The Perils and Possibilities of “Speaking Freely” in the People’s Republic
Monday, April 7, 2025 | 1:00PM-2:00PM | SOS 250 | RSVP

EASC Guest Speaker Series: Talk by Prof. Nicholas Bartlett (Barnard College) with Faculty Moderator Prof. Joshua Goldstein (EASC Director and Professor of History and East Asian Languages and Cultures)
 

This talk explores the politics of speaking in contemporary China through Tavistock tradition Group Relations Conferences (GRCs). First pioneered by psychoanalysts and social scientists in post-WWII Britain, multi-day residential conferences today have expanded to more than 20 countries around the world. Organizers promoting these events promise participants the opportunity to experience and learn about the unconscious dynamics that shape human group behavior. In ritualized events where paying participants must navigate frequently stressful encounters, everything from geopolitical tensions to intimate dreams are spoken and made available for the group to connect, critique, and reflect upon. Prof. Bartlett refers to the distinctive genre of speech produced in these spaces as "speaking freely." By attending to specific instances of speaking in Tavistock tradition groups hosted in a country frequently attacked for its failure to promote liberal ideas of free speech, this talk explores the possibilities and perils associated with encounters across difference in the People's Republic and beyond. 
 

Nicholas Bartlett is an anthropologist of China with training in medical anthropology and psychoanalysis. His research interests include addiction and recovery, labor, embodiment, historicity, civil society, psychoanalytic practice and theory, and the politics of transmitting institutional knowledge.
 

This event is co-sponsored by USC Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, Department of Anthropology, and the Max Kade Institute.