CAPPE Critical Theory Reading Group

Venue: the Waste House and Microsoft Teams

Semester 1: Thursdays 12:00-1:30

This reading group hosted by CAPPE is aimed at staff and research students interested in contemporary politics, philosophy, ethics and critical theory. Each year we focus on different issues and theorists.

In semester 1 this year we focus on a cluster of theories concerning democracy and aesthetics in relation to democratic protest, time, and liberation. We will prepare for two workshops with visiting speakers, Jason Frank and Christoph Menke, whose work we will place in conversation with William E.B. Du Bois, Jacques Rancière, and Friedrich Nietzsche, amongst others. We will relate the readings on time to the project on time and populism convened by Andy Knott and the conference that will take place in Semester 2 – Unlivable Time, organised by Lorena Ramirez Hincapie. There will also be an academic skills workshop and a work in progress session.

In semester 2 we will intersperse workshops on academic skills with a return to the theme of time to explore its relation to capitalism and labour. We will complete the year with some readings on Populism with visiting Professor Daniel Mendonça, from the Federal University of Pelotas, Brazil. Any members of the Universities of Sussex and Brighton are welcome to attend, as are any visiting scholars. Each session will begin with an introductory overview of the arguments, followed by close scrutiny of passages in the texts under discussion.

For a full schedule, and to be added to the mailing list for text circulation, please contact Dr Clare Woodford c.woodford@brighton.ac.uk.