CRUEL MODERNITY

Panel Discussion of the Latest Book by

Acclaimed Cultural Critic

JEAN FRANCO
with
Chris GoGwilt, Cynthia Vich, and Arnaldo
Cruz-Malav in Conversation with the Author
Wednesday, April 2nd
5:00-7:00PM
Fordham Law School,
Rm. 430BC
140 W. 62nd Street
Reception and Book Signing
to follow

In Cruel Modernity, Jean Franco examines the way cruelty in its various formsgenocide, torture,
disappearance, and rapehas become during the modern period the instrument of armies, governments, rebels,
and rogue groups throughout the Americas. Drawing on a wealth of testimonial archives, state, police, and human
rights commission reports, literary accounts, art and film, Prof. Franco shows how these cruel practices, which
have fostered an extreme form of masculinity whose unspeakable brutality has been exercised mainly against
indigenous populations and women, have become institutionalized and normalized in the Americas for the
purposes of creating what its perpetrators perceive as modern societies.
SPONSORED BY: the departments of Modern Languages and Literatures and English, the programs in
Latin American and Latino Studies, Comparative Literature, Peace and Justice Studies, American
Studies and Womens Studies, and the Institute of International Humanitarian Affairs,
the Office of Multicultural Affairs, and the Fordham University School of Law