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Performing Strangers: Revisioning the Political Divide

Mon Sep 18, 2017 6:30 PM - 8:00 PM
Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive

Arlie Russell Hochschild, Professor Emerita, Sociology, UC Berkeley

How do people within “in-groups” talk about people in “out-groups?” After her ground-breaking study of emotion and politics in Strangers in Their Own Land, Hochschild will reflect on current political divides, as they are affecting our country and our campus.  As part of the program, she will explore how and whether performance can draw its audience over an “empathy wall” as she calls it, into the “deep story” of the other. At a time of heated political debate, can the act of assembling in a theater invite opposing parties to listen to alternative perspectives?  During the talk, UC Berkeley students will perform monologues adapted from Hochschild’s book.

Participating Units: Arts + Design Initiative; Student Groups (TDPS, Bridge USA)


Arlie Russell Hochschild is one of the most influential sociologists of her generation. She is professor emerita of sociology at the University of California, Berkeley. Her latest book, Strangers in Their Own Land, was a New York Times bestseller and a finalist for the National Book Award. She is the author of several books, including The Second Shift, The Time Bind, The Managed Heart, and The Outsourced Self. Her work appears in sixteen languages. The winner of the Ulysses Medal as well as Guggenheim and Mellon grants, she lives in Berkeley, California.