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.