9th Annual Meeting of the Association for Adorno Studies Details

Venue – University of Sussex, Falmer Campus
Date: May 1st/2nd, 2020
 
Friday 1st of May Gardner Tower Attenborough Centre
Saturday 2nd of May Arts A 108
 
Speakers
 Peter Dews (University of Essex)
 Estelle Ferrarese (Université de Picardie, Jules Verne)
 Kathy Kiloh (OCADU)
 Asaf Angerman (Kentucky University)
 Phillip Hogh (University of Oldenburg)
 Konstantinos Kavoulakos (University of Crete)
 Mahon O’Brian (University of Sussex)
 Nick Walker (University of Essex/Cambridge)
 Jacob Bard-Rosenberg (University of Cambridge)
 Iain Macdonald (University of Montreal)
 Lydia Goehr (Columbia University)
 Antonia Hofstätter (TYSKA-SU)
 Bruno Carvalho (São Paolo)
 Antoine Athanassiadis (UCD)
 Robert Ziegelmann (Humboldt)
 Jessica X. Daboin (Paris VIII)
 Sabrina Muchova (Charles University, Prague)
 Eric-John Russell (Kingston University)
 Robert Engelmann (Vanderbilt University)
 Hingley (Hertford College, Oxford)
 Robert Howlett (Sheffield University)
 Gabriel Toupin (University of Motreal)
 Aurelia Peyrical (Paris-Nanterre University)
 Lea Geckle  (Université de Picardie Jules Verne)
 
Confirmed Participants
 Fabian Freyenhagen (University of Essex)
 Prof. J G Finlayson (University of Sussex)
 Dr. Surti Singh (American University of Cairo)
 Dr. Pierre-François Noppen (University of Saskatchewan)
 Prof. Brian O’Connor (UCD)
 
General information:
 Traveling to Sussex University is easy. Here is some information on
 how to get here.
 https://www.sussex.ac.uk/about/directions
 
 Here is a Campus Map: 
 https://www.sussex.ac.uk/about/campus/map
 
Accommodation:
 
 Participants at the AAS conference are responsible for booking 
 their own accommodation. There are many hotels to choose from in
 Brighton though bear in mind that it is the Brighton Festival and 
 the May Bank Holiday, so best book early.

 I have arranged for their to be a Conference Discount Rate at 
 Jury's Inn. They have two hotels. One is by the station. This is
 convenient for travelling to and from the airport, and the Falmer 
 Campus. The other is on the Sea Front, which is a 6 minute taxi 
 ride, or 15 minute walk from the station. Rooms at the station 
 hotel are less expensive.
 
 If you select the hotel you want put in the group code <EVENT> 
 into the booking site, it will give you a 20% discount
 
 NB. May 1st is a bank holiday in England and the start of the  
 Brighton Festival. Consequently there is pressure on rooms so book  
 A.S.A.P.

 Jurys Inn, Brighton, 101 Stroudley Rd, Brighton BN1 4DJ
 Phone: 01273 862121
 https://www.jurysinns.com/hotels/brighton-city
 
 Jury's Inn Kings Rd, Brighton BN1 2GS
 Phone: 01273 206700
https://www.jurysinns.com/hotels/brighton-waterfront/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=local
 
There is very limited campus accommodation available 
to book at the Institute of Development Studies https://www.ids.ac.uk/ 
 

Call for papers @ Dissonancia: Journal of Critical Theory

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Mariana Fidelis wrote to let us know about a special issue of Dissonancia that she will be co-editing with Mariana Teixeira on Decolonial and Critical Theory. The call for papers can be found here (submission deadline Dec. 31, 2019). 

Some possible topics:

  • Convergences and divergences between critical theory and de-/postcolonial theories
  • Critical theory on the periphery(ies): reception, criticisms and dialogues
  • Critical theory in/from/about Brazil and Latin America
  • Post- and decolonial theories: tensions between the particular and the universal
  • Critical theory, race and intersectionality
  • Critical theory, history, progress and global justice
  • What does it mean to “decolonize” critical theory today?
  • What do post- and decolonial theories have to learn from critical theory?
  • What does critical theory have to learn from post- and decolonial theories?

Next Meeting @ University of Sussex, 1-2 May

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We are pleased to announce that the 9th annual meeting of the Association for Adorno Studies will be hosted by Gordon Finlayson and the University of Sussex. The meeting will be held May 1 and 2, 2020.

More details will be posted shortly.

