Dr. Susan McWilliams-Barndt (Pomona College) will be sharing her paper, titled "A Tale of Two Liberalisms: Desegregating American Political Thought." 

Abstract: What is the nature of America’s liberal inheritance? These days, prominent political thinkers—pro-liberals, anti-liberals, and post-liberals alike—seem to agree, following Louis Hartz: American liberalism is individualist, Enlightenment liberalism grounded in Lockean

teachings. This is a mistake. We would do better to understand American political thought as defined not just by Enlightenment liberalism but also by Exodus liberalism, the latter of which has been expressed primarily (though not exclusively) in African-American political thought. It is in the complex interplay between these two liberal traditions that we can better understand the nature of, and the possibilities for, American liberalism and American politics. This essay tells part of the story of how political scientists came to neglect Exodus liberalism and envision a

more comprehensive, smarter, practice of American political thought – a desegregated American political thought.

UW Political Science PhD Student Sophia Aepfelbacher will serve as discussant. Contact rlpeach@uw.edu to request the paper or to join our listserv.