Do political subjects have a default obligation to obey the law? In episode 105 of Overthink, Ellie and David discuss civil disobedience in the present context of university activism for divestment from genocide in Gaza. They chart the genealogy of the concept of disobedience in political theory, from Thoreau and MLK through to today. Together with guest Noëlle McAfee, Chair of the Philosophy Department at Emory University, they reflect on the relationship between legal protest, civil disobed...
Hello, and welcome to Overthink, the podcast.
Where two philosophers think about big ideas in relation to everyday life.
I'm Ellie Anderson.
And I'm David Pena Guzman.
As many of our listeners know, this spring,
college campuses nationwide have been the site of protests and encampments over the ongoing conflict in Gaza.
Many of these protests have been driven by calls for universities to divest
from companies that are directly contributing to the genocide,
such as producing drones and bombs that kill civilians.
And a number of these protests, including at Pomona College,
where I teach, which has a huge endowment, have led to student arrests.
And these arrests have often been for charges such as trespassing, disorderly conduct, or obstruction of justice,
which is really strange because most of these protests have been campouts by students on university lawns and quads,
which are precisely the places where students are meant to be and have the right to be.
Right.
So this is where students are students, where they pay to be students.
And so the very notion
that they could be trespassing or obstructing on their own campus raises really twisty administrative,
educational, and legal issues.
And this raises questions about the nature, nature of civil disobedience,