Political Science Weekly Digest for Friday, April 25, 2025
April 25, 2025
We acknowledge and respect the Lək̓ʷəŋən (Songhees and Xʷsepsəm/Esquimalt) Peoples on whose territory the university stands, and the Lək̓ʷəŋən and W̱SÁNEĆ Peoples whose historical relationships with the land continue to this day.
POLITICAL SCIENCE ANNOUNCEMENTS
In Memoriam - Warren Magnusson
28 January 1947- 2 April 2025
We regret to report that Professor Warren Magnusson passed away in Vancouver on April 2nd.
Warren joined the Department in 1979 and formally retired in 2016. He had previously been a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, where he was awarded his doctorate in 1978. He was Chair of the Department from 2001 to 2003.
Warren was first and foremost a political theorist. He had an intense concern with what it has meant and might still mean to engage with “the political,” especially given the – to him unfortunate – degree to which so many political possibilities have been monopolized and significantly corrupted by the modern state. In this respect his work resonates with many forms of political analysis concerned with alternative understandings of democracy, novel strategies energising progressive social movements in diverse settings and changing modes of spatiotemporal organization both locally and globally. Like Hannah Arendt, he was disturbed by the great gulf between ideals of democracy and contemporary practices enacted in its name. He especially fought against claims about political realities affirmed through the eyes of modern technocratic states.
He is best known for his diagnoses of “the urban political experience,” which he engaged most explicitly in his In Search of Political Space (1996), Politics of Urbanism: Seeing Like a City (2011), and Local Self Government and the Right to the City (2015). Unlike almost all analysts of urban politics, he was able to identify the urban political experience well beyond city boundaries: in Clayoquot Sound, for example, as well as in the networks mapped in studies of multiple globalizations. Similarly, unlike most analysts of globalization, he always insisted on the concrete local practices of community and self-government, championing their capacities to resist world-wide structures and forces that seem to overwhelm all possibilities of democracy and self-determination. Writing against the entrenched conceits of localists, globalists and statists alike, he sustained a commitment to democratic possibilities that was both analytically incisive and productively provocative. Even while it became conventional wisdom that we need to think more creatively about relationships between localizations and globalizations (“think globally and act locally”), Warren was one of the very few thinkers anywhere willing to engage seriously with what such relationships might imply for established conceptions of what politics must involve and where it might be engaged.
Warren was also a consummate teacher, widely admired for his capacity to bring historical thinkers to life and to show how once revolutionary principles have turned into commonplace conventions that we scarcely notice let alone know how to challenge. Together with Rob Walker, and against much prevailing fashion, he established a series of undergraduate courses devoted to the entrenched canon of European thinkers who largely defined what we mean by politics and even set the terms under which alternatives might be envisaged. This involved the close reading of texts and a capacity to appreciate how and why historical thinkers came to adopt various positions before engaging in critical judgements about them. Among other things, these courses were envisaged as helpful preparation for a potential graduate program focusing on more critical, contemporary and transdisciplinary forms of theorization. This was eventually crystalized as the Graduate Program in Contemporary (now Cultural) Social and Political Thought, of which Warren was the founding Director.
Over a career at UVic spanning 36 years, Warren taught over one hundred separate lecture and seminar courses at undergraduate and graduate levels, mainly in political theory and urban politics. He often claimed that he learnt more from his students than they learnt from him. He was the primary supervisor and mentor of around forty MA and PhD students and served on the thesis committees of many others. He taught with both passion and deep integrity. He never eschewed difficult readings in favour of easier options or compromised traditional Socratic methods with contemporary fashions in learning technologies. He was also exceptionally generous with the time and attention he devoted to individuals working at all levels. He leaves a legacy of thousands of students inspired to think critically about the contemporary world, and to conceive of different ways to engage in political action.
As a colleague, Warren was a dedicated, thoughtful, hard-working and collegial member of the Department, the Faculty and the University. He was generous in his praise and both fair and enabling in his criticism. As a scholar, teacher and colleague, he was always a powerful presence and a role model who significantly raised the standards, ambitions and reputation of our Department.
UVIC ANNOUNCEMENTS
CFGS BIG LAB: “Reimagining the Mexican Dream: Migrant Integration and Settlement in Ciudad Juarez”
Irasema Coronado, School of Transborder Studies, Arizona State U
Monday, April 28, Online via Zoom. Register here
As shifting migration policies and enforcement at the U.S.-Mexico border have rendered the pursuit of the American Dream increasingly inaccessible, a growing number of migrants have turned to Mexico as a place of permanent settlement rather than transit. This paper examines the experiences of 24 migrants from diverse national backgrounds who, after being unable to enter the United States, have made Ciudad Juárez their home. Drawing on qualitative interviews, the study explores processes of integration through interrelated domains: navigating Mexican immigration laws and policies, employment, housing, and the experiences of children in the immigrant integration process. Irasema Coronado (Ph.D., Director and Professor at the School of Transborder Studies at Arizona State University) and Hector Antonio Padilla Delgado (Professor of Political Science at the Universidad Autonoma de Ciudad Juárez) will be sharing their research on migrant integration and settlement in Ciudad Juárez.
CSRS: “Can We Talk…About the religious elements of complex global and local crises?”
Tuesday, May 6, 12-2:30 pm, University Club, Register here
Lunch workshop for UVic faculty, staff and graduate students to explore the ways in which we might talk about the religious aspects of complex global and local crises. More information visit the CSRS website. Lunch provided. Registration required. Free
CIFAL: From Theory to Practice – Four Day Workshop
May 6-9, DTB 8:30-noon
Join Rajesh Tandon and Crystal Tremblay for an intensive four-day workshop designed for academics, staff, graduate students and community leaders seeking to deepen their understanding and practice of community engagement. Through interactive sessions and hands-on learning, learners will develop skills in the foundations of building authentic partnerships, explore innovative participatory research and engagement methods, dive deep into thematic research areas, and develop ethical decision-making skills for community engagement.
Learning outcomes
- Develop effective strategies for establishing equitable partnerships
- Learn to address power imbalances and develop skills in ethical practice
- Learn techniques for facilitating participatory methods
- Learn to apply participatory methods for theme-specific community issues
Join us from for all 4 sessions and receive a UINITAR-CIFAL Certificate of Completion, or register for individual sessions to customize your learning experience. This course is certified by CIFAL Victoria. More info and registration
CFGS PROPERTY & SOCIETY GROUP: “The Black Tax: 150 Years of Theft, Exploitation and Dispossession in America”
Prof Andrew Kharl
Thursday, May 8, 11 am, Online via Zoom. Register here
Throughout the twentieth century, African Americans acquired substantial amounts of property nationwide. But racist practices, obscure processes, and outright theft diminished their holdings and their power. In his new book, The Black Tax: 150 Years of Theft, Exploitation and Dispossession in America, Andrew Kharl reveals the shocking history and ruinous consequences of the inequitable and predatory tax laws that resulted in widespread and devastating racial dispossession. The story of America’s now enormous concentration of wealth at the top—and the equally enormous absence of wealth among most Black households has its roots here. Andrew Kahrl is a professor of History and African American Studies. He specializes in the history of race and inequality in the twentieth-century US, with a focus on housing and real estate, land use and ownership, and local tax systems. His research and writing appears regularly in media outlets, including the New York Times, Washington Post, The Guardian and Boston Review. Kahrl teaches courses on the history of race and real estate in the US, local politics in America, US urban history, Black landownership, and African American history since 1865.
The Political Science Weekly Digest is available online.
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