How does Martin Luther King, Jr., understand race philosophically and how did this understanding lead him to develop an ontological conception of racist police violence? In this important new work, Mark Christian Thompson attempts to answer these questions, examining ontology in Martin Luther King, Jr.'s philosophy. Specifically, the book reads King through 1920s German academic debates between Martin Heidegger, Rudolf Bultmann, Hans Jonas, Carl Schmitt, Eric Voegelin, Hannah Arendt, and others on Being, gnosticism, existentialism, political theology, and sovereignty. It further examines King's dissertation about Tillich, as well other key texts from his speculative writings, sermons, and speeches, positing King's understanding of divine love as a form of Heideggerian ontology articulated in beloved community. Tracking the presence of twentieth-century German philosophy and theology in his thought, the book situates King's ontology conceptually and socially in nonviolent protest. In so doing, The Critique of Nonviolence reads King's "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" (1963) with Walter Benjamin's "Critique of Violence" (1921) to reveal the depth of King's political-theological critique of police violence as the illegitimate appropriation of the racialized state of exception. As Thompson argues, it is in part through its appropriation of German philosophy and theology that King's ontology condemns the perpetual American state of racial exception that permits unlimited police violence against Black lives.

How does Martin Luther King, Jr., understand race philosophically and how did this understanding lead him to develop an ontological conception of racist police violence? In this important new work, Mark Christian Thompson attempts to answer these questions, examining ontology in Martin Luther King, Jr.'s philosophy. Specifically, the book reads King through 1920s German academic debates between Martin Heidegger, Rudolf Bultmann, Hans Jonas, Carl Schmitt, Eric Voegelin, Hannah Arendt, and others on Being, gnosticism, existentialism, political theology, and sovereignty. It further examines King's dissertation about Tillich, as well other key texts from his speculative writings, sermons, and speeches, positing King's understanding of divine love as a form of Heideggerian ontology articulated in beloved community. Tracking the presence of twentieth-century German philosophy and theology in his thought, the book situates King's ontology conceptually and socially in nonviolent protest. In so doing, The Critique of Nonviolence reads King's "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" (1963) with Walter Benjamin's "Critique of Violence" (1921) to reveal the depth of King's political-theological critique of police violence as the illegitimate appropriation of the racialized state of exception. As Thompson argues, it is in part through its appropriation of German philosophy and theology that King's ontology condemns the perpetual American state of racial exception that permits unlimited police violence against Black lives.

This book examines how the Global Education Industry (GEI) has brokered, funded, and implemented new conceptualizations of 'good' education. With a focus on new private providers and policy actors in education, the authors of the book analyze the impact of the GEI on educational research, policy and practice. How did philanthropies and foundations manage to make their voices heard in school reform debates, what are the implication of digital technologies and data infrastructures on teaching and learning, and should the fast advance of the GEI be merely seen as a logical consequence of the commercialization of education? Moving beyond single-country case studies, the book focuses on key issues related to the study of the Global Education Industry in an international context, discussing the rationales, processes and impacts of current developments. This comprehensive book will be of interest and value to scholars and researchers of the GEI, as well as policy makers.

This unorthodox account of 1960s Black thought rigorously details the field's debts to German critical theory and explores a forgotten tradition of Black singularity. Phenomenal Blackness examines the changing interdisciplinary investments of key mid-century Black writers and thinkers, including the growing interest in German philosophy and critical theory. Mark Christian Thompson analyzes this shift in intellectual focus across the post-war decades, placing Black Power thought in a philosophical context. Prior to the 1960s, sociologically oriented thinkers such as W. E. B. Du Bois had understood Blackness as a singular set of socio-historical characteristics. In contrast, writers such as Amiri Baraka, James Baldwin, Angela Y. Davis, Eldridge Cleaver, and Malcolm X were drawn to notions of an African essence, an ontology of Black being. With these perspectives, literary language came to be seen as the primary social expression of Blackness. For this new way of thinking, the works of philosophers such as Adorno, Habermas, and Marcuse were a vital resource, allowing for continued cultural-materialist analysis while accommodating the hermeneutical aspects of Black religious thought. Thompson argues that these efforts to reimagine Black singularity led to a phenomenological understanding of Blackness-a "Black aesthetic dimension" wherein aspirational models for Black liberation might emerge.

Kulturelle Formen und Praxen der Inszenierung und Optimierung des Selbst spielen heute in der alltaglichen Lebensgestaltung und Lebensfuhrung eine herausragende Rolle: Die vielfaltigen Veranderungen und Manipulationen an Korper und Geist zeigen, dass kaum etwas von der Arbeit am Selbst ausgenommen ist. Dabei erscheint das Selbst in einer Position der Verfugung und zugleich in einer Position uneingeschrankter Disponibilitat wechselnder Anspruche und Anforderungsprofile. Wie ist diese Ambivalenz von Selbstschopfung und Selbstdisziplinierung in der Arbeit am Selbst zu deuten? Wie ist dies auf gegenwartige (padagogische) Praxen und Verfahren der Inszenierung und Optimierung des Selbst zu beziehen? Und: Wo verlaufen die Grenzen des Selbst? Die Beitrage dieses Bandes nehmen sich dieser Fragen aus gegenwartsanalytischer und grundlagentheoretischer Perspektive an und rekonstruieren in verschiedenen kulturellen Feldern die unmogliche Aufgabe, ein Selbst zu sein.

