This presentation deals with the question of freedom. I claim that freedom involves a kind of colonizing and argue that this is not just a logical point, but a political one. The focus of my presentation is on understanding how political history can be simultaneously a history of freedom and a history of oppressive colonialism. Drawing on the work of Merleau-Ponty, I argue that freedom is necessarily embodied, and, as our freedom develops, so does the embodiment of freedom. I conclude with an argument that it is in the practice of multicultural politics that freedom is realized.

Dr. Russon has written the following books:

• Human Experience (SUNY Press, 2003)
• Bearing Witness to Epiphany (SUNY Press, 2009)
• Reading Hegel’s Phenomenology (Indiana University Press, 2004)
• The Self and Its Body in Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit (University of Toronto Press, 1997)

He received the “University of Guelph Distinguished Professorial Teaching Award” for 2010.

For more information, please visit http://uoguelph.academia.edu/JohnRusson.