Guest Lecture: Why are imagination and courage essential to democracy?

On Thursday, 20th of September 2018, the French embassy in Nigeria, the Institut Francais du Nigeria and IFRA Nigeria are extremely pleased to invite you to our next Guest Lecture entitled "Why are imagination and courage essential to democracy?" given by Professor Cynthia Fleury.

The lecture will start at 2pm PROMPT in Draper's Hall, Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan. The lecture will be followed at 4pm by a special Thursday Film Series Screening

About Prof. Cynthia Fleury:

Prof. Cynthia Fleury is professor at the National conservatory of Arts and Crafts (CNAM) of Paris in which she tenured in Humanities and Health. She is also an associate professor at the Ecole des Mines, Paris. Her research notably focuses on the tools of democratic regulation, psychoanalysis and psychiatry. She is the author of several books including Dialogue with the Orient, Pathologies of Democracy, The end of Courage and The irreplaceable.

About the lecture:

Courage is a primary tool for protecting the subject and enhance collective regulation mechanisms. It stretches from individual ethics to collective ethics.Why should we delve into the notion of courage?

This lecture will first investigate both the theoretical and clinical groundings of the notion of courage, from a political philosophy and a psychoanalytical perspectives. Courage shall be examined in relation to discouragement, its absence, or its loss. This will lead us to conceptualise courage as an asset of the subject's agency. Finally, courage will be analysed as a tool of regulation and collective governance. This compels us to think of courage as a tool of common decency, indissociable from the regulation of democracy and broader organisations.

The lecture is free and open to all so please do not hesitate to invite your friends, colleagues and families.