Jane Bennett (political theorist)

Jane Bennett
Jane Bennett
Born	31 July 1957(age 67)
Nationality	American
Education	Siena College; University of Massachusetts
Era	Contemporary philosophy
Region	Western philosophy
School	Continental philosophy; Speculative realism; New materialism
Institutions	Johns Hopkins University School of Arts and Sciences
Main interests	Political philosophy
Notable ideas	Vibrant matter,new materialism

Jane Bennett(born July 31, 1957)^[3]is an Americanpolitical theoristandphilosopher.She is the Andrew W. Mellon Professor of the Humanities at the Department of Political Science,Johns Hopkins University School of Arts and Sciences.^[4]She was also the editor of the academic journalPolitical Theorybetween 2012 and 2017.^[5]^[6]

Education

Jane Bennett originally trained inenvironmental studiesandpolitical science.She graduatedmagna cum laudein 1979 fromSiena CollegeinLoudonville, New York.Whilst at Siena College Bennett metKathy Ferguson.Bennett then went on to theUniversity of Massachusetts,where she earned a Ph.D.political sciencein 1986.^[7]^[8]

Philosophical work

Bennett's work considersontologicalideas about therelationship between humans and 'things',what she calls "vital materialism":

What counts as the material of vital materialism? Is it only human labour and the socio-economic entities made by men using raw materials? Or is materiality more potent than that? How can political theory do a better job of recognizing the active participation of nonhuman forces in every event and every stabilization? Is there a form of theory that can acknowledge a certain ‘thing-power’, that is, the irreducibility of objects to the human meanings or agendas they also embody?^[9]

In her most frequently cited book,Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things,^[10]Bennett's argument is that, "Edibles, commodities, storms, and metals act asquasi agents,with their own trajectories, potentialities and tendencies. ".^[7]Bennett has also published books on American authors Henry David Thoreau and Walt Whitman.

Public lectures she has given include "Impersonal Sympathy", a talk theorizing 'sympathy' in which she considered the alchemist-physicianParacelsus (1493-1541)andWalt Whitman'scollection of poetry,Leaves of Grass.^[11]In 2015 Bennett delivered the annual Neal A. Maxwell Lecture in Political Theory and Contemporary Politics at the University of Utah entitled “Walt Whitman and the Soft Voice of Sympathy.”

Fellowships

1997 - Visiting Fellow, Department of Politics, Goucher College, Australian National University^[12]
2007 - Visiting Fellow, Department of Politics, University of Nottingham^[13]
2010 - Fellow, Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities, University of London^[14]
2011 - Fellow, Oxford University, Keble College^[8]
2017 - Fellow,Bauhaus University,Internationales Kolleg fur Kulturtechnikforschung und Medienphilosophie^[4]

Bibliography

Books

Bennett, Jane (1987).Unthinking Faith and Enlightenment: Nature and the State in a Post-Hegelian Era.New York: New York University Press.ISBN 9780814710951.
Bennett, Jane (2001).The Enchantment of Modern Life: Attachments, Crossings, and Ethics.Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.ISBN 9780691088136.
Bennett, Jane (2002).Thoreau's Nature: Ethics, Politics, and the Wild(2nd ed.). Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield.ISBN 9780742521414.
Bennett, Jane (2010).Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things.Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press.ISBN 9780822346197.

Book review:Princen, Thomas (March 2011). "Critical Dialogue -" Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things. "By Jane Bennett. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2010. 176p. $74.95 cloth, $21.95 paper".Perspectives on Politics.9(1): 118–120.doi:10.1017/S1537592710003464.S2CID 144328266.

Bennett's response to five book reviews ofVibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things:Bennett, Jane (November 2011). "Author response".Dialogues in Human Geography.1(3): 404–406.doi:10.1177/204382061100100310.S2CID 220591219.

Bennett, Jane (2020).Influx and Efflux: Writing Up with Walt Whitman.Duke University Press.ISBN 978-1478007791.

Edited books

Bennett, Jane; Chaloupka, William (1993).In the Nature of Things: Language, Politics, and the Environment.Minneapolis:University of Minnesota Press.ISBN 9780816623082.
Bennett, Jane;Shapiro, Michael J.(2002).The Politics of Moralizing.New York: Routledge.ISBN 9780415934787.

