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CONCEPT 2016: CFP and Peer Review

Every spring, Graduate Arts and Sciences at Villanova publishes outstanding graduate student articles in all disciplines in its interdisciplinary journal CONCEPT.  Under the guidance of Dr. Lisa Sewell (English), graduate students serve as editors and peer reviewers for the journal.

Call for Papers

The journal is now accepting article submissions. The author of the best article in the 2016 issue will receive the Graduate Student Research Prize. The deadline for submission is Monday, February 1, 2016. Authors should register with the website, https://concept.journals.villanova.edu/ and follow the instructions there for posting their submission. (An author may submit no more than 1 article for consideration.) Any questions should be directed to the faculty editor-in-chief, Lisa Sewell (lisa.sewell@villanova.edu). Papers in all disciplines are welcome.

Call for Volunteers

The journal is now seeking volunteers to serve as editors and peer-reviewers. A board of five graduate student editors from across the disciplines participate in the editorial process, reading and making the final decisions on the contents of the print and on-line versions of CONCEPT. Peer reviewers contribute to the process of determining the short-list of essays that will then be assessed by the editorial board.  Peer reviewers may also submit work for consideration. The deadline for submission is Monday, February 1, 2016. If you are interested in serving as an editor or peer reviewer for CONCEPT for its 2016 issue, please contact co-editor Dr. Sewell (lisa.sewell@villanova.edu) directly.

http://www1.villanova.edu/villanova/artsci/graduate/currentstudents/concept.html

 


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CfP: ISIS4 Track: ICTs and power relations (TU Vienna)

ICTs and power relations: Present dilemmas & future perspectives

Track at the IS4IS Summit, Vienna, June 3-7 2015

http://summit.is4is.org/calls/call-for-papers/icts-and-power-relations
The increasing presence of ICTs in a multitude of societal contexts alters the relation between social, political, technical, legal, economic arenas. As cross-sectional technologies, ICTs enter and link different societal domains often entailing a number of tensions and controversies e.g. due to conflicting interests, hegemonic discourses, socio-political cultures and practices. Novel forms of interactions are accompanied by increasing complexity, diversity and overlaps between public and private spheres. The capacity of ICTs as a political tool is multidimensional: it can boost civil society participation (e.g. the Arab Spring) as well as amplify mass surveillance and privacy intrusion (e.g. revealed by Snowden).

This panel is interested in the manifold interplay between societal power structures and ICTs. In line with the umbrella issue “at the crossroads” particular focus lies on contributions that present controversies, dilemmas, and imaginary futures that open up paths towards socio-technical alternatives.

The panel embraces different scientific disciplines and welcomes theoretical as well as empirical contributions bridging different perspectives (e.g. computing and philosophy, technology assessment and science and technology studies, social, political, economic and techno science).

Topics of interest thus include but are not limited to:

  • Values in design and responsible technology innovation
  •  Socio-technical alternatives (e.g. peer production, commons, free software, etc.)
  •  ICT-related political participation, activism and policy making
  •  Norms, standards and hegemonies in ICT infrastructures, software, algorithms and code
  •  ICT commercialization and ideologies
  •  ICT at the intersection of global, European and local contexts
  •  Co-emergence of ICTs with gender, sex, age, class, race, dis/ability (social sorting, standardization, etc.)
  • Emerging privacy and security challenges (privacy-by-design, encryption, EU data protection reform, etc.)
  • Technical and regulatory oversight and limits of surveillance technologies and practices

Submission

Please submit your extended abstracts (1-3 pages, 750-2000 words) no later than February 27.

For further details see

http://summit.is4is.org/submission
Looking forward to meeting you in Vienna!

Best regards,
Stefan Strauß, Doris Allhutter, Astrid Mager


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CFA: Pittsburgh Summer Symposium in Contemporary Philosophy

Pittsburgh Summer Symposium in Contemporary Philosophy

Duquesne University

Dept. of Philosophy

Pittsburgh, PA

Call for Applications

We are pleased to announce the 2014 Pittsburgh Summer Symposium in Contemporary Philosophy, held at Duquesne University. Details for the program are as follows:

 

Formalism and the Real: Ontology, Politics, and the Subject

 

August 4 – 8, 2014

(Optional Participants’ Conference, August 2-3)

“The real can only be inscribed on the basis of an impasse of formalization.”

— Jacques Lacan, Seminar XX

 

“We need a theory of the pass of the real, in the breach opened up by formalization. Here, the real is no longer only what can be lacking from its place, but what passes through by force.”

— Alain Badiou, Theory of the Subject

 

Seminar Leaders:

Prof. Bruno Bosteels (Cornell University)

Prof. Tom Eyers (Duquesne University)

Prof. Paul Livingston (University of New Mexico)

 

Course Description:

Philosophy in the twenty-first century has seen an extensive reconsideration of formalistic methodologies and theoretical structures. This is heavily influenced by the formalism developed by a number of mid-twentieth century French thinkers who rejected humanist philosophies of experience or consciousness typified by dominant forms of existentialism and phenomenology. Insights derived from Marxism, Freudianism, and philosophy of science were argued to undermine central tenets of the latter, including the priority of description and the emphasis on first-person experiences. Rather, stress was placed on the priority of construction, an emphasis on the concept, and a rethinking of the nature of knowledge and the object of science.

 

The recent history of formalist approaches is framed in important ways by Louis Althusser and Jacques Lacan. As is well known, Althusser rejected historicist and humanist readings of Marx in favor of a structuralist approach, which was amenable to the conception of science developed by thinkers like Jean Cavaillès, Gaston Bachelard, and Georges Canguilhem. Simultaneously, Lacan rejected ego-psychological readings of Freud, forming interpretive, theoretical, and clinical bases for psychoanalysis that drew on Ferdinand de Saussure’s structuralist linguistics and Claude Levi-Strauss’s structuralist anthropology. This led him to a methodological formalism, particularly when addressing the Real and the psycho-dynamics in which it is involved. The presence of Althusser and Lacan at the École Normale Supériere during this time formed the intellectual milieu in which students such as Alain Badiou, Jacques-Alain Miller, Étienne Balibar, and Jacques Rancière would begin to develop their own thought. An important forum for this was the journal the Cahiers pour l’Analyse (1966-69). The current project to translate it into English has prompted a surge in research related to these themes. In the Cahiers, efforts were made to reconcile Marxist politics with a Lacanian account of the subject. Lacan’s notion of the Real was essential to this and, along with the other elements of his thought, came to be developed by Badiou to address political and ontological domains.

 

More recently, formalism in philosophy has expanded to address issues beyond these origins. For instance, formalistic reconstructions of Heideggerian and Husserlian thought have proved intensely productive and have problematized the opposition of philosophies of the concept to phenomenological philosophies. Moreover, recent efforts to address questions in aesthetics and politics with formal approaches has further expanded the boundaries of formalism’s theoretical scope. Paul Livingston’s book, The Politics of Logic: Badiou, Wittgenstein, and the Consequences of Formalism, examines the landscape of political criticism and change given the results and paradoxes of 20th century projects of formalization in mathematics and logic. Following this, his current project focuses on Heidegger’s philosophy, and will reexamine our inherited notions of sense and truth. After writing a book on Lacan’s concept of the Real, Tom Eyers has analyzed the intellectual foundations of structuralism in 1930s and 1940s French epistemology and philosophy of science. He is presently writing a book entitled Speculative Formalism: The Poetics of Form in Literature, Science, and Philosophy which will bring that work to bear on poetics and literary theory. In addition to translating Badiou’s Theory of the Subject and Wittgenstein’s Antiphilosophy, Bruno Bosteels has devoted numerous books to Badiou and issues in political thought. In his recent Marx and Freud in Latin America: Politics, Psychoanalysis, and Religion in Times of Terror, Bosteels investigates ways art and literature provide insight into processes of subjectification at the core of Marxist and psychoanalytic concerns.

 

This summer symposium will bring together interested graduate students, postdoctoral students, and junior faculty for a week of discussion, lecture, and close textual study. Together, we will pursue questions regarding formalism and its relation to the Real in contemporary ontology, politics, and theories of the subject and their consequences for understanding knowledge, history, state, language, art, and literature. Lacanian and Badiouian thought will form a key theoretical backdrop. Yet, we expect our studies will include work by a number of other figures, including Plato, Marx, Nietzsche, Frege, Freud, Heidegger, Wittgenstein, Lautman, Bachelard, Canguilhem, Althusser, Deleuze, Derrida, Macherey, Miller, Butler, Jameson, Žižek, Hägglund, and Malabou.

 

All texts and discussion will be in English.

 

Application:

We invite current graduate students, postdoctoral students, and junior faculty in philosophy or related disciplines to submit an application composed of a C.V. and a short letter of intent (500 words maximum) to pghsummersymposium2014@gmail.com. The deadline for applications is Friday, April 25th, 2014. We expect to respond with notifications regarding acceptance to the symposium by Thursday, May 1st, 2014 to help facilitate summer plans. The seminar will be limited to 30-40 participants. For more information as it becomes available, we have created a website for the symposium: http://pghsummersymposium6.wix.com/pghsummersymp2014

 

Participants’ Conference (August 2-3):

In order to facilitate a further exchange of ideas and research, a participants’ conference will be held the weekend before the seminar begins. Applicants who receive notice of acceptance as participants will be asked – if interested – to submit an abstract of up to 500 words on any theme related to the topic of the seminar. The participants’ conference will take place on Saturday and Sunday, August 2-3, 2014.

 

Financial Information:

There will be a $200 registration fee for each participant of the seminar. This money will be used for event expenses like a conference dinner, celebration, daily coffee, etc. Please note that participants will be responsible for arranging their own housing as well as financing most of their own meals for the duration of the symposium. However, with respect to lodging, we expect a limited number of arrangements with graduate students will be available on a first come, first serve basis.

 

Organizers:

 

James Bahoh

Dept. of Philosophy

Duquesne University

bahohj@duq.edu

Martin Krahn

Dept. of Philosophy

Duquesne University

krahnm@duq.edu

Jacob Greenstine

Dept. of Philosophy

Duquesne University

greenstinea@duq.edu

Dave Mesing

Dept. of Philosophy

Villanova University

dmesing@villanova.edu

 

 

 

 


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Summer School on “The Neurobiology of Emotions and Feelings” with António Damasió

The Forum Scientiarum of the University of Tübingen, Germany, is organizing a one-week International Interdisciplinary Summer School on “The Neurobiology of Emotions and Feelings” with António Damasió and Sabine Döring.

Time: June 2nd –  June 6th, 2014.

For further information please see http://www.unseld-lectures.de/cfa

Call for applications: UL2014_Call4Applications.

Deadline for the receipt of complete applications (application form,  CV, essay) is February 31th, 2014.


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CFP: Capitalism & Socialism: Utopia, Globalization, and Revolution.

November 6-8, 2014, New Harmony Indiana

Deadline: May 5, 2014

Here’s a CFP for a conference happening in Fall of 2014. It’s going to be held in Historic New Harmony, Indiana. New Harmony was the site of two utopian communes, one of which was founded by 19th-century utopian socialist Robert Owen. The topic of the conference is capitalism and socialism; both panel and paper submissions are welcome.

Panel and individual paper proposals
“Capitalism & Socialism” is a multi-disciplinary conference that welcomes presenters from economics, history, political science and sociology, as well as the humanities. We seek proposals for full panels (three presenters, chair and discussant) or individual papers on topics related to Capitalism and Socialism, past and present. Presentations should be twenty minutes in length. Topics might include, but are not limited to:

  • Utopia
  • Globalization
  • Revolution
  • New Social Movements
  • Local / Global
  • Community and People
  • Real / Ideal
  • Sustainability
  • Transitions from Socialism to Capitalism / Capitalism to Socialism
  • Varieties of Capitalism / Socialism
  • Legacies / Visions of Robert Owen
  • Spatial Politics
  • Master Narratives
  • The Political Economy of Utopia
  • Colonialism
  • Imperialism / Decolonization
  • Science
  • Religion

Panel submissions
Submissions should have an abstract of 200-250 words, including title, for full panels (three panelists, chair and discussant), and one-page CVs for all panelists. We encourage graduate student submissions.

Individual paper submissions
Submissions should have an abstract of 200-250 words, including title, and a one-page CV. We encourage graduate student submissions.

For more information, please visit: http://www.usi.edu/newview/call-for-proposals


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International Herbert Marcuse Society, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky, November 7-9, 2013

Call for Papers

The Fifth Biennial Meeting

International Herbert Marcuse Society

 

University of Kentucky

Lexington, Kentucky, USA

 

November 7-9, 2013

Conference Theme:

“Emancipation, New Sensibility,

and the Challenge of a New Era:

Theory, Practice, and Pedagogy”

 

“Social theory is supposed to analyze existing societies in the light of their own functions and capabilities and to identify demonstrable tendencies (if any) which might lead beyond the existing state of affairs. By logical inference from the prevailing conditions and institutions, critical theory may also be able to determine the basic institutional changes which are the prerequisites for the transition to a higher stage of development: “higher” in the sense of a more rational and equitable use of resources, minimization of destructive conflicts, and enlargement of the realm of freedom. But beyond these limits, critical theory did not venture for fear of losing its scientific character. I believe that this restrictive conception must be revised, and that the revision is suggested, and even necessitated, by the actual evolution of contemporary societies.”

–Herbert Marcuse, An Essay on Liberation, 1969

 

The International Herbert Marcuse Society (IHMS) is an atypical gathering of the community of academics, scholars and activists who labor together in an attempt to help the specter of liberation that haunts our society materialize in the concrete lives of oppressed people. For this reason, we bring together not only Marcuse scholars, but scholars and activists from a wide range of disciplines. We are interested in connecting with all people who participate in the “Great Refusal” by trying to transform our society in theory and practice. The IHMS emerged as a response to our current social, political, philosophical, and historical situation.  In short, we have witnessed the apparent domination of one-dimensional thinking.

However, the control of society by one-dimensional thinking has never been complete. One-dimensional thinking has always been challenged but not overthrown by an antagonistic specter. Marx spoke of the specter of communism.  Arnold Farr has spoken of the specter of liberation. Mark Cobb has spoken of Marcuse’s ghost.  Derrida has spoken of the specter of Marx. Even as one-dimensional thinking takes its throne, no coronation is in the works.

 

“A Specter is haunting Europe—the specter of communism.”      

Karl Marx

Communist Manifesto, 1848

 

“There is a specter haunting western philosophy—the specter of liberation.”       

Arnold Farr

Critical Theory and Democratic Vision: Marcuse and Recent Liberation Philosophies, 2009                                     

 

“The specters of Marx. Why this plural? Would there be more than one of them?”

Jacques Derrida

Specters of Marx, 1993

 

 

Derrida was right to speak of multiple hauntings. Today we are confronted by the haunting of Marcuse, suggesting that his work is as relevant in 2013 as it was in the 1960s and 70s. Marcuse’s work itself embodies a multiplicity of specters, specters of liberation.  This is the point of the long opening quotation from Marcuse. On one level, (Marcusean) critical/social theory discloses the specters of liberation in terms of the possibilities that exist within the present mode of social organization. This is the function of critical/social theory in what Marcuse has called its restricted operation. At another level, critical/social theory transcends the present form of social organization to reveal the specter of utopian visions that haunt the present reality principle. However, he reminds us that the Utopian vision is not one with content insofar as our society has reached a level of technological development that makes liberation possible. We are beyond the threat of scarcity.  However, what is at issue here is the blocking of liberation by the very forces that make it possible.

In 2011, the IHMS conference was entitled “Critical Refusals.” We chose this title because we wanted to bring together scholars and activists who were all engaged in some kind of “Great Refusal” through their work. We wanted to bring together people who were engaged in critical projects even though they may not be Marcuse scholars.  Marcuse and his work are still at the core of the IHMS. However, Marcuse’s project is carried out best when it is put into conversation with other theorists and activists who are doing critical and transformative work. The 2013 conference will be organized according to this same principle. We welcome papers and projects from all who are seeking serious engagement and social transformation.

 

Please send papers and abstracts to: Arnold L. Farr alfarr00@uky.edu.

Deadline for abstracts:  No later than July 1, 2013.

Abstracts: must be no more than 500 words and should include both a title and  3-5 keywords to assist with paneling in the event your abstract is chosen for presentation.

Notification: July 31, 2013.

Papers: final versions should be no more than 3000 words written with standard formatting and 12-point font.

Registration:  $30.00

 

http://www.marcusesociety.org

 


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“Music, Marxism, and the Frankfurt School,” International Conference, Dublin 2014

*”Music, Marxism, and the Frankfurt School,” International Conference,
Dublin 2014*

CALL FOR PAPERS

The group of intellectual left-wing German thinkers known as the Frankfurt
School, active in Frankfurt from the late-1920s and later in the US and
Germany, focused their critical attention on culture, asking how it
affected people’s political outlook and activities. Their powerful
admixture of philosophy, sociology, and cultural critique played a key role
in modernism in the German cultural sphere. Their conception of culture as
a repository of new values continues to impact and influence how we in the
twenty-first century think about art and culture, particularly music.

The international conference “Music, Marxism, and the Frankfurt School”
will give sustained attention to the rich and fascinating interaction
between music and the socio-cultural and aesthetic theory of Marxist
writers in the Austro-German sphere, including members of the Frankfurt
School. The conference committee welcomes submissions from a diverse field
of interdisciplinary scholars, as outlined in the Call for Papers. The
Keynote Lecture will be delivered by Professor Max Paddison (Durham
University). The conference is hosted by the School of Music, University
College Dublin. It is sponsored and co-funded by the FP7 Marie Curie
Actions of the European Commission, and is carried out in association with
the Society for Musicology in Ireland, and the Department of Music,
University of California, Irvine.  The deadline for submissions is 31
December 2013. Please see http://www.musicandthefrankfurtschool.com for
further details.


Ὁ βίος βραχύς, ἡ δὲ τέχνη μακρή.

Dr Nicole Grimes
Marie Curie Fellow
Department of Music, University of California, Irvine (ngrimes@uci.edu)
School of Music, University College Dublin (nicole.grimes@ucd.ie)
Online Profile on Academia.edu <http://uci.academia.edu/NicoleGrimes/About>

****End of forwarded message****

Now Available: *The Quilting Points of Musical Modernism*, by J. P. E.
Harper-Scott
For more information see www.cambridge.org/9780521765213

Dr J. P. E. Harper-Scott | Reader in Musicology and Theory
Department of Music, Royal Holloway, University of London
Website: http://www.jpehs.co.uk/
Blog: http://www.jpehs.co.uk/blog
Golden Pages: http://goldenpages.jpehs.co.uk/


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CFP “Connecting Narrative Worlds,” Istanbul, 6-9 November 2013

Call for Papers

6th International Conference for Interactive Digital Storytelling (ICIDS)

“Connecting Narrative Worlds”

Istanbul, 6-9 November 2013

Bahçeşehir University

ICIDS is the premier international conference on research and practice covering interactive narrative experiences such as video game narratives, interactive storytelling, interactive drama, and interactive installation art concerned with storytelling. Bringing together researchers, practitioners and theorists presenting cutting-edge works, qualitative and quantitative research, advanced computational narrative techniques and innovative theoretical perspectives, ICIDS serves as the main event for exchanging ideas and perspectives on combining narrative and interactivity for an exciting new form of human expression that redefines the relationship between creators and audiences.

Interactive Digital Storytelling is an exciting area in which narrative, computer science and digital arts converge to create new expressive forms. The combination of narrative and computation has a considerable untapped potential: from artistic projects to journalistic communication, from assistive technologies and intelligent agents to serious games, education and entertainment.

The ICIDS conference series has a long-standing tradition of bringing together theoretical and practical approaches in an interdisciplinary dialogue. The motto for ICIDS 2013 “Connecting Narrative Worlds” expresses this need to build bridges of understanding across different fields to make even better use of the immense potential of interactive narrative. The objective of ICIDS 2013 is to promote understanding and dialogue between A.I. researchers, designers, transmedia and digital artists, narratologists and digital game scholars.

We welcome practical work and theoretical inquiries from fields related to computer science – including (but not limited to) artificial intelligence, human-computer interaction, natural language generation and understanding or automated story generation. We invite contributions on the current and future usage scenarios from digital artists, transmedia producers and game designers: original pieces of Interactive Digital Narrative (IDN) may be presented, as well as post-mortem discussions of completed projects. Finally, we ask for submissions from the fields of semiotics, narratology, media studies, digital humanities and interactive arts criticism: interested scholars may focus on improved schemas for describing and critiquing Interactive Digital Narratives as well as analyses discussing narrative features across digital media.

We welcome research papers and demonstrations – including interactive narrative art – presenting new scientific results, interactive narrative theory, innovative technologies, case studies, creative insights, best practice showcases, or improvements to existing techniques and approaches in the research field of Interactive Digital Storytelling and its possible applications in other fields, e.g. video games, virtual/online worlds, e-learning, training, and edutainment. We are planning to have a space for art work/demonstrations that will be open (and attended by security) for the duration of the conference. We plan to issue a specific call for artworks closer to the conference.

Suggested research topics for contributions include, but are not limited to:

1) Technological, theoretical, and aesthetic issues in all areas of interactive narrative

2) Interactive Digital Narrative systems, authoring tools and practical/artistic projects

3) Video game narrative

4) User experience reports and evaluations of interactive digital narratives

5) Innovative narrative applications of artificial intelligence

6) Multi-user IDNs: social applications, ubiquitous computing and collaborative environments

7) New frontiers and concrete applications: IDNs and intelligent agents as art pieces, games or tools

Workshops

Workshops are an integral part of ICIDS. A separate call for workshops will be issued at a later date.

Submissions

All submissions must follow the Lecture Notes in Computer Science format, available at:

http://www.springer.com/computer/lncs?SGWID=0-164-6-793341-0

Papers must be written in English, and only electronic submissions in PDF format will be considered for review.

The submission categories accepted are:

  • Full papers (8-12 pages in the proceedings) describing interesting, novel results or completed work in all areas of IDS and its applications.

  • Short papers (4-6 pages in the proceedings) presenting exciting preliminary work or novel thought-provoking ideas that are in their early stages.

  • Demonstrations and posters (2-4 pages in the proceedings) describing working, presentable systems or brief explanations of a research project.

Submissions that receive high ratings in the peer review process will be selected for publication by the program committee as Springer LNCS conference proceedings. For the final print-ready version, the submission of source files (Microsoft Word/LaTeX, TIF/EPS) and a signed copyright form will be required.

All submissions will be processed using the EasyChair system. Authors are advised to register a new account well in advance of the paper submission deadline:

http://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=icids2013

The review process for ICIDS will be double blind. Authors should remove all identifying information from their submissions.

Important Dates

  • Deadline: June 14, 2013 Submission deadline for full and short papers, demonstrations and posters proposals. The precise deadline for paper submissions is 11:59PM on June 14, 2013, Hawaii Standard Time. Authors are strongly advised to upload their submissions well in advance of this deadline.

  • July 21, 2013 Accept/reject notifications sent to authors.

  • August 14, 2013 Camera-ready copy due.

  • November 6 – 9, 2013 ICIDS Conference Dates.

This conference is organized by the Games & Narrative research group and hosted by Bahçeşehir University Game Lab (BUG) and organized in collaboration with the Turkish Chapter of the Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA).

Organizing Committee

General Chairs

Hartmut Koenitz

Tonguc Ibrahim Sezen

Program Chairs

Mads Haahr

Gabriele Ferri

Local Arrangements Chair

Guven Catak

Workshops Chair

Digdem Sezen

More Information

Additional information about the conference can be found online at:

ICIDS conference series:

http://icids.org

Conference home page:

http://gamesandnarrative.net/icids2013/

Questions about the conference should be directed to the organizers via email at:

icids2013@gamesandnarrative.net


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Call for Papers: International Herbert Marcuse Society

Call for Papers

The Fifth Biennial Meeting

International Herbert Marcuse Society 

University of Kentucky

Lexington, Kentucky, USA

November 7-9, 2013

 

Conference Theme:

“Emancipation, New Sensibility,

and the Challenge of a New Era:

Theory, Practice, and Pedagogy”

 

“Social theory is supposed to analyze existing societies in the light of their own functions and capabilities and to identify demonstrable tendencies (if any) which might lead beyond the existing state of affairs. By logical inference from the prevailing conditions and institutions, critical theory may also be able to determine the basic institutional changes which are the prerequisites for the transition to a higher stage of development: “higher” in the sense of a more rational and equitable use of resources, minimization of destructive conflicts, and enlargement of the realm of freedom. But beyond these limits, critical theory did not venture for fear of losing its scientific character. I believe that this restrictive conception must be revised, and that the revision is suggested, and even necessitated, by the actual evolution of contemporary societies.”

–Herbert Marcuse, An Essay on Liberation, 1969

 

The International Herbert Marcuse Society (IHMS) is an atypical gathering of the community of academics, scholars and activists who labor together in an attempt to help the specter of liberation that haunts our society materialize in the concrete lives of oppressed people. For this reason, we bring together not only Marcuse scholars, but scholars and activists from a wide range of disciplines. We are interested in connecting with all people who participate in the “Great Refusal” by trying to transform our society in theory and practice. The IHMS emerged as a response to our current social, political, philosophical, and historical situation.  In short, we have witnessed the apparent domination of one-dimensional thinking.

However, the control of society by one-dimensional thinking has never been complete. One-dimensional thinking has always been challenged but not overthrown by an antagonistic specter. Marx spoke of the specter of communism.  Arnold Farr has spoken of the specter of liberation. Mark Cobb has spoken of Marcuse’s ghost.  Derrida has spoken of the specter of Marx. Even as one-dimensional thinking takes its throne, no coronation is in the works.

 

“A Specter is haunting Europe—the specter of communism.”      

Karl Marx

Communist Manifesto, 1848

 

“There is a specter haunting western philosophy—the specter of liberation.”       

Arnold Farr

Critical Theory and Democratic Vision: Marcuse and Recent Liberation Philosophies, 2009                                     

 

“The specters of Marx. Why this plural? Would there be more than one of them?”

Jacques Derrida

Specters of Marx, 1993

 

Derrida was right to speak of multiple hauntings. Today we are confronted by the haunting of Marcuse, suggesting that his work is as relevant in 2013 as it was in the 1960s and 70s. Marcuse’s work itself embodies a multiplicity of specters, specters of liberation.  This is the point of the long opening quotation from Marcuse. On one level, (Marcusean) critical/social theory discloses the specters of liberation in terms of the possibilities that exist within the present mode of social organization. This is the function of critical/social theory in what Marcuse has called its restricted operation. At another level, critical/social theory transcends the present form of social organization to reveal the specter of utopian visions that haunt the present reality principle. However, he reminds us that the Utopian vision is not one with content insofar as our society has reached a level of technological development that makes liberation possible. We are beyond the threat of scarcity.  However, what is at issue here is the blocking of liberation by the very forces that make it possible.

In 2011, the IHMS conference was entitled “Critical Refusals.” We chose this title because we wanted to bring together scholars and activists who were all engaged in some kind of “Great Refusal” through their work. We wanted to bring together people who were engaged in critical projects even though they may not be Marcuse scholars.  Marcuse and his work are still at the core of the IHMS. However, Marcuse’s project is carried out best when it is put into conversation with other theorists and activists who are doing critical and transformative work. The 2013 conference will be organized according to this same principle. We welcome papers and projects from all who are seeking serious engagement and social transformation.

 

Please send abstracts and papers to: Arnold L. Farr alfarr00@uky.edu.

Deadline for abstracts:  June 1, 2013.

Abstracts: maximum 500 words; include a title and 3-5 keywords to assist with paneling, in the event your abstract is chosen for presentation.

Notification: July 15, 2013.

Papers: final versions should be no more than 3000 words written with standard formatting and 12-point font.

Registration:  $30.00


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CfP: Lehigh Philosophy Conference (Deadline 5/1/13)

Call for Abstracts

“The Last Chapter”

Lehigh University Department of Philosophy
Inaugural Annual Conference
Thursday, October 3 – Friday October 4, 2013

Keynote speakers:
Paul Guyer, Jonathan Nelson Professor of Humanities and Philosophy, Brown University
Nancy Sherman, University Professor, Georgetown University

The Lehigh University Philosophy Department invites submissions for our first annual philosophy conference.  Submissions should address one of two dimensions of the conference theme: either aspects of the often under-read or overlooked final chapters, sections, or moments of philosophical texts, or philosophy’s relation to the idea of its own “final chapter” or of that of some other domain.

Topics for submissions focusing on the theme’s first dimension—texts– include, but are not limited to:  How do the text’s concluding thoughts stand in relation to the remainder of the work? How do they inform or deform the coherence of the philosophical project at hand?  How does one properly end a philosophical work? Is it important to attend to the last chapter? Papers may treat specific texts or specific oeuvres: e.g., the Critique of Pure Reason or Kant’s oeuvre, Tractatus 7 or Wittgenstein’s oeuvre, Leviathan or Hobbes’s oeuvre.  Submissions are welcome on any period of philosophy or employing any method of following philosophical inspiration.

Papers focusing on the second theme dimension might address such questions as these: Does or should philosophy see itself as aiming for a concluding chapter or as eventually reaching an end?  Is our enterprise necessarily interminable? If not a conclusion, what other ends, if any, does or should philosophy seek? How does or might philosophy distinctively address the end(s) or endings in other disciplines or domains of life?

Submission deadline:
May 1, 2013

notification by June 15, 2013

Electronic submission of detailed abstracts (750-1000 words) should be in MSWord or pdf format.  Reading time for presented papers is 30 minutes.

Send abstracts as attachments to <amy206@lehigh.edu> with “conference submission” as the subject. Please include in body of e-mail your name, paper title, institutional affiliation, and contact information.

Department of Philosophy
Lehigh University
Bethlehem, PA 18015
http://philosophy.cas2.lehigh.edu/


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Last Modified: March 5, 2013

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