Dignity, Freedom and Memory with Lea Ypi

Host Sanjay Ruparelia speaks with Lea Ypi, professor of politics and philosophy at the London School of Economics and Political Science and author of Indignity: A Life Reimagined, about dignity, freedom, and moral responsibility in times of political upheaval. Sparked by a photograph from her grandmother's past and a journey into archives of communist Albania, their conversation explores the limits of historical truth, the tension between agency and structure, and the meaning of identity and belonging amid the collapse of empires, fascism, and communism. They reflect on how individuals navigate choice, guilt, and surveillance under authoritarian rule and what the struggle to preserve human dignity can teach us about democracy today.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

Host: Sanjay Ruparelia, Jarislowsky Democracy Chair and Associate Professor of Politics and Public Administration at Toronto Metropolitan University.

Guest:. Lea Ypi, the Ralph Miliband Professor of Politics and Philosophy at the London School of Economics and Political Science and a Fellow of the British Academy. A leading political theorist, she is the author of several acclaimed books, including Global Justice and Avant-Garde Political Agency, The Meaning of Partisanship, and The Architectonic of Reason, as well as the award-winning memoir Free: Coming of Age at the End of History, translated into more than thirty-five languages. Her latest book, Indignity: A Life Reimagined, draws on her family's history to explore questions of dignity, freedom, and moral responsibility

Background Reading: 

Indignity: A Life Reimagined

Free: Coming of Age at the End of History