Book chapters

Bennett, Jane;Shapiro, Michael J.(2002), "Introduction", in Bennett, Jane;Shapiro, Michael J.(eds.),The politics of moralizing,New York: Routledge, pp. 1–10,ISBN 9780415934787
Bennett, Jane (2002), "The Moraline Drift", in Bennett, Jane;Shapiro, Michael J.(eds.),The Politics of Moralizing,New York: Routledge, pp. 11–26,ISBN 9780415934787
Bennett, Jane;Connolly, William E.(2002), "Mouths, bodies and the state", inHonig, Bonnie;Mapel, David R. (eds.),Skepticism, Individuality, and Freedom: The Reluctant Liberalism of Richard Flathman,Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, pp. 244–265,ISBN 9780816639700
Bennett, Jane (2004), "Approaches to Contemporary Political Theory", inKukathas, Chandran;Gaus, Gerald F. (eds.),Handbook of Political Theory,London Thousand Oaks, California: SAGE, pp. 46–56,ISBN 9780761967873
Bennett, Jane (2005), "In parliament with things", in Tønder, Lars; Thomassen, Lasse (eds.),Radical Democracy: Politics between Abundance and Lack,Manchester New York: Manchester University Press,ISBN 9780719070440
Bennett, Jane (2006), "The Agency of Assemblages and the North American Blackout", inde Vries, Hent;Sullivan, Lawrence E. (eds.),Political Theologies: Public Religions in a Post-Secular World,New York: Fordham University Press, pp. 602–616,ISBN 9780823226450
Bennett, Jane (2008), "Modernity and its Critics", inPhillips, Anne;Bonnie, Honig;Dryzek, John S.(eds.),The Oxford Handbook of Political Theory,Oxford: Oxford University Press,ISBN 9780199548439
Bennett, Jane (2009), "Thoreau's Techniques of Self", in Turner, Jack (ed.),A Political Companion to Henry David Thoreau,Lexington, Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky, pp. 294–325,ISBN 9780813124780
Bennett, Jane (2009), "Thing-Power and an Ecological Sublime", in White, Luke; Pajaczkowska, Claire (eds.),The Sublime Now,Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars, pp. 24–35,ISBN 9781443813020
Bennett, Jane (2010), "A vitalist stopover on the way to a new materialism", inCoole, Diana;Frost, Samantha (eds.),New Materialisms: Ontology, Agency, and Politics,Durham North Carolina London: Duke University Press, pp. 47–69,ISBN 9780822347729
Bennett, Jane (2010), "Thing-Power", inWhatmore, Sarah;Braun, Bruce (eds.),Political Matter: Technoscience, Democracy, and Public Life,Minneapolis, Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press,ISBN 9780816670895
Bennett, Jane (2011), "Thing-Power", in Seery, John (ed.),A Political Companion to Walt Whitman,Lexington, Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky, pp. 131–148,ISBN 9780813126548
Bennett, Jane (2012), "Thing-Power", in Elkins, Jeremy; Norris, Andrew (eds.),Truth and Democracy,Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, pp. 154–158,ISBN 9780812243796
Bennett, Jane (2012), "Powers of the Hoard: Further Notes on Material Agency", in Cohen, Jeffrey (ed.),Animal, Vegetable, Mineral: Ethics and Objects,Washington, DC: Oliphaunt Books an imprint of Punctum Books, pp. 237–269,ISBN 9780615625355

Abridged version printed (along with an 'assignment') as:Bennett, Jane (2013), "Powers of the hoard: further notes on material agency", in Sutela, Jenna (ed.),Add metaphysics: essays and assignments,Aalto, Finland: Aalto University Digital Design Laboratory, pp. 52–67,ISBN 9789526049540Open access link.