Previous meetings were held at:

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 8th Annual Meeting

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On April 26th and 27th 2019, the Association for Adorno Studies convened its 8th annual meeting at the University of São Paulo’s beautiful campus. The meeting was officially opened with remarks by host Vladimir Safatle, Surti Singh, and Pierre-François Noppen. It was the Association’s first meeting in Latin America and a welcome exposure to Adorno studies in Brazil. The well-attended meeting featured a strong program with speakers from Brazil, Canada, Egypt, Portugal, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America. The papers included excellent engagements with Adorno’s philosophy and aesthetics, as well as timely inquiries into the relevance of Adorno’s thought for current social and political issues. 

Amid threats to academic freedom and invectives against cultural Marxism, our meeting coincided with Bolsonaro’s April 26th announcement on twitter that budgetary cuts would directly target philosophy and sociology. With the humanities facing an uncertain future, and colleagues and students in a dubious position, the meeting embodied a spirit of solidarity. Subsequently, a 30% cut to all university budgets was announced and the situation remains precarious today, with some universities uncertain about how they will conclude their current semesters. 

During our business meeting, held on the second day, we discussed the general aims of the Association, possibilities for publication in the Association’s journal, Adorno Studies, plans for next year’s meeting with several options in Europe, and the future possibility of returning to Latin America.

On behalf of the entire Association, we’d like to extend our heartfelt thanks to Vladimir Safatle and Eduardo Socha for being such generous hosts, navigating us through the fascinating city of São Paulo, and for all their work and organization into making this yet another successful and productive meeting. 

For more information about cuts to education in Brazil, Vladimir Safatle’s article is here: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/brazils-conservative-revolution/.

And here are some photos of the event:

Minima Moralia Today @ Brandeis

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Perhaps this symposium will be of interest to our readers. It is on September 20, 2019 at Brandeis University.

The year 2019 marks the 50th anniversary of the death of the renowned critical theorist Theodor Adorno. To mark his passing, this symposium will reflect on, engage with, and theorize about the lasting impact of his work. In particular, this symposium takes as its core text Minima Moralia: Reflections from Damaged Life, a philosophical touchstone for the latter half of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty first. The symposium will investigate the ways that Adorno’s reflections address the damages of contemporary life and/or conceptions of that damaged life.

New Book: What Would Be Different: Figures of Possibility in Adorno

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Iain Macdonald has published a new monograph on Adorno and the concept of possibility with Stanford University Press. Here is the publisher’s description:

Possibility is a concept central to both philosophy and social theory. But in what philosophical soil, if any, does the possibility of a better society grow? At the intersection of metaphysics and social theory, What Would Be Different looks to Theodor W. Adorno to reflect on the relationship between the possible and the actual. In repeated allusions to utopia, redemption, and reconciliation, Adorno appears to reference a future that would break decisively with the social injustices that have characterized history. To this end, and though he never explains it in any detail—let alone in the form of a full-blown theory or metaphysics—he also makes extensive technical use of the concept of possibility. Taking Adorno’s critical readings of other thinkers, especially Hegel and Heidegger, as his guiding thread, Iain Macdonald reflects on possibility as it relates to Adorno’s own writings and offers answers to the question of how we are to articulate such possibilities without lapsing into a vague and naïve utopianism.

New Book: Nachgelassene Schriften. Abteilung V: Vorträge und Gespräche – Band 1: Vorträge 1949-1968

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Michael Schwarz has edited this collection of twenty of Adorno’s public lectures from 1949-1968. Topics range from anti-semitism and the authoritarian personality to critiques of public policy and aesthetic concerns. One of the lectures included in this collection, “Aspekte des neuen Rechts-radikalismus” has also been published as a stand-alone text, accompanied by an epilogue by Volker Weiß. This lecture is of particular interest to us today, given that it is a talk delivered in 1967 in Vienna in response to the rise of the far-right National Democratic Party. Adorno’s discussion of the similarities and differences between this new turn to the right and older forms of fascism, and his analysis of the enduring popularity of extreme right-wing politics, may be instructive for those of us grappling with current global politics.

Exposing Capitalism’s Blind Domination

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Lambert Zuidervaart (Emeritus, ICS and University of Toronto) has published a new essay on the life and work of Adorno on the website of the Times Literary Supplement, and it may of interest to readers. It is titled “Theodor W. Adorno: Exposing Capitalism’s Blind Domination,” and appears online in the Footnotes to Plato series.

New book: Das Ärgernis der Philosophie: Metaphysik in Adornos Negativer Dialektik

Marc Nicolas Sommer (University of Basel) has written to us letting us know of a new book edited by him and Mario Schärli (University of Fribourg) titled Das Ärgernis der Philosophie: Metaphysik in Adornos Negative Dialektik (Mohr Siebeck, 2019). It may be of interest to our readers. The table of contents is attached below.

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