The negotiation between French and Italian activists and intellectuals in
the mid-twentieth century opened a field of theoretical experimentation\, the \;effects of which pose a challenge for contemporary politics. This encounter \;materialized through various collectives\, traversing the neat intellectual \;and practical boundaries of the academy. Whether through the images of \;intellectuals in the streets\, or through radical activist groups extending \;from the Situationist International to Tiqqun\, the laboratory of French and \;Italian thought poses a constellation of conceptual weapons that remain \;vital for any contestation with the state of things. These implements have \;been successful in intervening within contemporary struggles on the level of \;theory\, practice\, and the construction of history in the present.
Under the inheritance of this tradition\, this conference invites submissions \;from the interstices and margins of recent French and Italian philosophy. \;Possible paper topics include feminist recapitulations of post-workerism\, \;the theoretical legacy of biopolitics as it is taken up in Agamben and \;Esposito\, and the ongoing challenges for theory and practice posed by social \;movements extending from Latin America to the Mediterranean in the wake of \;events such as Mohamed Bouazizi&rsquo\;s self-immolation.
Other topics include\, but are not limited to:
\; \; Post-Althusserian philosophy
\; \; Decolonial challenges to eurocentric thought and strategies
\; \; Wages for Housework and care economies
\; \; Realism and contemporary ontologies
\; \; Re-interpretations of the Gramscian legacy
\; \; Philosophies of life and the problem of vitalism
\; \; Lacanian psychoanalysis and its heritage
\; \; French and Italian receptions of Spinoza\, Hegel\, and Marx
\; \; Affect theory and imagination in cultural productions (e.g. film and media)
\; \; Collective organization and social ontologies
vuconf2015@gmail.com.
This conference is committed to accommodating people with disabilities. \;Conference participants and attendees are encouraged to contact the above \;email address to discuss accommodations.