Social TheoryAn interdisciplinary workshop at the University of Chicago

The spring quarter schedule for the Social Theory Workshop is as follows:

Apr 2 Fabian Arzuaga, PhD Candidate, Political Science, “Norm and Critique of Individualism in the Neoliberal Era: Towards a Critical Theory of the Entrepreneurial-Self”

April 16, Stacie Hanneman, PhD Candidate, History, “Moving Beyond the ‘Unequal Treaties’: Theorizing Modern Interstate Relations”

Apr 30 Zeb Dingley, PhD Candidate, Anthropology, “‘Joking is War’: Ambivalence and Ambiguity in Segeju-Digo Kinship.”

May 21 Istvan Adorjan, PhD Candidate, Sociology, TBD

May 28 Lisa Simeone, PhD Candidate, Anthropology, “The Making of an International ‘Otherclass’: Lessons from the History of Capitalism”

All sessions, with the exception of May 28, take place at 8pm in Wilder House (5811 S. Kenwood)

The Social Theory Workshop will reconvene Monday, January 9. The winter quarter schedule is as follows:

January 9 — Reha Kadakal, Society of Fellows, The University of Chicago

January 23 – Mark Loeffler, Society of Fellows, The University of Chicago

“Finance and its Fetish Forms”

February 6
 — Robert Hullot-Kentor, Chair of Critical Theory and the Arts and Professor of Visual and Critical Studies, School of Visual Arts (NY), author Things Beyond Resemblance: Collected Essays on Theodor W. Adorno

“Severe Clear: Sacrifice and Right Wishing”: In the context of the tenth anniversary of 9/11, in the midst of a sudden deepening of the economic crisis partly or entirely overshadowing the occasion, we hear raised from every corner primordial demands for the necessity of sacrifice and self-inflicted wounds as the only adequate response to the gravity of the situation. The intensification of the economic calamity itself has by any measure been intentional, while nationwide the only audible voices seem to be those calling for austerity and for every budget to be ‘cut.’ The moment thus urgently prompts the question of whether the seminal insight that has lapsed­-the insight from which the whole of radical modernism developed­-can be recovered: the insight into the primitive in ourselves and in the world around us. `Severe Clear,’ the weather alert issued to pilots on September 11th, 2001, is an excursus on this question that examines in detail the sacral edifice now being constructed in lower Manhattan.

February 20 — Robert Stern, PhD Candidate, History

March 5 – Aaron Hill, PhD Candidate, History

“An Argument for the Centrality of Historical Consciousness in Revolutionary Ideology: France and Germany, 1880 – 1930″

All meetings will take place at 8pm in Wilder House (5811 S. Kenwood Ave.). Papers will be distributed via the Social Theory listserv one week prior to meeting.

All are welcome.

Persons with a disability who believe they may need assistance, please contact Stacie Hanneman, sakent@uchicago.edu

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The Social Theory Workshop explores issues in social theory across a variety of disciplines in the social sciences and humanities. The emphasis is less on developing social theory than on exploring in a sustained fashion the social theoretical implications of the participants’ work. Themes to be addressed are likely to include the relationship between social and cultural transformations; questions of the public sphere, civil society, and democracy; and conceptual issues posed by globalization.