RU159: LACAN AND RACE – SHELDON GEORGE, DEREK HOOK, MICHELLE STEPHENS, SHEILA CAVANAGH

Rendering Unconscious welcomes Drs Sheldon George, Derek Hook, Sheila Cavanagh and Michelle Stephens to the podcast to discuss the groundbreaking new book Lacan and Race: Racism, Identity, and Psychoanalytic Theory! This edited volume draws upon Lacanian psychoanalytic theory to examine the conscious and unconscious forces underlying race as a social formation, conceptualizing race, racial identity, and racism in ways that go beyond traditional modes of psychoanalytic thought. Featuring contributions by Lacanian scholars from diverse geographical and disciplinary contexts, chapters span a wide breadth of topics, including white nationalism and contemporary debates over confederate monuments; emergent theories of race rooted in Afropessimism and postcolonialism; analyses of racism in apartheid and American slavery; clinical reflections on Latinx and other racialized patients; and applications of Lacan’s concepts of the lamella, drive and sexuation to processes of racialization. The collection both reorients readers’ understandings of race through its deployment of Lacanian theory and redefines the Lacanian subject through its theorizing of subjectivity in relation to race, racism and racial identification. Lacan and Race will be a definitive text for psychoanalytic theorists and contemporary scholars of race, appealing to readers across the fields of psychology, cultural studies, humanities, politics, and sociology. Order the book here: https://www.routledge.com/Lacan-and-Race-Racism-Identity-and-Psychoanalytic-Theory/George-Hook/p/book/9780367345976 Sheldon George is professor and chair of English at Simmons University, USA. He is the author of Trauma and Race: A Lacanian Study of African American Racial Identity. https://www.baylorpress.com/9781602587342/trauma-and-race/ Derek Hook is an associate professor of Psychology at Duquesne University, USA, and an extraordinary professor of Psychology at the University of Pretoria, South Africa. He is the author of Six Moments in Lacan. https://www.routledge.com/Six-Moments-in-Lacan-Communication-and-identification-in-psychology-and/Hook/p/book/9781138211612 Sheila L. Cavanagh (PhD), Professor, York University, Toronto, Canada. Cavanagh’s scholarship lies in psychoanalytic sociology, queer theory and transgender studies. She is a former co-editor of the Somatechnics journal at Edinburgh University Press and past president of the Canadian Sexuality Studies Association. https://sheila.info.yorku.ca Michelle Stephens, Ph.D., is a licensed psychoanalyst and Dean of the Humanities at Rutgers University, New Brunswick. She is the author of Skin Acts: Race, Psychoanalysis and The Black Male Performer, (Duke, 2014): https://www.dukeupress.edu/skin-acts This episode also available at YouTube: https://youtu.be/hvg2QroGUGU Also be sure to check out Derek Hook's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzdZyq2SC9BtMn3fLTknIMQ Psychology and the Other conference: https://www.psychologyandtheother2021.com You can support the podcast at our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/vanessa23carl Thank you so much for your support! Rendering Unconscious Podcast is hosted by psychoanalyst Dr. Vanessa Sinclair: http://www.drvanessasinclair.net Visit the main website for more information and links to everything: http://www.renderingunconscious.org Rendering Unconscious: Psychoanalytic Perspectives, Politics & Poetry (Trapart 2019): https://store.trapart.net/details/00000 The song at the end of the episode is from the album LUNACY (OST) by Vanessa Sinclair and Carl Abrahamsson: https://vanessasinclaircarlabrahamsson.bandcamp.com/album/lunacy-ost Lunacy the film is available to view at Vimeo on Demand: https://store.trapart.net/details/00016 Many thanks to Carl Abrahamsson, who created the intro and outro music for Rendering Unconscious podcast. https://www.carlabrahamsson.com Image: cover of Lacan and Race: Racism, Identity, and Psychoanalytic Theory