Thinking the Political: The Work of Ernesto Laclau

November 2012- May 2013

Third CAPPE Research Seminar Series in Political Philosophy

This research seminar, hosted by CAPPE and the Faculty of Arts, is aimed at staff and PhD students interested in contemporary politics, philosophy and critical theory. Every year we focus on a different theorist or issue, engaging in a close critical reading of their work. In previous years we have looked at Badiou, at Adorno and recently at the financial crisis. This year our reading of Laclau’s work finishes with a major international conference; Ernesto Laclau: Thinking the Political, at which he will be the keynote speaker.

In Term 1 we engage in a critical introduction to Laclau’s project, and its development as a critique of Marxism in the 70s and 80s. This does not require that any prior knowledge of Laclau’s work. Those interested in introductory texts should purchase Howarth’s Discourse. Term 2 looks at the development of Laclau’s thought through the 90s and into the 21^st Century, with particular focus on his most recent book On Populist Reason.