2025-26 Kirk Lecture: Socially Responsible Sweatshops: The Politics of "Ethical Capitalism"
April 23
5:00pm - 7:00pm
Anderson Academic Commons, Room 290
Audience: Current Student, Faculty, Alumni
Over the past five decades, elites have folded left critiques into capitalism: venture funds acknowledge historical harms while promising equity, banks market microloans as empowerment, and brands frame consumption as solidarity. These efforts sustain the idea that capitalism can repair its own violence.
But what happens when even modest reforms draw backlash from ethno-nationalists attacking “woke capitalism”? Reflecting on Capitalist Humanitarianism, Lucia Hulsether argues that today’s right-wing movements aren’t a break from neoliberalism, but another expression of it.
