosophy in 2009.
Ryan Medal for Excellence in Philosophy, Georgetown University, May 2001.
INVITED TALKS
“A Political Economy of the Senses.” Invited talk hosted by the Research Centre in Science and Arts (ARISA) in Skopje, Macedonia. October 27, 2015.
“The Embodiment of Conscience,” presented at the Groupe de Recherche Interuniversitaire en Philosophie Politique, Montreal. October 16, 2015.
“A Political Economy of the Senses: Toward the Materialization of Critique.” Invited talk at McGill University, Critical Social Theory at McGill series, October 19, 2015.
“Neoliberal Symptoms: The Impasse Between Economics and Politics in Contemporary Political Theory,” Invited talk at the Georgetown University Political Theory Workshop. October 8, 2015, Washington DC.
“The Embodiment of Conscience.” Lecture at UCD Dublin, October 17, 2014, as part of “Conscience and Conscientious Objection,” a conference sponsored by the President of Ireland’s Public Ethics Initiative.
“Process, Contact, and Potency: A Lecture on Somatics and Politics,” Invited talk at the Flutgraben e.V., October 14, 2014 in Berlin, Germany.
“Arendt and Adorno on the Critique of Instrumental Rationality.” Lecture given at the Midwest Faculty Seminar on The Human Condition, The Franke Institute for Humanities at the University of Chicago, November 5, 2010.
“Reification and Praxis in the Dialectic of Enlightenment.” Lecture given at the Midwest Faculty Seminar on The Dialectic of Enlightenment, The Franke Institute for Humanities at the University of Chicago, January 15, 2009.
CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS
“Subjectivity, Sensation, and the Arts of Embodied Attention,” presented at the Rethinking Aesthetics conference, University College Dublin, May 12, 2016.
“A Political Economy of the Senses,” Author Meets Critics panel, presented at the Western Political Science Association Conference, San Diego, March 2016.
“Prison Education, Embodied Writing and the Cultivation of Empathy,” presented at the Association for Contemplative Mind in Higher Education Conference, Howard University, Washington DC, October 9, 2015.
“Ethnographies of Embodiment,” presented at the American Political Science Association Conference, San Francisco, CA, August 2015.
“Neoliberal Symptoms in Contemporary Theory,” presented at the Western Political Science Association Conference, Seattle, WA, March 28, 2014.
“Embodiment as a Problem of Method,” presented at the American Political Science Association Conference, Chicago, IL, August 2013.
“A Political Economy of the Senses: Occupy Wall Street and the Critique of Neoliberalism,” presented at the “Immanent Critique: New Directions” conference at the University of Oregon, April 18-20, 2013.
“Neoliberal Symptoms: The Impasse between the Economy and the Political in Contemporary Political Theory,” Presentation at the Western Political Science Association Conference, Los Angeles, CA, March 2013.
“Somatic Experience and the Political,” Presentation at the Association for Political Theory Conference, University of South Carolina, October 11-13, 2012.
“Defetishizing Fetishes: Art and the Critique of Capital in Neoliberal Society.” Presentation at Workshop on Political Identity, Department of Political Science, University of Oregon, June 8, 2012.
“Theorizing the Object of Neoliberal Protest,” Presentation at the Midwest Political Science Conference, April 13, 2012, Chicago, IL.
“Spontaneity, Creativity, Econopoesis.” Presentation at the Western Political Science Association Conference, March 24, 2012, Portland, OR.
“Spontaneity and Creativity in Radical Left Social Movements.” Presentation at the Left Forum Conference, March 17, 2012, Pace University.
“The Politics of Thinking.” Paper presented at the “Reworking Political Concepts Conference, Columbia University; Feb. 3, 2012.
“The Spiritual Critique of Politics.” Paper presented at the Association for Political Theory Conference, Reed College, Portland, Oregon; Oct. 22. 2010.
“Postcapitalist Democracy: Political Economy and radical democratic critique.” Paper presented at the American Political Science Association Conference; Washington, D.C., Sept. 5, 2010.
