A belated update…but the Association has been hard at work on the journal. To recap, the inaugural meeting of the Association for Adorno Studies was held at the Johns Hopkins University on March 2nd and 3rd, 2012. The meeting was officially opened with remarks from the meeting’s organizers and association co-founders, Kathy Kiloh and Martin Shuster. The two-day event was well attended by members of the Johns Hopkins community and scholars from all over the world.
The papers given were of extremely high quality, as were the question and answer sessions, and ultimately the level of engagement of all participants was outstanding. Topics discussed ranged from detailed analysis and critique of Adorno’s philosophical concepts, categories, and methods to the application of Adorno’s political thought to contemporary events (especially the Occupy movement) to Adorno’s aesthetic and social theory and to detailed analyses of the relationship between Adorno’s work and the works of other philosophers within the European and Anglo-American traditions. All sessions were chaired by members of the Johns Hopkins Humanities Center. Finally, a round table discussion open to all was convened on the last day of the meeting. Discussion centered on the contemporary relevance of Adorno’s thought to both theoretical inquiry and pedagogy. A business meeting was also held on the second day, where the launch of the journal, Adorno Studies, was announced and discussed, with many of the participants confirming their commitment to sit on the advisory board. Plans for next year’s meeting and the continuation and possible expansion of the association’s activities were also discussed.
The weekend proved to be both immensely intellectually stimulating and exhausting for all participants. The organizers would like to extend special thanks to Hent de Vries, Marva Philip, the Humanities Center, the session chairs, the Johns Hopkins university, and all of the participants for their support, time, effort and enthusiasm. We can’t wait until the next one.
Some photos:
