Progressive Geographies

Badiou and his Interlocutors: Lectures, Interviews and Responses – edited by A.J. Bartlett and Justin Clemens, now out with Bloomsbury

About Badiou and His Interlocutors

This is a unique collection presenting work by Alain Badiou and commentaries on his philosophical theories. It includes three lectures by Badiou, on contemporary politics, the infinite, cinema and theatre and two extensive interviews with Badiou – one concerning the state of the contemporary situation and one wide ranging interview on all facets of his work and engagements. It also includes six interventions on aspects of Badiou’s work by established scholars in the field, addressing his concept of history, Lacan, Cinema, poetry, and feminism; and four original essays by young and established scholars in Australia and New Zealand addressing the key concerns of Badiou’s 2015 visit to the Antipodal region and the work he presented there.

With new material by Badiou previously unpublished in English this volume is a valuable overview of his recent thinking. Critical responses by distinguished and gifted Badiou scholars writing outside of the European context make this text essential reading for anyone interested in the development and contemporary reception of Badiou’s thought.

And, if you happen to be in Melbourne, there is a book launch on 20 April.

This is another lecture I’m sorry to miss – Mimi Sheller to give the Society and Space lecture at the 2018 American Association of Geographers conference

We are delighted to announce that Mimi Sheller, Professor of Sociology and Director of the Center for Mobilities Research and Policy at Drexel University, will give the Society and Space lecture at the 2018 AAG meeting in New Orleans.

The talk is titled “Caribbean Futures in the Offshore Anthropocene: Debt, Disaster, and Duration,” and is scheduled for Wednesday April 11th from 3:20pm to 5pm in Napoleon C3 of the Sheraton Hotel (3^rd floor). Sharlene Mollett, Beverley Mullingsand Marion Werner will act as respondents, and here is the abstract:

“The devastating impacts of Hurricanes Irma and Maria across the Caribbean (wiping out homes and farms, roads and bridges, ports and airports, electricity and communications infrastructure, and water, food, fuel, and medical provisioning systems, especially in Barbuda, Dominica, Puerto Rico, St Martin/St Maarten, and parts of the British and US Virgin Islands) are haunting reminders and urgent harbingers of a world of climate disaster, halting recovery, and impossible futures. Being at the leading edge of the global capitalist exploitation of people and other living and non-living beings in a world-spanning system of vast inequity and severe injustice, Caribbean thinkers, writers, poets, philosophers, activists, and artists have long lived with, dwelt upon, and offered answers to the problem of being human after Man, as Sylvia Wynter puts it. The question is: what kinds of human, non-human, and island futures can exist here? This talk will address the uneven origins, experiences, and outcomes of Caribbean climate collapse in the disjuncture between four spatio-temporal realities: 1) the extended mobilities of “planetary urbanization” with its Caribbean-based operational landscapes of oil extraction, refining, and primary mining; 2) the accelerated mobilities of “virtual islands” of tourist fantasy, tax havens, offshore banking, financialized debt, vulture hedge funds, and cyber-property markets; 3) the decelerating “islanding effect” of politically fragmented poverty, public debt, austerity, borders, and external humanitarian aid systems; and lastly 4) the durational mobilities of Amerindian survival, Maroon escape, socialist experiments, cultural survival, and diaspora solidarity.”

Arrived in the US last night – my first visit for a while – to take part in an Architectural History and Theory workshop at Columbia University. It’s a small workshop with PhD students, discussing my writing and current research. The idea is that we discuss my work on territory – particularly in relation to Shakespeare and terrain – in the first part, and then the work on Foucault in the second part. It’s a short visit, but I’m spending the first couple of days at Yale University to use the library and one of their collections in particular, and then will probably use the remaining work time in New York to use the wonderful library at Columbia.

[Update: the workshop is closed – just for Columbia PhD students]