New York University’s Prof. Vivek Chibber delivers 15th Ahmed Ali Lecture at JMI

Prof. Vivek Chibber from the Department of Sociology, New York University delivered 15th Ahmed Ali Lecture titled ‘The Flight From Materialism’, organised by the Department of English, Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) on 11th January 2022 at the Mir Anis Hall of the university.

Prof Simi Malhotra, HoD, Department of English, JMI, welcomed everyone on behalf of the Department of English, JMI and introduced the erudite speaker. Dr. Saba Bashir felicitated Prof. Chibber on behalf of the Department.

This was followed by Prof. Vivek Chibber’s lecture where he first introduced the doctrine of Materialism from three perspectives, ontological, epistemological and social. He focused on the social aspect of the doctrine of materialism on the micro-level and macro-level. He had three pressing concerns, one of the characterization of agents, second of the social agents, and third of the counterexample of enormous sacrifices. In his classification between autonomy and work, he finds work as an economic force that subordinates autonomy of individuals and collective. He concluded his lecture with the call for a regrounding in social materialist theory.

The Mir Anis Hall, JMI was completely occupied during the lecture and the audience appreciated the lecture with full enthusiasm. Prof. Chibber humbly accepted several questions from the audience and answered them comprehensively.

The program ended with a vote of thanks by Dr. Shuby Abidi.