Writing the End of Ownership: Henry David Thoreau and Property's Public Forms

I can draw a direct line between my academic research and my interest in public forms. Although I work on theories of ownership in the nineteenth century, the inspiration for my project comes from a contemporary iteration of... [ view full abstract ]

I can draw a direct line between my academic research and my interest in public forms. Although I work on theories of ownership in the nineteenth century, the inspiration for my project comes from a contemporary iteration of property’s contradictions, the 2008 Housing Crisis. Although conventional republican narratives of ownership failed, no alternative narratives surfaced to replace them in public discourse; it seemed to me a moment when academics could intervene. To that end, I frequently deliver my research in forums outside the academy, most recently in a Three-Minute Thesis Competition and a TEDx talk. Admittedly, I’m still amazed by how the conventions of these performances altered my arguments – as expected, certain complicated concepts were flattened, but other claims became more vivid and compelling in these new clothes. Form is never a passive container (and having to habituate a Marxist argument to a Silicon Valley container made form’s agency even more apparent). I’m excited to interrogate the demands of form and audience with other scholars – what are the political, and aesthetic strategies we might employ to make these formal transitions? If selected for the seminar, I will contribute my experiences in public speaking, and in turn, I hope to learn how these challenges are mediated in writing. I’m proposing a short paper on Henry David Thoreau’s relationship to the classical liberal theorists’ ideas of property right. I believe this is a topic that is pulsing in the public consciousness and I’m eager to participate in the conversation.