Die zentralen Begriffe der Bildungskonzeption Theodor Ballauffs werden in dieser Untersuchung erarbeitet und deren theoretisch-kritische Tragfahigkeit durch eine Analyse ihrer philosophischen Ruckbezuge auf das Denken Martin Heideggers uberpruft."

Most of those who comment on Iran's attempt to influence Iraqi Shia, do so without considering the historical and cultural connection between these two peoples. The research presented directs its attention to the Iranian motives and capabilities and then to the first targets of Iranian influence efforts. Finally, the research considered the historical and cultural connections between Iraqi and Iranian Shia to identify the themes and methods that persuade Iraqi Shia to collaborate with Iran. Iran is presently conducting an aggressive strategic influence campaign into southern Iraq. The Iraqi Shia community is the primary target of Iranian efforts. Tehran's bases its motivations on national self-interest and religious-political ideals. The Iranian Regime advocates a religious political activism to expand fundamental religious ideals. The Shia community in Iraq holds on to the practice of religious-political self-preservation and seeks to conform to the state in order to exist. Members of both Shia communities hold varied cultural values, based on their historical development. Tehran uses methods along the spectrum of psychological persuasion to influence and subvert the Iraqi Shia community. Specifically, they target individual communities. The Iranian regime attempts to gain authority in Iraq via the same government institutions designed to control over its own population. The formidable Iranian government apparatus allows the targeting of the Iraqi population through efforts designed to achieve compliance and conformity. The Iraqi Shia society is fragmented, but nationalism also provides a powerful influence for this group. The majority of the Iraqi Shia community identify themselves as Iraqi citizens despite a common historical narrative and ethnic ties with the Iranian Shia population. Independent national principles foster Iraqi and Iranian nationalist sentiments and the division between the two states are likely to grow with the Iraqi government becoming more capable and effective of controlling its own state affairs. However, Iran will continue to attempt to exploit areas where the new Iraqi government has limited penetration along the southern border region.

In this provocative new book, Mark Christian Thompson addresses the startling fact that many African American intellectuals in the 1930s sympathized with fascism, seeing in its ideology a means of envisioning new modes of African American political resistance. Thompson surveys the work and thought of several authors and asserts that their sometimes positive reaction to generic European fascism, and its transformation into black fascism, is crucial to any understanding of Depression-era African American literary culture.

The book considers the high regard that "Back to Africa" advocate Marcus Garvey expressed for fascist dictators and explores the common ground he shared with George Schuyler and Claude McKay, writers with whom Garvey is generally thought to be at odds. Thompson reveals how fascism informed a rejection of Marxism by McKay--as well as by Arna Bontemps, whose "Drums at Dusk" depicts communism as antithetical to any black revolution. A similarly authoritarian stance is examined in the work of Zora Neale Hurston, where the striving for a fascist sovereignty presents itself as highly critical of Nazism while nonetheless sharing many of its tenets. The book concludes with an investigation of Richard Wright's "The Outsider" and its murderous protagonist, Cross Damon, who articulates fascist drives already present, if latent, in "Native Son"'s Bigger Thomas. Unencumbered by the historical or biblical references of the earlier work, Damon personifies the essence of black fascism.

Taking on a subject generally ignored or denied in African American cultural and literary studies, "Black Fascisms" seeks not only to question the prominence of the Left in the political thought of a generation of writers but to change how we view African American literature in general. Encompassing political theory, cultural studies, critical theory, and historicism, the book will challenge readers in numerous fields, providing a new model for thinking about the political and transnational in African American culture and shedding new light on our understanding of fascism between the wars.

This unorthodox account of 1960s Black thought rigorously details the field's debts to German critical theory and explores a forgotten tradition of Black singularity. Phenomenal Blackness examines the changing interdisciplinary investments of key mid-century Black writers and thinkers, including the growing interest in German philosophy and critical theory. Mark Christian Thompson analyzes this shift in intellectual focus across the post-war decades, placing Black Power thought in a philosophical context. Prior to the 1960s, sociologically oriented thinkers such as W. E. B. Du Bois had understood Blackness as a singular set of socio-historical characteristics. In contrast, writers such as Amiri Baraka, James Baldwin, Angela Y. Davis, Eldridge Cleaver, and Malcolm X were drawn to notions of an African essence, an ontology of Black being. With these perspectives, literary language came to be seen as the primary social expression of Blackness. For this new way of thinking, the works of philosophers such as Adorno, Habermas, and Marcuse were a vital resource, allowing for continued cultural-materialist analysis while accommodating the hermeneutical aspects of Black religious thought. Thompson argues that these efforts to reimagine Black singularity led to a phenomenological understanding of Blackness-a "Black aesthetic dimension" wherein aspirational models for Black liberation might emerge.

In this volume are more than 125 biographies that together demonstrate the diversity and depth of Saskatchewan's First Nations community and the contributions of First Nations people to the province.

Kafka's Blues proves the startling thesis that many of Kafka's major works engage in a coherent, sustained meditation on racial transformation from white European into what Kafka refers to as the "Negro" (a term he used in English). Indeed, this bookdemonstrates that cultural assimilation and bodily transformation in Kafka's work are impossible without passage through a state of being "Negro." Kafka represents this passage in various ways-from reflections on New World slavery and black music toevolutionary theory, biblical allusion, and aesthetic primitivism-each grounded in a concept of writing that is linked to the perceived congenital musicality of the "Negro," and which is bound to his wider conception of aesthetic production. Mark ChristianThompson offers new close readings of canonical texts and undervalued letters and diary entries set in the context of the afterlife of New World slavery and in Czech and German popular culture.