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Caleb Ward

@calebw.bsky.social

3.4K followers 1.2K following 2.7K posts

Social and political philosophy, feminism and social change, almost done with a book on the philosophy of Audre Lorde Postdoc at Uni Hamburg Photo by Frank Ward, 1999 https://www.calebward.xyz/

www.calebward.xyz

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Caleb Ward @calebw.bsky.social · Sep 4

“But can’t we use the master’s tools just this once, as a treat??”

Here’s my talk about Lorde’s master’s tools, which got such a heartening reception in New York. Thanks to everyone who turned out—professors, students, poets, activists 🌱

Using and Abusing ‘The Master’s Tools’ Caleb Ward's Audre Lorde Lecture

Audre Lorde’s statement that “the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house” stands for uncompromising vision in the fight…

vimeo.com

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Caleb Ward @calebw.bsky.social · 18m

Alexis Gumbs has a bunch of Lorde’s books that were damaged in Hurricane Hugo in 1989. Powerful stuff, water and paper

Caleb Ward @calebw.bsky.social · 2h

Somehow fitting that this copy of Rich’s second wave feminist classic The Dream of a Common Language turned into a broken dream

Holding an old copy of Adrienne Rich’s The Dream of a Common Language: Poems 1974-1977, which is split at the spine

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Caleb Ward @calebw.bsky.social · 2h

Out there like “hmm, how many more crystals of salt are needed before this pinch turns into a heap?”

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Caleb Ward @calebw.bsky.social · 2h

I feel like he needed to refine the greeting bit

Caleb Ward @calebw.bsky.social · 18h

This album has Lowe ranging from some slight Tranisms to clear Ayler influence to straight up Booker Ervin style bluesiness. I really like it

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Caleb Ward @calebw.bsky.social · 22h

No, I'm turning in the final ms. to the publisher next month! But I do have a few articles and other pieces of writing out there on Lorde. PDFs are all available on my website

www.calebward.xyz/research/aud...

The Philosophy of Audre Lorde — Caleb Ward

I research themes of survival and identity, political agency, coalition-building, feelings and knowledge, and moral imagination in Audre Lorde's thought.

www.calebward.xyz

Caleb Ward @calebw.bsky.social · 22h

lol I love seeing this come back around! Academic diss tracks never die!

screengrab from Twitter where someone posted the same thing and i responded "Speak for your own discipline, Susan." My new favorite comeback

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Caleb Ward @calebw.bsky.social · 1d

This book is packed with careful historical and textual research, and it's going to be a crucial touchstone for every political use of Hegel going forward. The whole book can be downloaded free at the link in Daniel's thread.👇

Daniel James @schlawinerkreis.bsky.social · 1d

1/ I'm excited to share that Franz Knappik’s and my Cambridge Element on Hegel and Colonialism is finally out – open access below! We trace how Hegel defends European colonial rule, including transatlantic slavery, and how that defence runs through his entire philosophical system.

Thread below ⬇️

Hegel and Colonialism

Cambridge Core - Classical Philosophy - Hegel and Colonialism

www.cambridge.org

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Caleb Ward @calebw.bsky.social · 1d

Read the whole pamphlet here thanks to @cominsitu.bsky.social

cominsitu.wordpress.com/2020/07/01/t...

The American Revolution: Pages from a Negro Worker’s Notebook (James Boggs, 1963)

In 1963, drawing on his own experience as a factory worker and radical militant, James Boggs wrote this pamphlet. It addresses (among many things) the failures of the CIO, increasing automation, ri…

cominsitu.wordpress.com

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Caleb Ward @calebw.bsky.social · 1d

James Boggs, auto worker and political visionary, stating demands fit for the age of AI already in 1963: "Society must recognize that the magnificent productive tools of our day are the result of the accumulated labors of all of us and not the exclusive property of any group or class."

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Caleb Ward @calebw.bsky.social · 1d

Bojack horseman cap with “well, of course every idea sounds stupid if you describe what it is”

Caleb Ward @calebw.bsky.social · 1d

You can’t even fight the KKK any more because of woke

Alejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net · 1d

It's now considered controversial to fight the KKK in a video game.

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Caleb Ward @calebw.bsky.social · 1d

Learn the history of criminalizing antifascists, even by ostensibly liberal states

Working Class History @workingclasshistory.com · 1d

#OtD 9 Oct 1945 the UK Labour govt defended its jailing of 226 Spanish Civil War and anti-Nazi resistance fighters, describing them as "members of an enemy paramilitary organisation". Some killed themselves, others were deported to Spain for execution stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/1094...

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Caleb Ward @calebw.bsky.social · 1d

Put this on my gravestone

Caleb Ward @calebw.bsky.social · 1d

Sounds like a missed opportunity for desk rejection

Caleb Ward @calebw.bsky.social · 1d

Sounds great! The 1st chapter of my Lorde book is about her vision of the political power of poetry, & then I try to show that vision in action across the other chapters. Her 1986 collection Our Dead Behind Us is 🔥 for this

You should also check out this article by political theorist Jack Turner.

Audre Lorde’s Anti-Imperial Consciousness - Jack Turner, 2021

Providing the first extended analysis of Audre Lorde’s critique of the 1983 U.S. invasion of Grenada, this essay argues that Lorde’s critique models a form of a...

journals.sagepub.com

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Caleb Ward @calebw.bsky.social · 1d

I also talk about why the social safety net helps me teach philosophy in Germany, and how Lorde's thought has shaped current activist movements (although I could have talked a LOT more about her idea of grappling with difference in coalitional politics)

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Caleb Ward @calebw.bsky.social · 1d

Congrats! This is so great. Glad to read that Boggs plays a central role for you… I’ll look at your chapter when I’m making sense of Boggs’s influence on Lorde in my own book!

Caleb Ward @calebw.bsky.social · 1d

I also use Tidal. I’m not sure they have podcasts tho, but the music sounds good!

Caleb Ward @calebw.bsky.social · 1d

Tfw you think “Material Girl” is Marxist

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Caleb Ward @calebw.bsky.social · 1d

a man says " you keep using that word i do not think it means what you think it means " to another bald man

ALT: a man says " you keep using that word i do not think it means what you think it means " to another bald man

media.tenor.com

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Caleb Ward @calebw.bsky.social · 1d

She didn’t “defy Democrats.” She defied THE SENATE. Thats the story @nytimes.com

Caleb Ward @calebw.bsky.social · 1d

"Bondi defied Democrats". "Bondi goes on the attack".

What the hell's going on @nytimes.com with these double-meaning headlines, describing things in terms MAGA obviously desires? Report the goddam news:

Bondi refuses to answer for political corruption in the Justice Department.

Screen grab from NYT reporting on Bondi's appearance before Senate dems

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Caleb Ward @calebw.bsky.social · 1d

guy with a bad philosophy kink logs on

Caleb Ward @calebw.bsky.social · 1d

It's funny because it splits between unreflective sloganeering of her words and (probably more annoyingly) the glib dismissal of her words by people who haven't thought about her work beyond that single sentence. My pinned post is a talk I gave recently about this