Events

Past Event

Reparations for Slavery: Memory, Justice, Responsibility

February 3, 2022
1:00 PM - 2:00 PM
America/New_York
Online Event

Magali Bessone and Myriam Cottias will be discussing their book in dialogue with Madeleine Dobie, Olatunde Johnson, and Nicolas Delalande

RSVP HERE and you will receive a zoom link on the day of the event.

In the past few years, the issue of slavery reparations has been at the center of many public debates, both in the United States and in Europe. Some debates, like the one between Ta-Nehisi Coates and Coleman Hughes three years ago, have been widely publicized and contributed to creating a greater awareness of this question among the general public. But what do we really mean when we talk about “reparations”? How are we to understand, in this context, the terms of “justice”, “dignity”, “abolitions”, “indemnity”, “memory”, “rights”, “race”, “responsibility”? In their book Lexique des réparations de l’esclavage (Lexicon of Reparations for Slavery), Magali Bessone and Myriam Cottias shed new light on these notions through concrete examples and case studies from the present and the past. By doing so, they highlight the importance of the question of reparations within contemporary philosophical, historical and economic discussions about race and power. 

This program is jointly presented by the Columbia Maison Française, the Columbia French Department and the Alliance Program. 

RSVP here. This event will also be livestreamed on Facebook Live.

Contact Information

Maison Francaise