Where Are We? New Work in Critical Theory and Cultural Studies (Spring 2007)

In spring 2007, the Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory will dedicate its criticism seminar to the question “Where Are We?” In four sessions during the course of the semester, we will debate the merits of new work in critical theory and cultural studies. Each session will focus on one significant book published in the last two years and will feature short position papers by UIUC faculty and graduate students. Following their presentations, we will proceed to an open discussion. While no four books could be representative of the range of work currently being done, each of the books selected offers an interdisciplinary and theoretical approach to several important areas of critical theory and cultural studies.

All sessions are open to the public!

Audience members are encouraged to buy the books when possible, but selections from each will be available on e-reserves approximately two weeks before each session under Unit 2007/Rothberg.

 

Monday, February 12, 8-10pm

IPRH, 805 W. Pennsylvania in Urbana

Caroline Jones, ed. Sensorium: Embodied Experience, Technology, and Contemporary Art (MIT Press, 2006)

Keywords: Body, Technology, Art

Featuring position papers by:

Andrea Goulet (French)

David Hays (Landscape Architecture)

Martha Webber (Writing Studies/English)

Readings will be available on e-reserves under Rothberg-Unit 2007, and are also available for photocopying in the Unit. Selected passages include:

-Jones, Caroline A. (ed.). "Contents and Introduction." Sensorium: Embodied Experience, Technology, and Contemporary Art. MIT Press, 2006. 
-"Mediated Sensorium."
-air (Bruno Latour)
-decorporealization (Amelia Jones)
-kinaesthesia (Zeynip Celik)
-networked eyes (William J. Mitchell)
-neurodynamics (Barbara Stafford)
-neuroexistentialism (Joseph Dumit)
-utopian body (Michel Foucault)

Monday, March 5, 8-10pm

IPRH, 805 W. Pennsylvania in Urbana

Ian Baucom, Specters of the Atlantic: Finance Capital, Slavery, and the Philosophy of History (Duke UP, 2005); Chapters 1, 4, 11, and 12 all available on e-reserves.

Keywords: Black Atlantic, Marxism, Theory of History

Featuriig position papers by:

Jed Esty (English)

Tara Lyons (English)

Manuel Rota (Italian)

Monday, April 16, 8-10pm

IPRH, 805 W. Pennsylvania in Urbana

Wendy Brown, Regulating Aversion: Tolerance in the Age of Identity and Empire (Princeton UP, 2006)

Keywords: Imperialism, Identity Politics, Liberalism

Featuring position papers by:

Matti Bunzl (Anthropology)

Zsusza Gille (Sociology)

Meltem Yilmaz-Sener (Sociology)

Monday, April 30, 8-10pm

IPRH, 805 W. Pennsylvania in Urbana

Janet Halley, Split Decisions: How and Why to Take a Break from Feminism (Princeton UP, 2006)

Keywords: Feminism, Queer Theory, Critical Legal Studies

Featuring position papers by:

Cris Mayo (Gender and Women’s Studies & Educational Policy Studies)

Richard T. Rodriguez (English & Latina/o Studies)

Mary Unger (English)

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Related Seminars:

Tuesday, April 10, 12:30-2pm. 
FLB 4080

Seminar on "Culture and Economics in the Free-Market Era"

With Luis Carcamo-Huechante, Romance Languages, Harvard University. Response by Ericka Beckman, Spanish, Italian, Portugues, UIUC

Open to the public!

PRIMARY READING:
-Luis Carcamo-Huechante, “Milton Friedman:  Knowledge, Public Culture, and Market Economy in the Chile of Pinochet,” Public Culture, 18:2 (Spring 2006).

SECONDARY READINGS:
- Stigler, George. “The Economist as Preacher” from The Economist as Preacher. Oxford, Inglaterra: Basil Blackwell Publisher, 1982. pp. 3-13.

-Jameson, Fredric. “Postmodernism and the Market” from Postmodernism or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. Durham: Duke UP, 1991. pp. 260-278.

Readings will be available on e-reserves under Unit 2007/Rothberg.
Co-Sponsored by the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies.