Exploring the Aesthetic Turn: An Interview with Michael J. Shapiro

During the ASPECT Conference in April 2017, SPECTRA met with Michael J. Shapiro to discuss his work as a writer, the social sciences, and the inspiration he draws from aesthetic theory, cinema, and the everyday. Mike is a Professor in the Political Science Department at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa. Among his most recent books are Cinematic Geopolitics (2009), The Time of the City: Politics, philosophy and genre (2010), Studies in Trans-disciplinary Method: After the Aesthetic Turn (2012), War Crimes: Atrocity, and Justice (2015), Politics and Time: Documenting the Event (2016), and The Political Sublime (2018). The keynote address for the ASPECT conference included a piece from this latest work, and can be accessed on YouTube: “When the Earth Moves: Towards a Political Sublime.”