Jane Bennett (political theorist) explained

Region:	Western philosophy
Era:	Contemporary philosophy
Jane Bennett
Birth Date:	1957 7, df=yes
Institutions:	Johns Hopkins University School of Arts and Sciences
Nationality:	American
School Tradition:	Continental philosophy Speculative realism^[1] New materialism
Main Interests:	Political philosophy
Notable Ideas:	Vibrant matter, new materialism
Influences:	Baruch Spinoza, Friedrich Nietzsche, Henry David Thoreau, Charles Darwin, Theodor Adorno, Gilles Deleuze, Henri Bergson, Hans Driescb^[2]
Education:	Siena College University of Massachusetts

Jane Bennett (born July 31, 1957)^[3] is an American political theorist and philosopher. 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 journal Political Theory between 2012 and 2017.^{[5] [6]}

Education

Jane Bennett originally trained in environmental studies and political science. She graduated magna cum laude in 1979 from Siena College in Loudonville, New York. Whilst at Siena College Bennett met Kathy Ferguson. Bennett then went on to the University of Massachusetts, where she earned a Ph.D. political science in 1986.^[7]

Philosophical work

Bennett's work considers ontological ideas about the relationship 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?^[8]

In her most frequently cited book, Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things,^[9] Bennett's argument is that, "Edibles, commodities, storms, and metals act as quasi agents, with their own trajectories, potentialities and tendencies.".^[10] 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-physician Paracelsus (1493-1541) and Walt Whitman's collection 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
• 2017 - Fellow, Bauhaus University, Internationales Kolleg fur Kulturtechnikforschung und Medienphilosophie

Bibliography

Books

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

Book review: Princen . Thomas . 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 . 10.1017/S1537592710003464 . March 2011 . 144328266 .

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

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

Edited books

• Book: Bennett . Jane . Chaloupka . William . In the Nature of Things: Language, Politics, and the Environment . . Minneapolis . 1993 . 9780816623082 .
• Book: Bennett . Jane . Shapiro . Michael J. . Michael J. Shapiro . The Politics of Moralizing . Routledge . New York . 2002 . 9780415934787 .

Book chapters

Abridged version printed (along with an 'assignment') as: Open access link.

Revised and reprinted as

• • - forthcoming.
• - forthcoming.

Journal articles

• Bennett . Jane . De Rerum Natura . Strategies . 13 . 1 . 9–22 . Spring 2000 . 10.1080/10402130050007494 .

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

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

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

• Bennett . Jane . Commodity fetishism and commodity enchantment . Theory & Event . 5 . 1 . 10.1353/tae.2001.0006 . Winter 2001 . 144361800 .
• Bennett . Jane . The force of things: steps toward an ecology of matter . . 32 . 3 . 347–372 . 10.1177/0090591703260853 . June 2004 . 146366679 .
• Bennett . Jane . The agency of assemblages and the North American blackout public culture . . 17 . 3 . 445–466 . 10.1215/08992363-17-3-445 . Fall 2005 .
• Bennett . Jane . Edible matter . New Left Review . 2 . 45 . May–June 2007 .
• Bennett . Jane . Marrati . Paola (translator, French) . Matérialismes métalliques . Rue Descartes 81 . 59 . 1 . 2008 .
• Bennett . Jane . Livingston . Alexander . Philosophy in the wild: listening to things in Baltimore . Scapegoat: Architecture, Landscape, Political Economy: 02 Materialism . 2 . 12–13 . Scapegoat . December 2011 . Available via the co-author Alexander Livingston on Academia.edu.
• Bennett . Jane . Systems and things: a response to Graham Harman and Timothy Morton . . 43 . 2 . 225–233 . 10.1353/nlh.2012.0020 . Spring 2012 . 144395464 .