Bennett, Jane;Connolly, William(2012), "The Crumpled Handkerchief", in Herzogenrath, Bernd (ed.),Time and History in Deleuze and Serres,New York: Continuum, pp. 153–172,ISBN 9781441163868
Bennett, Jane (2012), "Stones", in Sæbjörnsson, Egill; Herzogenrath, Bernd (eds.),Stones According to Egill Sæbjörnsson,New York: Revolver Publishing / Continuum, pp. 27–36,ISBN 9781441163868
Bennett, Jane;Connolly, William(2013), "Earthling: Now and Forever?", in Ellsworth, Elizabeth; Kruse, Jaime (eds.),Making the Geologic Now: Responses to Material Conditions of Contemporary Life,Brooklyn, New York: Punctum Books, pp. 244–246,ISBN 9780615766362
Bennett, Jane (2013), "From Nature to Matter", in Archer, Crina; Ephraim, Laura; Maxwell, Lida (eds.),Second Nature: Rethinking the Natural Through Politics,New York: Fordham University Press, pp. 149–160,ISBN 9780823251421
Bennett, Jane (2014), "Of Material Sympathies, Paracelsus, and Whitman", in Iovino, Serenella; Oppermann, Serpil (eds.),Material Ecocriticism,Bloomington: Indiana University Press, pp. 149–160,ISBN 9780253013958

Revised and reprinted asBennett, Jane (2015), "Of sympathies alchemical and poetic",Rare Earth,Vienna: Tyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, pp. 112–118

Bennett, Jane (2014), "The shapes of Odradek and the edges of perception", in Klingan, Katrin; Sepahvand, Ashkan; Rosol, Christoph; Scherer, Bernd M. (eds.),Grain/Vapor/Ray: Textures of the Anthropocene,Berlin: Haus der Kulturen der Welt
Bennett, Jane (2014), "Systems and Things: A Reply to Graham Harman and Timothy Morton", inGrusin, Richard(ed.),The Nonhuman Turn,Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press- forthcoming.
Bennett, Jane (2014), "Green Materialism", in Kennedy, T. Frank; Keenan, James (eds.),Nature as a Force: Scientists, Social Scientists, and Ethicists in a Dialogue of Hope,Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto Press- forthcoming.
Bennett, Jane (2017), "Vegetal Life and OntoSympathy", in Keller, Catherine; Rubenstein, Mary-Jane (eds.),Entangled Worlds: Religion, Science, and New Materialisms,Fordham University Press, pp. 89–110
Bennett, Jane (2017), "Vibrant matter", inBraidotti, Rosi;Hlavajova, M. (eds.),Posthuman Glossary,Bloomsbury Publishers

Journal articles

Bennett, Jane (Spring 2000). "De Rerum Natura".Strategies.13(1): 9–22.doi:10.1080/10402130050007494.

Also occasionally referred to with the alternative title "The order of nature in Lucretius", this article discussesDe rerum natura (On the Nature of Things)byLucretius.

Bennett, Jane (Spring 2000)."Sometimes it's okay to be weak: reply to Stephen White".Theory & Event.4(2).

This article was a response to:White, Stephen K.(Spring 2000)."Affirmation and weak ontology in political theory: some rules and doubts".Theory & Event.4(2).

Bennett, Jane (Winter 2001). "Commodity fetishism and commodity enchantment".Theory & Event.5(1).doi:10.1353/tae.2001.0006.S2CID 144361800.
Bennett, Jane (June 2004). "The force of things: steps toward an ecology of matter".Political Theory.32(3): 347–372.doi:10.1177/0090591703260853.S2CID 146366679.
Bennett, Jane (Fall 2005). "The agency of assemblages and the North American blackout public culture".Public Culture.17(3): 445–466.doi:10.1215/08992363-17-3-445.
Bennett, Jane (May–June 2007)."Edible matter".New Left Review.2(45).
Bennett, Jane; Marrati, Paola (translator, French) (2008)."Matérialismes métalliques".Rue Descartes 81.59(1).{{cite journal}}:|first2=has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
Bennett, Jane; Livingston, Alexander (December 2011)."Philosophy in the wild: listening to things in Baltimore".Scapegoat: Architecture, Landscape, Political Economy: 02 Materialism(2). Scapegoat: 12–13.Available via the co-authorAlexander Livingston on Academia.edu.
Bennett, Jane (Spring 2012). "Systems and things: a response to Graham Harman and Timothy Morton".New Literary History.43(2): 225–233.doi:10.1353/nlh.2012.0020.S2CID 144395464.

