Continental Philosophy

CALL FOR PAPERS

WAITING FOR THE POLITICAL MOMENT

Utrecht & Rotterdam, June 17-19, 2010

‘Hamm: What’s happening?

Clov: Something is taking its course.’

Beckett, Endgame

Over the last decades, several political and cultural theorists have argued that the domain of politics, and even the very idea of the political, has been hollowed out. Politics today appears to have lost its proper status or has been submerged in the more powerful and encompassing infrastructures of late capitalism. Instead of frantically affirming or denying the emptying-out of the political, this conference traces the appropriation of the political by apparatuses of state, church, capitalism and media in modernity to look for ways to reinvigorate it. To do so, the conference focuses on a key concept: the political moment – the moment in which political agency becomes possible, as well as the formative role of the moment in politics.

To get to grips with the political moment we not only need to understand our current moment; we need to have an idea of how it developed over time. Not considering the political moment from an exclusively contemporary point of view, this conference also calls for proposals that focus on the formation of the political in relation to its emptying-out from the late Middle Ages to the present.

Contributions in the form of a 4000 words positioning paper distributed in advance and to be discussed in a seminar setting could address (but are not limited to) the following issues: what is a political moment? What does the emptying-out of the political imply? How has the appropriation of the political by state, religion or media shaped the conditions of possibility of the political? What is the role of the moment in politics?

Confirmed speakers include: Mieke Bal, Bruno Bosteels, Rosi Braidotti, Simon Critchley, Martin van Gelderen, Olivier Marchart, Patchen Markell, Benjamin Noys, and Alberto Toscano.

If you are interested in participating, please send in a 300-words paper proposal and a short résumé of your current research by January 15 2010 to Frans-Willem Korsten, Professor of Literature and Society, Erasmus University Rotterdam, email: korsten@fhk.eur.nl; and/or to Bram Ieven, lecturer in comparative literature at Utrecht University, email: b.k.ieven@uu.nl.

For more information see: www.waitingforthepoliticalmoment.org

This week, we follow the journey of the classics as they spread from Greece to the Arab world and beyond. At a time when Europe still hadn’t got its act together philosophically speaking, Arabs were busily translating and debating the ideas of Aristotle and others. We’re joined by Professor Peter Adamson from King’s College, London, co-editor of The Cambridge Companion to Arabic Philosophy.

Link

SYMPOSIUM
Canadian Journal of Continental Philosophy
Revue canadienne de philosophie continentale

Volume 13 Issue Number 2 Fall 2009
Volume 13 Numéro 2 Automne 2009

Table of Contents/Table des matières

Articles

Foucault et Taylor sur la vérité, la liberté et l’identité subjective. Le vouloir-dire-vrai dans la parrêsia, VALÉRIE DAOUST

Deleuze’s Post-Critical Metaphysics, ALISTAIR WELCHMAN

Nietzsche as a Reader of Wilhelm Roux, or the Physiology of History, LUKAS SODERSTROM

Hume et Bergson, une pratique de la méthode chez Deleuze. Réflexions pour une éthique de la lecture, RENÉ LEMIEUX

The Threat of Givenness in Jean-Luc Marion: Toward a New Phenomenology of Psychosis, JOSEPH CAREW

Book Panel/Table-ronde

Bernhard Radloff’s Heidegger and the Question of National Socialism: Disclosure and Gestalt, GRAEME NICHOLSON, TOM ROCKMORE AND BERNHARD RADLOFF
Étude critique/Review Essay

Michel Foucault : Le Gouvernement de soi et des autres et Le Courage de la vérité, ALAIN BEAULIEU

Sixth Annual Philosophy Graduate Student Conference
University of Memphis
February 12-13, 2010
Submission Deadline: January 08, 2010
Keynote Speaker:
Daniel W. Smith (Purdue University)

“What is the postmodern [or contemporary philosophy]? …
It is undoubtedly part of the modern” — Jean-François Lyotard

Lyotard claims that contemporary philosophy has not gone beyond the tradition which was inaugurated by Descartes. As we stand at the beginning of a new century, we wish to inquire into the ways in which philosophy today is a confrontation with modern problems—either by providing solutions to the problems or by undoing the problems themselves. The aim of the conference is to consider the significance of grasping anew modern philosophers and/or their respective problems as they are discussed and rethought by contemporary philosophers.

We invite submissions of philosophical papers by graduate students focusing on any problem, question, concept, or figures, in which there is a clear focus on the relation between modern and contemporary philosophy. Possible topics include, but are not limited to, the following philosophical problems:

- Rethinking transcendental philosophy.
- The human/animal divide.
-? The question of world, the role of representation, and/or the place of the subject.
- ?The possibility of metaphysics or ontology.
- Philosophy of embodiment or the importance of the body.

Deadline for submission of papers is January 08, 2010. Papers should not exceed twelve double-spaced pages. Papers should be prepared in Word and made suitable for blind review. Also, please provide a separate cover page which includes the following information: paper title; university affiliation; email address; telephone number; abstract (200 words maximum). Title the attachment containing your paper with your paper’s title. Title the attachment containing your cover page with your last name followed by “cover page”. Email both files as separate attachments to all three members of the co-organizing and reviewing committee: Nicolás Garrera (ngarrera@memphis.edu), Arsalan Memon (amemon@memphis.edu), and Maia Nahele (mkhffwen@memphis.edu). Should you have any questions, please feel free to contact any one of the co-organizing/reviewing committee officers.

Roundtable on Marx’s Capital

Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, February 24-27, 2011

Our second Roundtable will explore Volume One of Marx’s Capital (1867). We chose this text because the resurgence in references to and mentions of Marx – provoked especially by the financial crisis, but presaged by the best-seller status of Hardt and Negri’s Empire and Marx’s surprising victory in the BBC’s “greatest philosopher” poll – has only served to highlight the fact that there have not been any new interpretive or theoretical approaches to this book since Althusser’s in the 1960s.

The question that faces us is this: Does the return of Marx mean that we have been thrust into the past, such that long “obsolete” approaches have a newfound currency, or does in mean, on the contrary, that Marx has something new to say to us, and that new approaches to his text are called for?

The guiding hypothesis of this Roundtable is that if new readings of Capital are called for, then it is new readers who will produce them.

Therefore, we are calling for applications from scholars interested in approaching Marx’s magnum opus with fresh eyes, willing to open it to the first page and read it through to the end without knowing what they might find. Applicants need not be experts in Marx or in Marxism. Applicants must, however, specialize in some area of social or political philosophy. Applicants must also be interested in teaching and learning from their fellows, and in nurturing wide-ranging and diverse inquiries into the history of political thought.

If selected for participation, applicants will deliver a written, roundtable-style presentation on a specific part or theme of the text. Your approach to the text might be driven by historical or contemporary concerns, and it might issue from an interest in a theme or a figure (be it Aristotle or Foucault). Whatever your approach, however, your presentation must centrally investigate some aspect of the text of Capital. Spaces are very limited.

Applicants should send the following materials as email attachments (.doc/.rtf/.pdf) to papers@sspp.us by September 15, 2010:

1. Curriculum Vitae
2. One page statement of interest in the Roundtable. (Please include a discussion of the topics you would be willing to explore in a roundtable presentation. Please also discuss the projected significance of participation for your research and/or teaching.)

Ben Fowkes’ translation of Capital (Viking/Penguin, 1976) is the official translation for the Roundtable, and should be used for page citations. However, applicants are strongly encouraged to review either the German text of Capital (the 2nd edition of 1873 is the basis for most widely available texts) or the French translation (J. Roy, 1872-5), which was the last edition Marx himself oversaw to publication; both of these are widely available on-line.

All applicants will be notified of the outcome of the selection process via email on or before October 15, 2010. Participants will be asked to send a draft or outline of their presentation to papers@sspp.us by January 15, 2011 so that we can finalize the program.

In order to participate in the Roundtable (but not to apply or to be selected), you must be a member of the Society in good standing. You can become a member of the Society by following the membership link at: http://www.sspp.us/

Call for Papers: 4th Biennial Philosophy and Literature Conference At Purdue University

“Deleuze: Ethics and Politics”

April 9-10, 2010

Purdue University, West Lafayette

Deadline for Paper Submission: January 15, 2010

The philosopher Michel Serres once described Gilles Deleuze as “an excellent example of the dynamic movement of free and inventive thinking.” Without a doubt, Deleuze was one of the most singular and prolific philosophers of the 20th century. It is no surprise then, that the impact of Deleuze’s thought continues to reverberate throughout a host of diverse disciplines including Philosophy, Literature, Political Theory, Law, Visual Arts, Film Studies, and Education. With recognition of Deleuze’s influence in these various fields, and in the spirit of Serres’ assessment, this conference seeks to motivate an exploration of Deleuze’s inventive thinking in the particular areas of politics and ethics.

