The full schedule for our next meeting is available here.
10th AAS Meeting – Schedule
24 Wednesday Jan 2024
New Book by Lambert Zuidervaart: Adorno, Heidegger, and the Politics of Truth
08 Monday Jan 2024
Posted in Critical Theory, Publications, Theodor W. Adorno
Lambert Zuidervaart (Emeritus Professor of Philosophy, Institute for Christian Studies and University of Toronto) wrote to us today about his new book: Adorno, Heidegger, and the Politics of Truth, which will appear at SUNY Press in February. You can find the details here. Lambert also published a blog post about his book: “Hope for Truth in a Post-Truth World”, which you can read it here.
Here’s the blurb from the publisher:
“An elusive and complex idea of truth lies at the center of Theodor Adorno’s thought. Yet he never spells out what it is. Through close readings of Negative Dialectics, Aesthetic Theory, and related course lectures, Lambert Zuidervaart reconstructs Adorno’s conception of truth, contrasts it with the conceptions of Martin Heidegger and Michel Foucault, and explores its relevance for contemporary philosophy, art, and politics. Adorno regards truth as a dynamic constellation in which various dialectical polarities intersect. The most decisive polarity, Zuidervaart argues, occurs between society as it has developed and the historical possibility of a completely transformed world. Critically reconstructed, Adorno’s conception of truth can help inspire hopeful critiques of an allegedly post-truth society.”
And here’s a review:
“Zuidervaart, who already published numerable books on critical theory in general and Adorno in particular, again shows himself to be an excellent and critical reader of Adorno. The greatest strength of Adorno, Heidegger, and the Politics of Truth is that it offers an in-depth study of Adorno’s concept of truth, based on a thorough reading and understanding, and an original and critical interpretation of Adorno’s work. It also surpasses that in demonstrating the need for a conception of ‘truth as a whole’ beyond propositional truth, and the need to link the concept of truth to social critique and social hope. All this makes this book a must-read for Adorno scholars.” — Thijs Lijster, author of Benjamin and Adorno on Art and Art Criticism: Critique of Art
New Book: Estelle Ferrarese, Le marché de la vertu
19 Tuesday Sep 2023
Posted in Critical Theory, Publications, Theodor W. Adorno
Estelle Ferrarese wrote to us about the publication of her new book: Le marché de la vertu. Critique de la consommation éthique (tentative English title: The Market of Virtue: Critique of Ethical Consumption). The book appeared at the legendary Librairie Philosophique J. Vrin, located on the Place de la Sorbonne in Paris. The book is, of course, in French. At our last meeting in Brighton, UK (May 2023), Estelle Ferrarese presented some of her latest work – or the rough equivalent of a chapter of this new book. The title of her presentation was: “Reactualizing Adorno’s Theory of Exchange: A Critique of Ethical Consumption”.
Here’s the publisher’s blub:
“La propagation actuelle de pratiques de consommation prônant un « juste » prix ou des achats « responsables », fonde son succès sur une prétendue critique du capitalisme à l’échelle de la vie quotidienne.
Ce livre prend le contrepied de l’opinion dominante et démontre avec les outils de la Théorie critique que la consommation éthique collabore à l’ordre même auquel elle s’efforce d’échapper. Elle dissimule le fait que le marché désarme perpétuellement les normes morales qui y sont injectées. Elle ramène inadéquatement le capitalisme à des mécanismes psychologiques, comme une humeur prédatrice, qu’il serait possible de brider par la vertu. Elle octroie à l’intention individuelle une maîtrise absolue sur le monde, à même de le métamorphoser sans reste. Et avec sa tendance au compte – des dommages ou des efforts vertueux –, la consommation éthique concourt à la forme que le marché impose au monde, celle d’une commensurabilité généralisée.”
Conference: “Flaschenpost: Critical Theory at 100” @ Harvard U, Oct. 6-7, 2023
11 Monday Sep 2023
Posted in Conference
As part of its Harvard Colloquium for Intellectual History, the Center for European Studies Harvard is hosting a two-day conference this October. The full title is: Flaschenpost: Critical Theory at 100 – The European and American Reception, 1923-2023.
The conference brings together very prominent scholars and representatives of what is Critical Theory today, 100 years after the Frankfurt Institute for Social Research was first founded. It also marks the 50th anniversary of Martin Jay’s now classic: The Dialectical Imagination.
You can find the program here.
New Book: The Dynamic of Play and Horror in Adorno’s Philosophy
10 Monday Jul 2023
Bence Kun wrote to announce the publication of his book on Adorno next fall at De Gruyter, which should be of interests to readers of this blog. At he puts it, “the work deals with Adorno’s concept of playfulness and horror, focusing on his philosophical rhetoric and ‘Negative Dialectics’.”
And here’s the publisher’s blurb:
“Long before Wittgenstein drew attention to its complexities, the concept of play had captured the interest of theorists for millennia. How do games contribute to our knowledge of the world? Wherein lies their universal appeal? Play is usually associated with a certain blitheness and buoyancy – could it nevertheless be argued that playfulness is not quite as innocent as it might seem?
Bence Kun draws on Adorno’s writings to explore the relation between philosophical play (understood here as imaginative thought as well as experimental expression) and an experience of dread Adorno links to children’s first encounter with death. By investigating his less familiar works, some of which have not yet been translated, Kun challenges the received view on Adorno’s approach to metaphysics, the role of systematic inquiry and the modern condition. As he has Adorno say, the originary impression of shock at the heart of philosophical reflection can only be fully apprehended through an open-ended and defiantly creative intellectual practice.”
The release date is Oct. 23!
2024 Meeting of the AAS
06 Thursday Jul 2023
Posted in Association for Adorno Studies, Conference
We are thrilled to announce that Estelle Ferrarese has very graciously accepted to host the next meeting of the Association for Adorno Studies. It will take place at the Université de Picardie Jules Verne, in Amiens, France. The meeting is scheduled for May 30-31, 2024. Details will follow.
Previous meetings:
May 5-6, 2023 – University of Sussex
April 26-27, 2019 – University of São Paulo
May 4-5, 2018 – American University in Cairo
March 24-25, 2017 – Duke University
April 29-30, 2016 – Université de Montréal
October 9-10, 2015 – The New School
March 7-8, 2014 – University College Dublin
March 22-23, 2013 – Temple University
March 2-3, 2012 – Johns Hopkins University
Recap of the 9th Annual Meeting
12 Monday Jun 2023
Posted in Association for Adorno Studies, Conference Summary
Tags
Adorno Studies, Adriano Lotito, Annual Meeting, Antonia Hofstätter, Bruno Carvalho, Centre for Social and Political Thought, Emily Shyr, Estelle Ferrarese, Fumi Okiji, Gordon Finlayson, Han-Gyeol Lie, Iain Macdonald, Jacob Bard-Rosenberg, Jessica Daboin, Kathy Kiloh, Lars Rensmann, Lydia Goehr, Marina Lademacher, Nick Walker, Peter E. Gordon, Pierre-François Noppen, Salima Naït Ahmed, Surti Singh, Taylor Carman, Theodor W. Adorno, Toby Lovat, University of Sussex
The 9th annual meeting of the Association for Adorno Studies took place in the beautiful coastal city of Brighton, UK, in early May. The meeting was held over two days in the venues of the Leonardo Hotel (May 5th: Brighton Station; May 6th: Brighton Waterfront). It was the first time since 2019 that the AAS was able to hold its annual meeting. It was very exciting to reconnect in person and to see so many new speakers and participants join our adventure.
Our thanks go to the Centre for Social and Political Thought of the University of Sussex for hosting the event. A very special thanks to Gordon Finlayson and Marina Lademacher for all the work they invested in organizing this wonderful event with such a stimulating and high-calibre program! The meeting was very well attended (we counted over 45 participants) and convened speakers and participants from several countries, including the US, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Greece and Brazil. Amongst other things, this year’s program offered a concentration of remarkable papers on Adorno’s aesthetics and philosophy of music, which made for a very sustained and thought-provoking conversation over two days. The last day ended with a much-anticipated author-meet-critics panel devoted to Iain Macdonald’s What Would Be Different. Thanks to Taylor Carman, Peter E. Gordon, Iain Macdonald and Nick Walker for the fascinating exchanges!
We held our business meeting on the second day of the event at lunch time, as is our custom. While members of the AAS met a number of times more or less informally during our pandemic hiatus, this was our first formal business meeting since 2019. Surti Singh (President) and Pierre-Francois Noppen (Vice-President) co-chaired the meeting. They shared news about recent developments in the AAS and submitted a number of points for discussion. Significant changes have happened over the last three years. And we have many people to thank for their help and their efforts in making these changes possible. Here’s an overview:
First, Martin Shuster and Kathy Kiloh (founders of the AAS, former President and Vice-President of the AAS, respectively, as well as founders and editors Adorno Studies since its inception) stepped down from the journal in 2021. We owe an enormous debt of gratitude to both of them for their long and dedicated service and their extraordinary commitment to the AAS. Since then, a new editorial team has formed (Samir Gandesha, Johan Hartle, Antonia Hofstätter, Han-Gyeol Lie and Stefano Marino) along with a new editorial board. The new editors have been very busy preparing the relaunch of Adorno Studies at Mimesis Press. Antonia Hofstätter, who was present at the meeting, relayed some very exciting news (and shared some visuals!) about the next issue. Stay tuned! The event will be publicized on this blog.
Second, the AAS has been working on the transfer of this blog to a new server at UC Berkeley (thanks to Robert Kaufmann, Debarati Sanyal and Dan Blanton). The details should be announced soon. In the meantime, if you wish to be added on the mailing list of this blog, please contact Pierre-François Noppen directly (pf.noppen@usask.ca).
Third, we have announced that our executive is to be renewed at our 2024 meeting. It is worth noting that, on the model we agreed upon in 2012 at our first meeting (Johns Hopkins University), members of our executive serve three-year terms. While the pandemic upset our plans for a renewal of the executive, we are pleased to return to our pre-pandemic model with three-year commitments.
Fourth, we discussed a number of options for next year’s meeting (2024). The location will be announced by the end of the summer on this blog. We are also thrilled to announce that Peter E. Gordon has very graciously agreed to host our 2025 meeting at Harvard University.
All of this bodes very well for the future of the AAS!
Here’s the complete schedule of this year’s meeting.
And here are some pictures that were shared with us:
AAS 2023 Meeting Final Program
04 Thursday May 2023
Posted in Uncategorized
Association for Adorno Studies 9th Annual conference, University of Sussex
Supported by the Mind Association, the Aristotelian Society of Great Britian and School of Media Arts and Humanities, University of Sussex
Thursday May 4th
Welcome: Drinks at the Walrus Pub, for those who want them 8pm onwards. 10 Ship St, Brighton, Brighton and Hove, Brighton BN1 1AD
You are also invited to a launch event for philosopher and cognitive scientist Andy Clark’s latest book ‘The Experience Machine’: The Experience Machine: How our Minds Predict and Shape Reality. Waterstones Bookshop 71-74 North Street
7-9 pm BST
A grand new vision in cognitive science explains how our minds build our worlds. Hear a leading philosopher of mind speak on the extraordinary explanatory power of the “predictive brain” for our lives, mental health and society. The event series is supported in part by the Royal Institute of Philosophy, and all events are open to the public. Attendance is free, but registration is required in advance. Those who think that they might attend are encouraged to register for a (free) e-ticket right away in order to have accurate attendance numbers.
AAS Conference Programme
Friday 5 May – Leonardo Hotel, Brighton Station
8.45 Coffee and Tea, Meeting Room, Leonardo Hotel, Brighton Station
9.00 Opening Address: Surti Singh (Villanova)
9.20-11.00
Chair: Gordon Finlayson (Sussex)
Jacob Bard-Rosenberg (Cambridge) ‘Der böse Kamerad’/‘Der gute Kamerad’ Minima Moralia
Bruno Carvalho (São Paulo): Suffering and pessimism, on the actuality of Adorno’s critical project
11.00-11.20 Coffee and Tea
11.20-1.00
Chair: Surti Singh (Villanova)
Emily Shyr (Duke): Revealing a Schubertian Constellation: Re-reading Adorno’s ‘Schubert’ through Benjamin
Fumi Okiji (Berkeley): Aesthetic form in the new thing // Aesthetic sociality of musique informelle
1.00-2.10 – Lunch
2.10-3.50
Chair: Pierre-François Noppen (Saskatchewan)
Kathy Kiloh (OCAD): Involvement and Animal Desire
Adriano Lotito (Sussex): The cage of social labour and the (Im)possibilities of emancipation
3.50-4.10 Break
4.10-5.50
Chair: Iain MacDonald (Montréal)
Lydia Goehr (Columbia): ‘Mitigating expressions and euphemistic circumlocutions’: Adorno on work, analysis, and critique
Antonia Hofstätter (Warwick): ‘Closer to the Truth? Adorno’s Kinderbilder‘.
Drinks and Conference Meal tbc
Saturday 6 May -Leonardo Hotel, Brighton Waterfront
8.45 Coffee and Tea Reception, Leonardo Hotel, Brighton Waterfront
9.20-11.00
Chair: Marina Lademacher (Sussex)
Lars Rensmann (Passau): How Nature Matters: Environmentalism after Arendt and Adorno
Toby Lovat (Brighton): Immanent Critique and a Rational Life
11.00-11.30 Coffee and Tea
11.30-1.10
Chair: Jessica Daboin (Paris-1 Sorbonne)
Salima Naït Ahmed (Sorbonne): Adorno and Sartre on Anti-Semitism: A Comparison of Frankfurt School and Existentialist Approaches to Racialization
Estelle Ferrarese (Amiens): Re-actualizing Adorno’s theory of exchange. A critique of ethical consumption
1.10-2.10 Lunch and Business Meeting Surti Singh (President) and Pierre-Francois Noppen (Vice-President)
2.10-4.30
Panel discussion on Iain Macdonald’s What would be different? Figures of Possibility in Adorno”
Taylor Carman (Barnard – Columbia)
Peter E Gordon (Harvard)
Nick Walker (Cambridge)
Iain Macdonald (Montréal)
4.30 Closing Remarks
AAS 2023 Meeting @ U. Sussex May 5-6
25 Saturday Mar 2023
The 9th Annual conference of the Association for Adorno Studies:
May 5th – 6th 2023 in Brighton, UK.
Host: Centre for Social and Political Thought, at the University of Sussex.
Funding: the Mind Association, The Aristotelian Society of GB, and the School of Media Arts and Humanities at the University of Sussex.
We have an event brite invitation for the first 50 places.
Venues:
Friday 5th of May, Leonardo Hotel Brighton. 101 Stroudley Road, Brighton, BN1 4DJ, GB Telephone: +44(0) 1273 862 121.
Email: brightonconference@leonardohotels.com
This hotel is right by Brighton Railway Station.
Saturday 6th of May, Leonardo Hotel, Brighton Waterfront. Kings Road
Brighton, BN1 2GS, GB Telephone: +44(0) 1273 206 700.
Email: brightonwaterfrontconference@leonardohotels.com
This hotel is on the Seafront.
Though Brighton has a lot of other hotels, the conference takes place during the Brighton Festival so rooms will be at a premium and will book up early. Here are some other good hotels we recommend.
Artist Residence Hotel (Regency Square – Central Brighton)
Hotel du Vin (Close to Brighton Sea front)
Harbour Hotel (Brighton Seafront. There is no harbour)
Drakes Hotel (boutique Hotel – Kemp Town)
Blanch House (boutique Hotel – Kemp Town)
PROGRAMME
Thursday May 4th 7.30 p.m. Wine Reception and Book Launch Leonardo Hotel Waterfront, Brighton
Friday 5th May – Leonardo Hotel, Brighton Station
8.45 coffee and tea
Meeting Room
9.20-11.00
Lydia Goehr, Adorno on work, analysis, and critique
Antonia Hoffstätter, Adorno and Gerhard Richter’s Birkenau paintings.
11.00-11.30 coffee and tea
11.30-1.10
Andrew Bowie Adorno on Music
Fumi Okiji. Adorno on Music
1.10-2.30 – lunch – Business Meeting
2.30-4.10
Emily Shyr: “Revealing a Schubertian Constellation: Re-reading Adorno’s ‘Schubert’ through Benjamin”
Roman Thomassen: “Black Metal as Aestheticizing of the Present”
410-4.30
4.30-6.10
Bruno Carvalho. Adorno on Suffering
Adriano Lotito: Adorno on Work
Drinks and Conference Meal tbc
8.45 Coffee reception, Leonardo Hotel, Brighton Waterfront
9.20-11.00
Lars Rensmann “How Nature Matters: Environmentalism after Arendt and Adorno”
Kathy Kiloh “Involvement and Animal Desire”
11.00-11.30 Coffee and Tea
11..30-1.10
Salima Nait Ahmed: “Adorno and Sartre on Anti-Semitism: A Comparison of Frankfurt School and Existentialist Approaches to Racialization”
Estelle Ferrarese TBC
1.10-2.30. Lunch
2.30-4.30
Panel discussion on Iain Macdonald’s What would be different? Figures of Possibility in Adorno”
Taylor Carmen
Peter E Gordon
Nick Walker
Iain Macdonald
Symposium on Adorno’s “Sexual Taboos and Law Today”– Sixty Years On, Feb. 25
13 Monday Feb 2023
Posted in Conference, Critical Theory, Frankfurt School, Theodor W. Adorno
Antonia Hofstätter has written to us to let us know about an upcoming symposium on ‘Adorno’s “Sexual Taboos and Law Today”– Sixty Years On’, which will be held at the University of Warwick and on Zoom on February 25.
Symposium on Adorno’s ‘Sexual Taboos and Law Today’ – Sixty Years On
Saturday, 25 February 2023, University of Warwick, UK
The event will also be streamed online. Registration required.
Webpage: https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/philosophy/news/conference/adorno/
‘It’s a nice bit of sexual utopia not to be yourself. […] What is merely identical with itself is without happiness.’
Programme:
10.00–10.30 Registration and coffee
10.30–10.45 Introduction by the organisers (Antonia Hofstätter & Simon Gansinger)
10.45–12.15 Panel 1: Sex and Taboo
- Christine Kirchhoff (International Psychoanalytic University, Berlin): Sexual Taboos and Law Today? Reflections from the Perspective of Psychoanalysis
- Julia König (University of Mainz): Reflections on the ‘Minors-Complex’ in Adorno’s ‘Sexual Taboos and Law Today’ and in Current Moral Panics
12.15–13.30 Lunch
13.30–15.00 Panel 2: Sex and Society
- Marcel Stoetzler (Bangor University): Law, Lust, and Otherness in the Society of Total Domination: On Adorno’s Essay ‘Sexual Taboos and Law Today’
- Craig Reeves (Birkbeck): Persecution, Punishment, and the Potential for Freedom: Reactualising Adorno’s Critical Moral Psychology
15.00–15.15 Coffee
15.15–16.45 Panel 3: Sex and Crime
- Iris Dankemeyer (University of Art and Design, Halle): Presumption of Innocence: On the Topicality of Adorno’s Lines of Enquiry in ‘Sexual Taboos and Law Today’
- Nicola Lacey (LSE): A Feminist Criminal Lawyer’s Retrospective on Adorno’s Text
16.45–17.00 Coffee
17.00–18.00 Roundtable with all speakers
19.00–22.00 Dinner
Description:
First published in 1963, Theodor W. Adorno’s essay ‘Sexual Taboos and Law Today’ responded to changing attitudes to love and desire during a period of sexual liberation. Critiquing repressive bourgeois morality and progressive sexual values alike, ‘Sexual Taboos and Law Today’ suggests that the utopian potential of intimacy is inseparable from the challenges sexuality poses to self and society. The essay’s most famous line – ‘It is a nice bit of sexual utopia not to be yourself’ – already locates the promise of sexuality in the momentary dissolution of identity. It meets with Adorno’s claim that without its anarchical and transgressive aspects sexuality becomes neutralised and inert. Yet, these aspects evoke society’s contempt: ‘What is specifically sexual is eo ipso forbidden,’ Adorno writes.
‘Sexual Taboos and Law Today’ sheds light on the dynamics of desire and disdain, freedom and punishment, losing oneself and finding oneself that characterise the ‘brittle integration’ of sexuality into modern society. Ultimately, these dynamics destabilise the sphere of law and morality, and problematise modern conceptions of subjectivity and identity.
Today, in times of #MeToo, identity politics, and heightened public concern for gender equality and transgender rights, ‘Sexual Taboos and Law Today’ invites renewed scrutiny. This one-day symposium explores the tensions that Adorno’s text brings to the fore in the sphere of legal theory, social critique, psychoanalysis, and philosophy. Making these tensions fruitful for the present moment is the overarching aim of this event.
This event has been organised with the generous support of the Department of Philosophy and the Humanities Research Centre at the University of Warwick, the Aristotelian Society, the Society for Applied Philosophy, and the British Society for the History of Philosophy.
Details:
Please follow this link to register for the event (attendance in person or via Zoom):
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/485669930837
Please note that participants intending to attend the event in person will be required to leave a £5 deposit when registering. £4.09 of your deposit will be returned to you when you attend the event in person (an administrative fee of £0.91 will be kept by Eventbrite).
Lunch, coffee, and snacks will be provided. Please indicate on the registration form whether you would like to attend the conference dinner at your own expense.
If you have any questions about the event, please contact the organisers at antonia.hofstatter@warwick.ac.uk or simon.gansinger@warwick.ac.uk.
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/485669930837
Please note that participants intending to attend the event in person will be required to leave a £5 deposit when registering. £4.09 of your deposit will be returned to you when you attend the event in person (an administrative fee of £0.91 will be kept by Eventbrite).
Lunch, coffee, and snacks will be provided. Please indicate on the registration form whether you would like to attend the conference dinner at your own expense.
If you have any questions about the event, please contact the organisers at antonia.hofstatter@warwick.ac.uk or simon.gansinger@warwick.ac.uk.