‘The Democratic Sublime: On Aesthetics and Popular Assembly’ Jason Frank, Cornell University 

Popular contestation invokes very diverse and highly productive visions of peoplehood that grant democracy a performative capacity: democratic change is not just about shifts in government or state reform; profound transformations in the make-up of the people — the very source of political legitimacy — are precisely the sort of collective predicament that democracy puts us in. But are contemporary political and legal theories well equipped to approach protest as central to democracy? How are we to study the democratising and performative effects of contestation? What distinguishes a political protest geared toward contesting narrow conceptions about a people’s identity from other forms of social rioting or popular uprising?

To discuss these questions join us for the first seminar series at the University of Beira Interior. Please register by emailing us at: guilhermemarquespedro@ubi.pt