Walter Benjamin: The Pearl Diver

Panelists

• Peter E. Gordon

  Author

  

  Peter E. Gordon is the Amabel B. James Professor of History at Harvard University, where he teaches social theory and philosophy. His books include Migrants in the Profane: Critical Theory and the Question of Secularization and A Precarious Happiness: Adorno and the Sources of Normativity. Gordon is a critical theorist and an historian of modern European philosophy and social thought, specializing in Frankfurt School critical theory, phenomenology, existentialism, and Western Marxism. A frequent contributor of criticism and commentary to periodicals such as The New York Times Book Review, The New Republic, The Boston Review of Books, The New Statesman, The Nation, The London Review of Books, and The New York Review of Books, he has published major works on Heidegger, the Frankfurt School, Walter Benjamin, and Theodor W. Adorno.

• Dean Whiteside

  Moderator

  

  Dean Whiteside (Goethe-Institut) studied music and philosophy at the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien, Universität Wien, and Vanderbilt Universty. He taught philosophy at the Institute for European Studies, and his essays and translations have been published in English, French, and German. As a conductor, he is the recipient of international accolades, including a Career Assistance Award from the Solti Foundation U.S., and has worked with orchestras including the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, and Zagreb Philharmonic, as well as opera houses such as the Lyric Opera of Chicago and Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia.