The Critical-Theory Guide to Shit That Happened in 2013, Arbitrarily Ranked

Posted on December 30, 2013 by stuartelden

These are good – and cover the pope, Brad Pitt as Plato, Banksy and Hannah Arendt, Feminist Ryan Gosling being no more, the Zizek operas, and others…

Posted in Hannah Arendt, Slavoj Zizek | Leave a comment

The Funambulist on Stoler, Foucault and Race

Posted on December 30, 2013 by stuartelden

The Funambulist has an interesting post on ‘The Desired Colonized Body: Foucault and Race by Ann Laura Stoler‘. I clearly remember reading Stoler’s text Race and the Education of Desire while doing my PhD, and finding its discussion of Foucault’s as-then-unpublished lecture course ‘Society Must be Defended’ really helpful in opening up where my future work might go. The Foucault’s Last Decade project is the intended continuation, collection and culmination of that work.

Posted in Ann Laura Stoler, Foucault's Last Decade, Michel Foucault | Leave a comment

Momentarily: Learning from Mega-Events – new link to collection and my piece on Lefebvre

Posted on December 29, 2013 by stuartelden

This is a new download link for Bik Van der Pol, Alissa Firth-Eagland and Urban Subjects (eds.), Momentarily: Learning from Mega-Events, Vancouver: Western Front, 2011. The previous link was broken, and thanks to Himanshu Burte for alerting me to this. The book includes a short piece by me on ‘Lefebvre on Moments’.

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CFP – Visual In-Sights: Theory, Method, Practice – 26-27 June 2014, Newcastle

Posted on December 29, 2013 by stuartelden

Call for Papers/Proposals – Visual In-Sights: Theory, Method, Practice

26-27 June 2014, Newcastle University, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK

Deadline for Abstracts/Proposals: 31 January 2014

Keynote Speakers:

Marcus Banks (Oxford University)

David Campbell (www.david-campbell.org)

Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen (Amber Collective)

Organised by the Visualities Research Group at Newcastle University, this interdisciplinary conference aims to bring together an international community of established and emerging scholars, creative practitioners, visual artists and arts-based, community project leaders who research, use and work with visual materials and visual methods. Contributions are invited that demonstrate the cutting edge in research and practice around the multiple spaces of the visual, and which explore the porous boundary between the theory, method and practice of the visual.

We seek academic papers and/or proposals for multi-media presentations, break-out sessions using arts/performance/installation, contemporaneous fieldwork exercises and workshops, and exhibitive displays. Contributions may speak, but are not limited, to the themes of:

·        Art and Aesthetics

·        Visual Cultures

·        Visualities and Ethics

·        Visual Communication and Visual Practice

Please submit an abstract or artist proposal of up to 250 words to visual.insights@ncl.ac.uk  by 31 January 2014. Notifications of acceptance will be sent out on or before 28 February 2014. Registration will open on 31 March 2014. The conference fee is £80 (academics), £50 (artists), and £30 (students and unwaged)

For more information please visit: www.ncl.ac.uk/visual-insights/

Enquiries: visual.insights@ncl.ac.uk

Organising Committee

Daniel Bos, Elaine Campbell, Kate Manzo, Monica Moreno-Figueroa, Matthew F. Rech and Michael Richardson

 

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Biopolitics, Governmentality, (Security) Dispositifs. Concepts for the Study of the International? (2014)

Posted on December 29, 2013 by stuartelden

Important conference coming up in January in Paris.

Clare O'Farrell's avatarFoucault News

Biopolitique, Gouvernementalité, Dispositifs (de sécurité). Concepts pour l’étude de l’International?
Conférence internationale

Biopolitics, Governmentality, (security) Dispositifs. Concepts for the Study of the International?
International Conference

PDF of program in English
PDF en français
Website

Co-organisée par l’Association pour le Centre Michel Foucault, le Centre d’études et de recherches internationales
Avec le soutien de l’IRI/PUC-Rio (Brasil),le Centre d’études sur les conflits, le Centre des Amériques de Sciences Po

Responsabilité scientifique
Didier Bigo (CERI-Sciences Po Paris) Philippe Bonditti (IRI/PUC-Rio) Frédéric Gros (UPEC)

Langues de travail
Anglais et français, French and English

13 et 14 janvier 2014

Association pour le Centre Michel Foucault
[Editor: Link updated 17 April 2026 to page archived on the Wayback Machine]

CERI/Sciences Po
56, rue Jacob, 75006 Paris
Grande Salle de Conférence

In 1997, in Paris, the Centre d’études et de recherches internationales (CERI) hosted a conference entitled Pratiques politiques et usages de Michel Foucault (Political practices…

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# PALESTINE /// The Photograph as Judicial Evidence in the Context of Tear Gas Warfare

Posted on December 29, 2013 by stuartelden

Striking image and discussion at The Funambulist.

Léopold Lambert's avatarThe Funambulist

B'TselemTear gas canister shot directly at B’Tselem photographer Muhmmad ‘Awad by an I.D.F. officer (image B’Tselem)

We have seen many times how the State of Israel and its army manage to maintain the status quo of the occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, as well as the incarceration of the Gaza strip, through the spectacle of sparing the “international” opinion (understand the opinion of countries that could actually do something against these conditions). In order to do so, the I.D.F. provides a simulacrum of submission to the international legislation (see past article “Law as a Colonial Weapon“), which disguise military practices that violate this legislation.

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Marxism and Monsters – China Miéville

Posted on December 29, 2013 by stuartelden

China Miéville discusses ‘Marxism and Monsters’ – audio recording and some images. Warning: the first minute is loud.

http://youtu.be/AGlo2Dd_ku8

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Althusser’s 1966 piece on the Chinese Cultural Revolution

Posted on December 29, 2013 by stuartelden

Interesting piece from Althusser in 1966: “Cultural Revolution, Party, State and Conjuncture”

The English translation was recently shared  by Decalages. Originally published (in French) in late 1966 it is a very early analysis of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution based entirely on a close reading of the first official texts. It also suggests Althusser’s understanding of the political stakes involved in his own philosophical work.

Update May 2025: these links now seem to point to unsafe sites; I’ve therefore removed them.

 

Posted in Louis Althusser, Politics | Leave a comment

Michael Byers on Stephen Harper and the North Pole

Posted on December 29, 2013 by stuartelden

Good commentary piece from Michael Byers about Canada and the supposed claim on the North Pole. I link to some other pieces on this topic here, in a brief report on my comments to the ArcticNet conference.

Posted in Boundaries, Conferences, Politics, Territory | Leave a comment

Happy Christmas and thanks for reading

Posted on December 24, 2013 by stuartelden

I’m now going to take a few days off from the blog. I’m spending Christmas itself in Ghana, and then heading back to the UK for a few days with family.

I have a few other posts that I’ll try to finish before the year is out, which are mainly lists – of academic books that I’ve appreciated from 2013; some new music that has been the soundtrack to my year; and the second half of my novels read list (you can see the first half of the year here).

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments