Call for Contributions: Fragility and the Aesthetics of Sensitivity \;
\nKeynote Presenters: \;
\nAndrew Goffey (University of Nottingham)
\nBrigitte Hart (Sound artist\, Shortwave Collective)
\nWhen crisis becomes a permanent state rather than an exceptional rupture\, fragility assumes the form of an existential condition visible across social\, ecological\, and political domains. Under such circumstances\, the production of knowledge increasingly shifts toward anticipatory regimes&mdash\;risk modelling\, foresight studies\, and adaptive infrastructures designed to navigate instability. Contemporary problems appear as hybrid entities: complex issues that exceed the grasp of any single discipline and demand collaborative investigation capable of rendering them perceptible and registering fragile relations that cannot be stabilised or fixed.
\nIn this context\, the problem of disciplinarity&mdash\;of relations between disciplines and collaboration across them&mdash\;acquires renewed urgency. Contemporary ecological frameworks in the humanities further intensify this concern by grounding the crossing of boundaries in an existential condition. This expansion of the problematic invites a reconsideration of an older question: what do the prefixes inter-\, trans-\, non-\, or post- differentially signify when applied to disciplinarity? Which form of disciplinarity adequately captures our present condition?
\nWhile the laboratory has served as a central model&mdash\;a metonym for interdisciplinary collaboration\, anchoring the emergent mode of scientific praxis called &ldquo\;research&rdquo\;&mdash\;today research also unfolds across privately funded para-institutions\, hybrid platforms\, and transient project-based networks. However\, collaborations between artists and social theorists with natural scientists remain structurally asymmetrical: artistic practice is often reduced to the visualization of scientific data\, while social theory has long remained under pressure to imitate the methods of the hard sciences. In this context\, the symposium seeks to examine the tangible forms of contemporary cross-disciplinary collaboration and the conceptual frameworks that sustain them.
\nThe symposium approaches this question under the long shadow of post-1968 French philosophy\, whose insistence on the inherent intertwinement of politics and aesthetics continues to shape contemporary thought. As a guiding reference\, we take the framework developed by Bruno Latour\, approached here through the twin themes of \;fragility and the aesthetics of sensitivity. Latour may be seen as the synthetic inheritor of this philosophical trajectory\, insofar as his anthropology of laboratory science leads to a non-disciplinary\, transversal form of social ontology that immanently connects science\, aesthetics\, and politics. His model advances a form of collective pragmatism oriented toward the proposal of new entities for social existence&mdash\;entities defined relationally as fragile networks of attachments. Scientific instruments function as sensitive devices that inscribe and thereby render these entities visible\, thereby making them open to collective concern.
\nThe symposium is thus both a call for dialogue and an invitation to rethink disciplinarity under the increasingly urgent\, deteriorating\, and transitional conditions of the present. We are interested in contemporary artistic and theoretical practices\, particularly those that combine the two and critically reflect on their disciplinary\, institutional\, and methodological conditions. If\, as Fé\;lix Guattari reminds us\, &ldquo\;there is no general pedagogy relative to the constitution of a living transdisciplinarity\,&rdquo\; then where and how might such a transdisciplinarity be practiced today? \;
\nPossible contributions might focus on: \;
\nSubmission Guidelines:
\nAbstract: \;max. 300 words
\nPresentation length: \;20 minutes \;with time reserved for discussion.
\nPlease send an abstract (max. 300 words) and a short biographical note to: \;k2035920@kingston.ac.uk
\nDeadline for submissions: \;26 April 2026
Notification of acceptance: \;10 May 2026
The event is organised as a \;PhD student-led symposium supported by the Techne AHRC Doctoral Training Partnership.
ORGANIZER: METHOD:PUBLISH END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260411T105748Z DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260605T093000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260605T170000 SUMMARY:CRMEP Graduate Conference | Title: Reading Capital 60 Years On UID:20260414T205344Z-iCalPlugin-Grails@philevents-web-f5d4878dd-dnjxp TZID:Europe/London LOCATION:55-59 Penrhyn Road\, London\, United Kingdom DESCRIPTION:The publication of Reading Capital \;[Lire le capital] marked an event in the full philosophical sense of the term: at the same time a rupture and irreversible beginning. A collaborative\, seminary effort between multiple authors - convened by Louis Althusser - the text proposed a radical new reading of Das Kapital\, one that was intentionally partial and unorthodox\, and all the more productive for being so. Its almost immediate success within both domestic and international circles inaugurated a new tradition of philosophical thought under the banner of structural Marxism\, thematising notions such as symptomatic reading\, militant science\, structural causality and theoretical anti-humanism. The precocious seminary contributors invariably went on to become hugely influential forces themselves\, from Pierre Macherey\, Jacques Ranciere\, and Roger Esablet\, to the beloved\, one-time Professor at the CRMEP\, Etienne Balibar.
\nOn the occasion of its 60-year anniversary\, this conference seeks to revisit the intellectual legacy of Reading Capital\, investigating its contemporary relevance\, as well as the polemics that have emerged since its publication. We thereby invite papers that critically reflect on this legacy\, drawing attention to the limits of the work as well as its unexplored potentials. We would also like to welcome papers that engage with \;Capital \;itself\, and the various other readings that have become canonised in the intervening decades. Papers will therefore be categorised into the following streams:
\n1. \;Reading Capital
\nThis panel invites papers that directly engage with Marx&rsquo\;s Capital \;project as a critical text\, focusing on unresolved problems of interpretation\, translations\, intellectual histories\, lacunae and tensions\, and so on.
\n2. \;Reading Reading Capital
\nReadings of Reading Capital \;itself\, attending to thematics raised by one or more of its component texts\, the continuity/discontinuity of the project as a whole\, the resulting trajectories of its individual authors\, or the circumstances of its production and reception histories.
\n3. \;Reading readings of Capital
\nFinally\, readings of one or more of the various interpretative traditions to which Capital \;- and Marx&rsquo\;s wider corpus - have given rise\, evaluated in critical relation to structural Marxism. These could include\, but are not limited to: Postcolonial and feminist readings\, German Critical Theory\, the Neue-Marx Lekture\, Value-Form Theory\, Operaismo and Autonomia Operaia\, the &lsquo\;State debates&rsquo\;\, Legal Form Theory\, Political Marxism\, Social Reproduction Theory.
\nWe are currently accepting abstracts for papers that are no longer than 15-20 minutes in length(1950-2250 words). Presenters must be either currently pursuing a PhD or enrolled in an equivalent intensive research program. If you are interested in presenting\, please email an abstract (max 300 words) and a brief personal bio to crmepgradconference@gmail.com \;by March 28th. We look forward to reading your submissions!
\nDisclaimer: This event is organised by PhD students at the now independent institution\, Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy.
ORGANIZER: METHOD:PUBLISH END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20260411T105748Z DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260612T090000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260612T170000 SUMMARY:Fragility and the Aesthetics of Sensitivity UID:20260414T205345Z-iCalPlugin-Grails@philevents-web-f5d4878dd-dnjxp TZID:Europe/London LOCATION:55-59 Penrhyn Rd\, Kingston upon Thames\, London\, United Kingdom\, KT1 2EE DESCRIPTION:Call for Contributions: Fragility and the Aesthetics of Sensitivity
\nKeynote Presenters: \;
\nAndrew Goffey (University of Nottingham)
\nBrigitte Hart (Sound artist\, Shortwave Collective)
\nWhen crisis becomes a permanent state rather than an exceptional rupture\, fragility assumes the form of an existential condition visible across social\, ecological\, and political domains. Under such circumstances\, the production of knowledge increasingly shifts toward anticipatory regimes&mdash\;risk modelling\, foresight studies\, and adaptive infrastructures designed to navigate instability. Contemporary problems appear as hybrid entities: complex issues that exceed the grasp of any single discipline and demand collaborative investigation capable of rendering them perceptible and registering fragile relations that cannot be stabilised or fixed.
\nIn this context\, the problem of disciplinarity&mdash\;of relations between disciplines and collaboration across them&mdash\;acquires renewed urgency. Contemporary ecological frameworks in the humanities further intensify this concern by grounding the crossing of boundaries in an existential condition. This expansion of the problematic invites a reconsideration of an older question: what do the prefixes inter-\, trans-\, non-\, or post- differentially signify when applied to disciplinarity? Which form of disciplinarity adequately captures our present condition?
\nWhile the laboratory has served as a central model&mdash\;a metonym for interdisciplinary collaboration\, anchoring the emergent mode of scientific praxis called &ldquo\;research&rdquo\;&mdash\;today research also unfolds across privately funded para-institutions\, hybrid platforms\, and transient project-based networks. However\, collaborations between artists and social theorists with natural scientists remain structurally asymmetrical: artistic practice is often reduced to the visualization of scientific data\, while social theory has long remained under pressure to imitate the methods of the hard sciences. In this context\, the symposium seeks to examine the tangible forms of contemporary cross-disciplinary collaboration and the conceptual frameworks that sustain them.
\nThe symposium approaches this question under the long shadow of post-1968 French philosophy\, whose insistence on the inherent intertwinement of politics and aesthetics continues to shape contemporary thought. As a guiding reference\, we take the framework developed by Bruno Latour\, approached here through the twin themes of \;fragility and the aesthetics of sensitivity. Latour may be seen as the synthetic inheritor of this philosophical trajectory\, insofar as his anthropology of laboratory science leads to a non-disciplinary\, transversal form of social ontology that immanently connects science\, aesthetics\, and politics. His model advances a form of collective pragmatism oriented toward the proposal of new entities for social existence&mdash\;entities defined relationally as fragile networks of attachments. Scientific instruments function as sensitive devices that inscribe and thereby render these entities visible\, thereby making them open to collective concern.
\nThe symposium is thus both a call for dialogue and an invitation to rethink disciplinarity under the increasingly urgent\, deteriorating\, and transitional conditions of the present. We are interested in contemporary artistic and theoretical practices\, particularly those that combine the two and critically reflect on their disciplinary\, institutional\, and methodological conditions. If\, as Fé\;lix Guattari reminds us\, &ldquo\;there is no general pedagogy relative to the constitution of a living transdisciplinarity\,&rdquo\; then where and how might such a transdisciplinarity be practiced today? \;
\nPossible contributions might focus on: \;
\nSubmission Guidelines:
\nAbstract: \;max. 300 words
\nPresentation length: \;20 minutes \;with time reserved for discussion.
\nPlease send an abstract (max. 300 words) and a short biographical note to: \; k2035920@kingston.ac.uk
\nDeadline for submissions: \;26 April 2026
Notification of acceptance: \;10 May 2026
The event is organised as a \;PhD student-led symposium supported by the Techne AHRC Doctoral Training Partnership.
ORGANIZER: METHOD:PUBLISH END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR