01 Opening session. Keynote: Rey Chow, The Jargon of Liberal Democracy

Chair: Ivo Ritzer (Moderator)

In this lecture, I would like to take the question of medialities back to practices of everyday language, in particular the widespread (neo)liberal lexicon of freedom and democracy. I ask how such practices of language, often made an implicit part of different medial representations (including art, fiction, performance, scholarly studies, journalism, therapy, corporate management policy, advertising, etc.), are key to the production of a kind of seemingly consensual “knowledge” around the globe today, often—and disturbingly—at the expense of informed, historical reflection attuned to local complexities.