This article was in response to:Harman, Graham(Spring 2012). "The well-wrought broken hammer: object-oriented literary criticism".New Literary History.43(2): 183–203.doi:10.1353/nlh.2012.0016.S2CID 145048580.

and:Morton, Timothy(Spring 2012). "An object-oriented defense of poetry".New Literary History.43(2): 205–224.doi:10.1353/nlh.2012.0018.S2CID 170397563.

Bennett, Jane (Spring 2013). "The elements".Postmedieval.4(1): 105–111.doi:10.1057/pmed.2012.39.S2CID 195217226.
Bennett, Jane (2015)."Encounters with an art-thing"(PDF).Evental Aesthetics.3(3): 91–110.
Bennett, Jane; Washick, Bonnie; Wingrove, Elizabeth; Ferguson, Kathy E. (February 2015). "Politics that matter: thinking about power and justice with the new materialists".Contemporary Political Theory.14(1): 63–89.doi:10.1057/cpt.2014.19.S2CID 145671868.
Bennett, Jane (September 2016). "Whitman's sympathies".Political Research Quarterly.69(3): 607–620.doi:10.1177/1065912916656824.S2CID 151664131.
Bennett, Jane (December 2017). "Mimesis: Paradox or encounter".MLN.132(5): 1186–1200.doi:10.1353/mln.2017.0091.S2CID 165619743.
(Forthcoming)Bennett, Jane (2019). "Out for a walk".Zeitschrift für Kultur und Medienforschung.10:93–105.doi:10.28937/1000108235.S2CID 213271406.

Blog posts

Bennett, Jane (18 August 2010)."On the call from outside".The Immanent Frame.Social Science Research Council.

Published interviews

Khan, Gulshan (February 2009). "Agency, nature and emergent properties".Contemporary Political Theory.8(1): 90–105.doi:10.1057/CPT.2008.43.S2CID 144483000.

Revised and reprinted asKhan, Gulshan (2012), "Vital materiality and non-human agency: an interview with Jane Bennett", inProkhovnik, Raia;Browning, Gary; Dimova-Cookson, Maria (eds.),Dialogues with contemporary political theorists,Houndsmill, Basingstoke, Hampshire New York: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 42–58,ISBN 9780230303058

Bennett, Jane; Loenhart, Klaus K. (2011), "Vibrant matter - zero landscape: interview with Jane Bennett", in Bélanger, Pierre (ed.),GAM 07: Zero landscape: unfolding active agencies of landscape (Graz Architektur Magazin Graz Architecture Magazine) (German and English Edition),Wein New York: Fakultät für Architektur Technische Universität Graz,ISBN 9783709105368Also printed as:Bennett, Jane; Loenhart, Klaus K. (19 October 2011)."Vibrant matter - zero landscape: interview with Jane Bennett".Eurozine.
Watson, Janell (October 2013). "Eco-sensibilities: interview with Jane Bennett".Minnesota Review.81(1): 147–158.doi:10.1215/00265667-2332147.S2CID 145051920.
(Forthcoming)"Interview with Jane Bennett".LA+: Interdisciplinary Journal of Landscape Architecture(11 (Vitality)). Spring 2020.