“The Structural Violence of Capital.” Paper presented at the American Political Science Association Conference; Washington, D.C., Sept. 4, 2010.
“Radical Democracy and the Problem of Formalism.” Paper presented at the Western Political Science Association Conference; San Francisco, CA, April 1, 2010.
“Reification and Postcapitalist Democracy.” Book manuscript presented at seminar on Democratic Theory, Department of Political Science, the University of Chicago, December 1, 2009.
“Democracy and Reification: Lukács’s Contribution to a Theory of Postcapitalist Politics.” Presented at the Western Political Science Association, Vancouver, March 20, 2009.
“The Reversibility of Reification: Adorno from the Aesthetic to the Social.” Presented at the UC Irvine Political Theory Workshop, May 23, 2008.
“Democracy and Reification.” Presented at the Critical Theory Roundtable Conference at St. Louis University, October 19-21, 2007.
“Towards a Political Critique of Reification: Lukács, Honneth, and the Aims of Critical Theory.” Presented at the Association for Political Theory Conference at the University of Western Ontario, October 11-14, 2007.
“Reactualizing the critique of Alienation.” Presented at the Philosophy and Social Sciences Conference at the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, May 10-13, 2007.
“Direct Democracy and Legitimacy in Porto Alegre’s Participatory Budget Process.” Presented at the conference, “Communicating Legitimacy: Putting Democratic Practice and Representation in Context,” at the University of Chicago, March 30-31, 2007.
“Alienation and Politics in the 1844 Manuscripts.” Presented at the Second Nature Graduate Conference, Northwestern University, Feb. 9-10, 2007.
“Critique of Reification without a Critique of Fetishism? Habermas, Honneth and the Aims of Critical Theory.” Presented at the Political Theory Workshop, The University of Chicago, Jan. 8, 2007; Social Theory Workshop, Jan. 15, 2007, The University of Chicago; and at the Philosophy Colloquium at the Goethe University, Jan. 25, 2007.
“Reification and the Problem of Organization.” Presented at “New Directions in Marxist Theory,” the Historical Materialism annual conference held at Birkbeck College, London, Dec. 8-10, 2006.
“Alienation and Politics in the 1844 Manuscripts.” Presented at the Social Theory Workshop, University of Chicago, May 15, 2006.
“The World Social Forum as Global Political Actor.” Presented at the 7th Annual Globalization Conference, The University of Chicago, May 6-7, 2005.
“An Other Dialectic of History? Reinterpreting the Dialectic of Enlightenment.” Presented at the Political Theory Workshop, The University of Chicago, April 25, 2005.
“Rebel versus Proletarian: Arendt, Marx and the Politics of Action.” Political Theory Workshop, The University of Chicago, May 10, 2004.
“Theorizing the Limits of Recognition: Hegel and Fanon.” North American Sartre Society Conference, Purdue University, August 2003. Also presented at The University of Chicago, Political Theory Workshop, April 26, 2003.
“The Place of Metaphor in Aristotle’s Rhetoric.” Presented at the Political Communications and Society Workshop, The University of Chicago, Nov. 20, 2002.
TEACHING
Assistant Professor, Political Science, University of Oregon, Sept. 2011-present. Instructs PS 208 (Intro to Political Theory), PS 430 (Ancient PT), PS 432 (Modern PT), PS 622 (Grad Seminar in PT), PS 399 (Upper level undergraduate thematic seminars), and HC 424 (Autobiography as Political Agency).
Collegiate Assistant Professor, Social Sciences Division, University of Chicago, Sept. 2008-Aug. 2011. Instructed SOSC 12100, SOSC 12200, SOSC 12300. These three courses together comprised Self, Culture and Society, a year-long course in the Social Sciences Core. I taught two sections of this course for all three years of my time at the postdoc (except for a Spring 2011 1-quarter sabbatical).
Grodzins Prize Lecturer, University of Chicago, Oct 2005-Dec. 2005.
Instructed and took full teaching responsibility for self-designed course, “Feminism, Historical Materialism, Critique.”
