On Wednesday, February 5, 2025, the Institute for the Study of Human Rights hosted a book talk with Lucia Hulsether, author of Capitalist Humanitarianism (Duke UP, 2023), winner of the Cultural Studies Association’s First Book Award.
In the book, Hulsether, an Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Skidmore College and currently a Senior Fellow in Race and Ethnicity at Brown University, tracks how neoliberal self-critique creates new institutional hegemonies that, in turn, reproduce racial and neocolonial dispossession. At the book talk, Hulsether introduced and provided examples of ‘capitalist humanitarianism’, defined as efforts to create a more ethical capitalism through the appropriation of social justice discourses, such as fair trade and impact investing. Hulsether next read a short section of the book, giving the audience a sense of its unique voice and style, which blends history, ethnography, and cultural critique, interspersed with first-person ‘interludes’ connecting the global dynamics theorised in the text to the intimate scenes of its writing.
During an energetic question and answer period, Hulsether thought with audience members about the place of critiquing humanitarian efforts at a time when they are under attack by governments around the world.
Tim Wyman-McCarthy, Lecturer in the Discipline of Human Rights and Associate Director of Graduate Studies at the Institute for the Study of Human Rights, served as moderator for the talk.
