Authoritarian Personality Conference
09 Sunday Feb 2020
Posted in Conference, Critical Theory, Frankfurt School, Theodor W. Adorno
Call for papers @ Dissonancia: Journal of Critical Theory
05 Saturday Oct 2019
Posted in Uncategorized
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
03 Thursday Oct 2019
Posted in Conference
Tags
Adorno, Annual Meeting, Association for Adorno Studies, Gordon Finlayson, Theodor W. Adorno, University of Sussex
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
03 Thursday Oct 2019
Tags
Annual Meeting, Association for Adorno Studies, Eduardo Socha, Fabian Freyenhagen, Henry Pickford, Iain Macdonald, João Pedro Cachopo, Luiz Repa, Pierre-François Noppen, Recap, Robert Kaufman, Rodrigo Duarte, Surti Singh, Timo Jütten, University of São Paulo, Virginia Ferreira da Costa, Vladimir Safatle
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
16 Monday Sep 2019
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
02 Monday Sep 2019
Posted in Publications, Theodor W. Adorno
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
02 Monday Sep 2019
Posted in Links of Interest, Publications, Theodor W. Adorno
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
30 Friday Aug 2019
Posted in Links of Interest, Publications, Theodor W. Adorno
Tags
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
14 Wednesday Aug 2019
Posted in Links of Interest, Publications, Theodor W. Adorno
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.
Continue readingNew Special Issues of Adorno Studies: “Adorno and the Anthropocene”
01 Thursday Aug 2019
Tags
Anthropocene, Art, Authenticity, Beauty, Critiqe, Ecocriticism, Nature, Reconciliation
We are pleased to announce the publication of a new special issue of Adorno Studies on “Adorno and the Anthropocene.” It is guest edited by Camilla Flodin (Uppsala University) and Sven Anders Johansson (Mid Sweden University).
You can access the full issue here: http://adornostudies.org/ojs/index.php/as/issue/view/3
And here is the table of contents:
| Introduction to Special Issue: Adorno and the Anthropocene Camilla Flodin, Sven Anders Johansson |
| Catastrophe and History: Adorno, the Anthropocene, and Beethoven’s Late Style Antonia Hofstätter |
| Reconciliation with Nature: Adorno on Reason, Nature, and Critique Alastair Morgan |
| The Concept of the Anthropocene and the Jargon of Authenticity Anders E. Johansson |
| The Anthropocene as a Negative Universal History Harriet Johnson |
| Why Art? The Anthropocene, Ecocriticism, and Adorno’s Concept of Natural Beauty Sven Anders Johansson |
| Art and the Possibility of a Liberated Nature Camilla Flodin |