THINKING IN PUBLIC
MASHA GESSEN IN CONVERSATION WITH ROGER BERKOWITZ Distinguished Writer in Residence Masha Gessen said on a podcast last year, “The central object of [Hannah Arendt’s] study is what happens to society when there’s too much distance, or not enough distance. . . . It is so important in her thinking that people think with one another. In order to think with one another, they have to feel their separateness from one another. You have to be an individual capable of forming an opinion, and expressing it, and exchanging it, and seeing the reflection of your ideas in the eyes of others.” This became the jumping off point for a wideranging Zoom conversation between Gessen and Roger Berkowitz, professor of political studies and human rights and academic director of Bard’s Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and Humanities. The following transcript has been edited for clarity.
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Illustration of Masha Gessen, Hannah Arendt, and Roger Berkowitz by Michelle Gutiérrez ’19
