“Hermeneutic Solidarity: Gadamer and the Domain of Political Life”

 

Haley Burke, Ph.D. Student | Philosophy

Abstract:

Hans-Georg Gadamer’s relevance for political theory may be surprising in light of Jürgen Habermas’s criticisms that Gadamerian hermeneutics overemphasizes the role of the tradition. In view of this, Habermas maintains that political subjects could not sufficiently critique authority. Developing upon Habermas’s position, Ryan Holston (2023) brings Gadamer’s hermeneutics to bear on deliberative democracy but does so with what I take to be an overly conservative interpretation of tradition. Differently from Holston, however, I offer an interpretation of Gadamerian tradition that is more flexible and, indeed, one that fits with Gadamer’s later reflections of solidarity. My paper argues that Gadamerian hermeneutics offers a novel conception of solidarity that is relevant for our current global context and relevant for contemporary debates about the role of solidarity in political life.

 

---

“Trading Our Dead for the Living: American Remains Recovery Operations in Soviet-Occupied Territory, 1945-50”

 

Tristan Krause, Ph.D. Student | History

Abstract:

At the end of World War II in Europe, the United States Army launched a search and recovery mission of unprecedented scale. The objective of this search was to locate and repatriate the remains of over 42,000 missing in action (MIA) service members lost during the war. Teams from the American Graves Registration Command (AGRC) scoured the battlefields of Europe, questioned possible eyewitnesses, and collected and identified remains. However, AGRC units soon encountered a serious problem. Thousands of American airmen had gone down over countries in eastern Europe, territory now occupied by the Soviet Union and largely out of bounds for the AGRC. Hampered by the Cold War, American searchers could not easily access the graves of MIAs buried on the wrong side of the Iron Curtain.

This paper will examine the recovery of American MIAs through the lens of the deepening Cold War in Europe. It will argue that the recovery of American war dead in areas occupied by the Red Army became tightly interwoven with the forced repatriation of living Soviet Displaced Persons (DPs) in western camps. This link between American MIAs and Soviet DPs represents a heretofore unstudied area of competition and contention between east and west during the untidy end of World War II. Today, this Cold War history continues to affect modern recovery efforts. The U.S. Department of Defense still searches for American MIAs and must contend with the ramifications of delayed access to sites in Eastern Europe.

 

---

 

The Colloquium Series offers Glasscock Center Fellows an opportunity to discuss a work-in-progress with faculty and graduate students from different disciplines. Each colloquium begins with the presenter’s short (10-15 minute) exposition of the project, after which the floor is open for comments and queries. The format is by design informal, conversational, and interdisciplinary.

Join the Center’s listserv to receive regular notices of colloquium events.