IOP Pritzker Fellow Bhaskar Sunkara on "Class Politics After Dealignment: Why I Built a Magazine"

THIS SEMINAR IS OPEN TO CURRENT UCHICAGO STUDENTS ONLY

Monday, February 2

3:30-4:45pm

This opening seminar uses Bhaskar Sunkara’s experience founding and editing Jacobin to examine what class politics looks like when traditional vehicles of working-class power - parties, unions and mass organizations - are weak or absent. The session begins with why he chose magazine publishing as a political intervention and how publishing became a way to engage class politics in a period marked by dealignment rather than mass alignment.

The discussion will situate Jacobin within a longer tradition of ideological magazines that emerged when political movements lacked formal power, including conservative journals like National Review. Can publishing function as a substitute for organizational strength, how media institutions shape political language and coalition boundaries? What are the limits of this strategy revealing about contemporary efforts to rebuild class-based politics?

Pritzker Fellows seminars are off the record and open to current UChicago students only. Seating in the IOP Living Room is limited and available on a first-come, first-served basis. 

If you have any questions about accessibility, please contact Ella Kumano-Maloney (ikmaloney@uchicago.edu).