Thus, this conference will serve as a platform, bringing together graduate students and faculty interested in engaging, developing, or critically examining the political and ethical dimensions of Deleuze’s work. Possible topics include, but are not limited to: immanent vs. transcendent criteria in ethics, political theory, law and jurisprudence; the role of the State in relation to capitalism; the possibility of social forms of organization radically exterior to the State forms; the positive or productive function of desire as a creative force directly invested in the social field; the problem of micro-fascism with respect to individual and collective processes of subjectivation; the forms of resistance enabled by minor literature and other processes of becoming-minor; the conception of cartography as a critical and transformative social analytic of power relations. This two-day conference will consist of four panels, each with three to four accepted graduate students presenting, three keynote addresses, and a wine and cheese reception.

Keynote Speakers

We will host three preeminent Deleuze scholars as keynote speakers: Daniel Smith and Arkady Plotnitsky, from Purdue University, and Eugene Holland, from Ohio State University. Dr. Smith is known for national and international projects including translations of Deleuze and Klossowski and several works on Deleuze leading up to the forthcoming publication of his book on Deleuze’s philosophical system. Dr. Holland specializes in social theory and modern French literature, history, and culture. He has published widely including a 1999 volume on Deleuze and Guattari’s Anti-Oedipus and a forthcoming book on Nomad Citizenship. Dr. Plotnitsky has contributed numerous publications on Deleuze and on the topics of science, literature, and philosophy. He is currently working on a book entitled Space-Time-Matter-Thought: Non-Euclideanism from Riemann and Deleuze, and Beyond.

Conference Eligibility and Submission Process

We welcome submissions from graduate students of any discipline working on the political or ethical facets of Deleuze’s philosophy. Submissions will be accepted via email at phil-lit-conference@purdue.edu. The deadline for submissions is January 15, 2010. Authors should attach both the paper and an abstract (500 word limit) as a Word document. The author’s name and affiliation should be omitted from the body of the paper. In addition, the author should include the text of the abstract in the body of the message. Be sure to include the following information in the email: full name, departmental affiliation, degree program, and the title of your paper. Accepted authors will receive notification no later than February 15, 2010.

Contact Information

For updates, please visit http://www.cla.purdue.edu/academic/idis/phil-lit/conference/. All additional questions can be directed to Erin Kealey or Rocky Clancy via email at: phil-lit-conference@purdue.edu.

Diacritics 38.1-2 Derrida and Democracy
Eds. Jonathan Culler and Phillip E. Lewis

Derrida and Democracy
Jonathan Culler

Part One
“The Most Interesting Thing in the World”
Jonathan Culler

Passionate Secrets and Democratic Dissidence
David Wills

Signed Paine, or Panic in Literature
Peggy Kamuf

Pulsations of Respect, or Winged Impossibility: Literature with Deconstruction
Henry Sussman

Spectral Gatherings: Derrida, Celan, and the Covenant of the Word
Michael G. Levine

Part Two
For Better and for Worse (There Again . . .)
Geoffrey Bennington

Rogue Democracy
Samuel Weber

A Genealogy of Violence, from Light to the Autoimmune
Samir Haddad

Nondialectical Materialism
Pheng Cheah

Untread and Untried: Nietzsche Reads Derridemocracy
Avital Ronell

Knowledge of the Future: Future Fables
Richard Klein

Part Three
Is Radical Atheism a Good Name for Deconstruction?
Ernesto Laclau

Time, Desire, Politics: A Reply to Ernesto Laclau
Martin Hägglund

Slavoj Zizek “The Uses and Misuses of Violence” Lecture

Date: Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Time: 7:30 pm to 9:30 pm

Location: Nunemaker Auditorium, Monroe Hall

Slavoj Zizek is a professor at the Institute for Sociology, Ljubljana and at the European Graduate School EGS who uses popular culture to explain the theory of Jacques Lacan and the theory of Jacques Lacan to explain politics and popular culture. He was born in 1949 in Ljubljana, Slovenia where he lives to this day but he has lectured at universities around the world. He was analyzed by Jacques Alain Miller, Jacques Lacan’s son in law, and is probably the most successful and prolific post-Lacanian having published over fifty books including translations into a dozen languages. He is a leftist and, aside from Lacan he was strongly influenced by Marx, Hegel and Schelling. In temperament, he resembles a revolutionist more than a theoretician. He was politically active in Slovenia during the 80s, a candidate for the presidency of the Republic of Slovenia in 1990; most of his works are moral and political rather than purely theoretical. He has considerable energy and charisma and is a spellbinding lecturer in the tradition of Lacan and Kojeve.

Tickets or Fees: Free

For additional information contact: Mark Gossiaux by email at gossiaux@loyno.edu

via “The Uses and Misuses of Violence” | Department of Philosophy | Loyola University New Orleans.