This article was in response to: Harman . Graham . Graham Harman . The well-wrought broken hammer: object-oriented literary criticism . . 43 . 2 . 183–203 . 10.1353/nlh.2012.0016 . Spring 2012 . 145048580 .

and: Morton . Timothy . Timothy Morton . An object-oriented defense of poetry . . 43 . 2 . 205–224 . 10.1353/nlh.2012.0018 . Spring 2012 . 170397563 .

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

Blog posts

• Bennett . Jane . On the call from outside . The Immanent Frame . Social Science Research Council . 18 August 2010 .

Published interviews

• Khan . Gulshan . Agency, nature and emergent properties . Contemporary Political Theory . 8 . 1 . February 2009 . 90–105 . 10.1057/CPT.2008.43 . 144483000 .

Revised and reprinted as

• Also printed as: Bennett . Jane . Loenhart . Klaus K. . Vibrant matter - zero landscape: interview with Jane Bennett . Eurozine . 19 October 2011 .
• Watson . Janell . Eco-sensibilities: interview with Jane Bennett . Minnesota Review . 81 . 1 . 147–158 . 10.1215/00265667-2332147 . October 2013 . 145051920 .
• (Forthcoming) Interview with Jane Bennett . LA+: Interdisciplinary Journal of Landscape Architecture . 11 (Vitality) . Spring 2020 .

See also

• New materialisms

External links

• Jane Bennett, Johns Hopkins University

Notes and References

1. https://philosophyinatimeoferror.com/2010/04/22/vibrant-matters-an-interview-with-jane-bennett/ Vibrant Matters: An Interview with Jane Bennett
2. Book: Bennett , Jane . Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things . 2010 . viii . Duke University Press . 978-0-8223-4633-3 .
3. Web site: Bennett, Jane, 1957-. Library of Congress. 25 July 2014. Her Unthinking faith and enlightenment, c1987: CIP t.p. (Jane Bennett) data sheet (b. 7/31/57).
4. Web site: Curriculum Vitae. Bennett. Jane. 2018. Johns Hopkins Department of Political Science. https://web.archive.org/web/20190418161805/https://krieger.jhu.edu/poli-sci/wp-content/uploads/sites/55/2019/02/JBennett-cv-2018.docx. 2019-04-18. 2019-04-18.
5. Web site: Political Theory: An International Journal of Political Philosophy. Sage. 25 July 2014.
6. Web site: Jane Bennett. Political Science. 13 March 2015 . en-US. 2019-12-21.
7. Web site: Jane Bennett . Department of Political Science, Johns Hopkins University . 25 July 2014 .
8. Khan . Gulshan . Agency, nature and emergent properties: an interview with Jane Bennett . Contemporary Political Theory . 8 . 1 . 90–105 . 10.1057/cpt.2008.43 . February 2009 . 144483000 .
9. http://lareviewofbooks.org/essay/strawberries-on-life-support " Strawberries on Life Support by Antónia Szabari & Natania Meeker"
10. Watson . Janell . Eco-sensibilities: interview with Jane Bennett . Minnesota Review . 81 . 1 . 147–158 . 10.1215/00265667-2332147 . October 2013 . 145051920 .
11. Web site: CISSC Lecture Series: Jane Bennett, Johns Hopkins University: Impersonal Sympathy . https://web.archive.org/web/20140728234301/http://cissc.concordia.ca/lecturesconferencesandevents/2012-13/?share=1 . dead . 28 July 2014 . Center for Interdisciplinary Studies in Society and Culture, Concordia University, Montreal. 25 July 2014. 22 March 2013.
12. Book: Visiting Fellows and Other Visitors, 1991–2004. Humanities Research Centre, Australian National University. 25 July 2014. 9780975122983. 2004-05-01. 10.22459/HRC.05.2004. Barclay. Glen St John. Turner. Caroline . free .
13. Web site: Visiting research fellows: previous visiting research fellows - Professor Bennett. Centre for the Study of Social and Global Justice (CSSGJ), The University of Nottingham. 25 July 2014.
14. Web site: Past visiting research fellows: Professor Jane Bennett (2010). Birbeck Institute for the Humanities, University of London. 25 July 2014.