Lecturer, University of Chicago, Social Sciences Division, March 2005-June 2005.
Instructed and took full teaching responsibility for “Classics of Social and Political Thought,” an undergraduate core course in political theory.
Lecturer, University of Chicago, Humanities Division, Sept.-2004-Dec. 2004.
Co-Instructed and aided in syllabus design and grading for the course, “Problems in Gender Studies-1” an undergraduate course in Gender Studies.
Teaching Intern, University of Chicago, Social Sciences Division, Sept. 2003-March 2004.
Assisted in instruction and grading for the course, “Classics of Social and Political Thought” an undergraduate core course.
Teaching Assistant, University of Chicago, International Studies, Jan. 2003-March 2003.
Served as teaching assistant, grader and discussion section leader for the International Studies course, “Transnationalism in a Postcolonial World.”
SERVICE
Departmental Service
Undergraduate Honors and Awards Committee, Department of Political Science, 2012-15
Curriculum Committee, Department of Political Science, 2011-12
University Service
TrEd (Transforming Education by Design) , January 2016-present. A committee using design principles to revolutionize liberal arts education at the University of Oregon, conducted under the direction of Lisa Freinkel, Vice Provost for Undergraduate Studies.
Participating Faculty, Analog U, an experiential learning initiative coordinated by Undergraduate Studies that helps students (and ourselves) become more intentional in online and face-to-face interaction. January 2016-present.
Instructor and member of Inside-Out faculty, 2012-present. Instructs the self-designed course, “Autobiography as Political Agency,” at Oregon State Penitentiary and Oregon State Correctional Institution. Involves extracurricular activities with students and collaboration with other Inside-Out faculty on the work, as well as the publication of an anthology of work by Inside and Outside students.
University of Oregon Prison Education Committee, October 2015-present
Women of Color Project, University of Oregon, Center for the Study of Women in Society, 20011-present.
Participating Faculty in Department of Comparative Literature, Winter 2015-present
On-Campus Lectures, Working Groups, and Panels
“Stress Reduction and Navigating Challenging Academic Relationships,” Participated in panel for Center on Diversity and Community’s First Year Faculty Development Program, Feb. 12, 2016.
Teaching Effectiveness Program, Funded Working Group on Active Learning, Spring quarter, 2015.
“Mindfulness and Stress Reduction.” Participated in panel for Center on Diversity and Community inaugural Faculty Fellows program, Feb. 6, 2015.
“Embodied Education,” invited guest lecture at Priscilla Yamin’s course “Politics of the Body,” May 18, 2015.
Mindful Tech Funded Working Group, Spring 2015. This is a seminar series and working group that focused on bringing a more mindful approach to technology into teaching and research.
Guest Lecture to discuss Lauren Berlant’s Cruel Optimism at Joe Lowndes graduate seminar on “Political Culture,” April 2014.
Manuscript Workshop on A Political Economy of the Senses, sponsored by the Department of Political Science. Included invited guest speakers Kevin Olson, Jodi Dean, and Davide Panagia and response by me. May 17, 2013.
CSWS Colloquium, University of Oregon. Served as a commentator for a panel on Critical Theory, April 20, 2012.
Critical Genealogies Collaboratory, University of Oregon. CGC is an interdisciplinary research group of faculty and graduate students, sponsored by the UO Philosophy Department for weekly meetings. 2011-2013.
Professional Service
Peer Reviewer for Constellations, Contemporary Political Theory, European Journal of Political Theory, University of Minnesota Press, and Rowman & Littlefield.
Editorial Board Member for “Reinventing Critical Theory” series, Rowman & Littlefield.
RESEARCH EXPERIENCE
Guest Fellow, Institute for Social Research, Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main, March 2007-August 2007. Conducted dissertation research and participated in activities at the Institute as a part of its current project, “Paradoxes of Capitalist Modernization” under the direction of Axel Honneth.
LANGUAGES
German: High reading, writing and speaking proficiency—Test DAF scores available upon request.
French: High reading and speaking proficiency.
Spanish: Reading and speaking proficiency.
