What Would Hannah Arendt Have Said? A Reflective Conversation on Thought, Ethics, and Repair

In this intellectually rigorous and emotionally resonant conversation, Professors Jacqueline Rose, Vasti Roodt, Jaco Barnard-Naudé, and Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela examine what it means to “think without banisters” in the spirit of Hannah Arendt. Roodt reflects on Arendt’s call for unending, solitary thought as a practice of ethical responsibility, while Barnard-Naudé traces how Arendt’s idea of the banality of evil has become spectacular in today’s media-saturated political landscape. Rose brings a psychoanalytic and political lens to bear on Zionism, affect, and the destructiveness of “impotent bigness.” Gobodo-Madikizela grounds the discussion in South African experience, particularly the lessons and limits of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. A powerful audience engagement section expands the conversation to include poetry, witnessing, and the importance of memory as political resistance. Together, the panellists issue a challenge to scholars and citizens alike: to think critically, act justly, and imagine new forms of moral repair.

PROF JACQUELINE ROSE is a leading scholar at Birkbeck, University of London, internationally recognized for her groundbreaking contributions to feminist theory, psychoanalysis, and literary criticism.

PROF VASTI ROODT is a distinguished philosopher at Stellenbosch University, whose research navigates the intersections of political thought, ethics, and intellectual history.

PROF JACO BARNARD-NAUDÉ is a critical legal theorist and professor of jurisprudence at the University of Cape Town, exploring the complexities of law, power, and justice in contemporary society.