On the evening of Friday, May 18, at 7, the library will present a special lecture on “The Crisis of Youth in the Age of Disposability” by Dr. Henry Giroux, a renowned cultural critic and a prolific author who has published over 40 books and more than 300 articles on culture and media studies, education and political theory.
We are thrilled to be able to host Dr. Giroux through a partnership with McCarter Theatre where he will take part in a panel presentation on Saturday, May 19 following the 3 p.m. performance of “Are You There, McPhee?”
Dr. Giroux resides in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada and is the Global Television Network Chair in English and Cultural Studies at McMaster University. Throughout his distinguished career he has been an advocate for youth and social change, and his anaylsis of the war against our youth is without parallel. His talk at the library will focus on his recently published “Disposable Youth: Racialized Memories and the Culture of Cruelty.”
In this lecture, he will examine how the youth of today are facing a crisis unlike that of any other generation. Young people are caught between the powerful forces of consumerism, in which they are viewed largely as both commodities and consumers, and a powerful governing through crime-control-complex that subjects largely poor minority youth to the dictates of an ever expanding criminal justice system.
Drawing upon critical analyses, biography, and social theory, this talk explores what the author calls a soft and hard war being waged against youth within an emerging culture of privatization, insecurity, criminalization, and commodification. The talk concludes by raising important questions regarding the role that educators, young people, and concerned citizens might play in challenging the plight of young people while deepening and extending the promise of a better future and a viable democracy.