"The Age of Choice": Sophia Rosenfeld in conversation with Isabelle Laurenzi

N.B. We did not record the first bit of this conversation, so we apologise if the opening of the video feels a bit decontextualised!

Choice touches virtually every aspect of our lives, from what to buy and where to live to whom to love, what profession to practice, and even what to believe. But the option to choose in such matters was not something we always possessed or even aspired to. At the same time, we have been warned by everybody from marketing gurus to psychologists about the negative consequences stemming from our current obsession with choice. It turns out that not only are we not very good at realizing our personal desires, we are also overwhelmed with too many possibilities and anxious about what best to select.

In this event, historian Sophia Rosenfeld explores how the idea of choice has become synonymous with freedom, with a particular attention to the lives of women and reproductive rights as a symbolic flashpoint in our contemporary struggles over the association of liberty with choice.

Sophia Rosenfeld is Professor of History and Chair of the Department of History at the University of Pennsylvania. She has received numerous fellowships and awards for her work, including the Guggenheim Foundation fellowship and the Mark Lynton History Prize. Her articles and essays have appeared both in leading scholarly journals and in the general press. Her last book, The Age of Choice: A History of Freedom in Modern Life, is published by Princeton University Press.

Isabelle Laurenzi is a Ph.D. candidate in political theory at Yale University and a 2023-2024 Charlotte W. Newcombe Fellow. Her dissertation draws on theories of political consciousness and action, as well as feminist critiques of domination and power. It explores how understandings of gendered inequity and injustice shape experiences within intimate relationships, as well as the desire to transform one’s sense of responsibility within them.
Website: https://www.isabellelaurenzi.com