References

^Vibrant Matters: An Interview with Jane Bennett
^Bennett, Jane (2010).Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things.Duke University Press. pp. viii.ISBN 978-0-8223-4633-3.
^"Bennett, Jane, 1957-".Library of Congress.Retrieved25 July2014.Her Unthinking faith and enlightenment, c1987: CIP t.p. (Jane Bennett) data sheet (b. 7/31/57)
^^a ^bBennett, Jane (2018)."Curriculum Vitae".Johns Hopkins Department of Political Science.Archived fromthe originalon 18 April 2019.Retrieved18 April2019.
^"Political Theory: An International Journal of Political Philosophy".Sage.Retrieved25 July2014.
^"Jane Bennett".Political Science.13 March 2015.Retrieved21 December2019.
^^a ^bWatson, Janell (October 2013). "Eco-sensibilities: interview with Jane Bennett".Minnesota Review.81(1): 147–158.doi:10.1215/00265667-2332147.S2CID 145051920.
^^a ^b"Jane Bennett".Department of Political Science, Johns Hopkins University.Retrieved25 July2014.
^Khan, Gulshan (February 2009). "Agency, nature and emergent properties: an interview with Jane Bennett".Contemporary Political Theory.8(1): 90–105.doi:10.1057/cpt.2008.43.S2CID 144483000.
^"Strawberries on Life Support by Antónia Szabari & Natania Meeker".Los Angeles Review of Books]
^"CISSC Lecture Series: Jane Bennett, Johns Hopkins University: Impersonal Sympathy".Center for Interdisciplinary Studies in Society and Culture, Concordia University, Montreal. 22 March 2013. Archived fromthe originalon 28 July 2014.Retrieved25 July2014.
^Barclay, Glen St John; Turner, Caroline (1 May 2004).Visiting Fellows and Other Visitors, 1991–2004.Humanities Research Centre, Australian National University.doi:10.22459/HRC.05.2004.ISBN 9780975122983.Retrieved25 July2014.
^"Visiting research fellows: previous visiting research fellows - Professor Bennett".Centre for the Study of Social and Global Justice (CSSGJ), The University of Nottingham.Retrieved25 July2014.
^"Past visiting research fellows: Professor Jane Bennett (2010)".Birbeck Institute for the Humanities, University of London.Retrieved25 July2014.

External links

Jane Bennett, Johns Hopkins University

[1] Vibrant Matters: An Interview with Jane Bennett

[2] Bennett, Jane (2010).Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things.Duke University Press. pp. viii.ISBN 978-0-8223-4633-3.

[Congress-3] "Bennett, Jane, 1957-".Library of Congress.Retrieved25 July2014.Her Unthinking faith and enlightenment, c1987: CIP t.p. (Jane Bennett) data sheet (b. 7/31/57)

[cv2018-4] Bennett, Jane (2018)."Curriculum Vitae".Johns Hopkins Department of Political Science.Archived fromthe originalon 18 April 2019.Retrieved18 April2019.

[Pol_Theory-5] "Political Theory: An International Journal of Political Philosophy".Sage.Retrieved25 July2014.

[6] "Jane Bennett".Political Science.13 March 2015.Retrieved21 December2019.

[Minnesota_Review-7] Watson, Janell (October 2013). "Eco-sensibilities: interview with Jane Bennett".Minnesota Review.81(1): 147–158.doi:10.1215/00265667-2332147.S2CID 145051920.

[CV-8] "Jane Bennett".Department of Political Science, Johns Hopkins University.Retrieved25 July2014.

[Vital_materialism-9] Khan, Gulshan (February 2009). "Agency, nature and emergent properties: an interview with Jane Bennett".Contemporary Political Theory.8(1): 90–105.doi:10.1057/cpt.2008.43.S2CID 144483000.

[LAreview-10] "Strawberries on Life Support by Antónia Szabari & Natania Meeker".Los Angeles Review of Books]

[CISSC-11] "CISSC Lecture Series: Jane Bennett, Johns Hopkins University: Impersonal Sympathy".Center for Interdisciplinary Studies in Society and Culture, Concordia University, Montreal. 22 March 2013. Archived fromthe originalon 28 July 2014.Retrieved25 July2014.

[ANU-12] Barclay, Glen St John; Turner, Caroline (1 May 2004).Visiting Fellows and Other Visitors, 1991–2004.Humanities Research Centre, Australian National University.doi:10.22459/HRC.05.2004.ISBN 9780975122983.Retrieved25 July2014.

[Nottingham-13] "Visiting research fellows: previous visiting research fellows - Professor Bennett".Centre for the Study of Social and Global Justice (CSSGJ), The University of Nottingham.Retrieved25 July2014.

[Birkbck-14] "Past visiting research fellows: Professor Jane Bennett (2010)".Birbeck Institute for the Humanities, University of London.Retrieved25 July2014.

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