The last two decades have seen a variety of escalating crises globally. In this academic year we will look into the ways in which we are confronted with crises of many forms, the discourses and realities of crises, their origins and unifiers, from the refugee, climate, care, housing and mental-health crises.
Reading groups are on the third Thursday of the month, from 12.30-13.30PM. (EDIT: October and November sessions shifted to alternative dates)
Thanks to Boeun Hong and Vicky Gerrard who helped to build this list and coordinate this year’s group.
Readings ’20 – ‘21
October 22nd – TRUTH
Essential
Chapters
- Davies, W. Nervous States: How Feeling Took Over the World. Vintage. 2018. Chapters 1,2.
Publicly Available Essays
- The Age of Post-Truth Politics by William Davies NY Times Opinion OP-ED.
- Why Can’t we Agree on What’s True Anymore? Guardian Long-Read by William Davies https://www.theguardian.com/media/2019/sep/19/why-cant-we-agree-on-whats-true-anymore Also available on Guardian Podcast.
Further Reading and Listening
- Is there a crisis of Truth? https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/is-there-a-crisis-of-truth/
- Roitman. J., Political Concept. http://www.politicalconcepts.org/issue1/crisis/ (‘Crisis as truth’.)
- The Theory of Truce podcast. LRB and related LRB Collection “The Meaningless of Meaning” https://www.lrb.co.uk/podcasts-and-videos/podcasts/lrb-conversations/the-theory-truce
- De Sousa Santos, B. (2015). Epistemologies of the South: Justice against epistemicide. Routledge.
November 5th – CULTURE
Essential
Article
- Bouvier, G. (2020). Racist call-outs and cancel culture on Twitter: The limitations of the platform’s ability to define issues of social justice. Discourse, Context and Media, 38, 100431. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcm.2020.100431
Public Lecture
- Carlos Amorales. How to Wear a Mask? European Graduate School. https://egs.edu/lectures/
Further Reading and Listening
- Hlavajova, M., Lutticken, S., Eds. Deserting from the Culture Wars. Forthcoming. Available at: https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/deserting-culture-wars
- COVID-19, nationalism, and the politics of crisis: A scholarly exchange. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/nana.12644
- Coronavirus and Radical Right Conspiracy, Disinformation and Xenophobia https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/countering-radical-right/coronavirus-and-radical-right-conspiracy-disinformation-and-xenophobia/
- Mutating Racism, the Far Right Anti-Vaxxers and Conspiracy Theorists. https://bylinetimes.com/2020/09/01/mutating-racism-the-far-right-anti-vaxxers-and-conspiracy-theorists-unite/
December 17th – CARE
Essential
- The Care Collective. The Care Manifesto: The Politics of Interdependence. Verso. 2020.
Further Reading and Listening
- Sundus Abdul Hadi. Take Care of Yourself: The Art and Cultures of Care and Liberation. Forthcoming. Available at: https://www.commonnotions.org/buy/take-care-of-your-self
- Boltanski, L., & Chiapello, E. The New Spirit of Capitalism. 2006. Verso.
- De La Bellacasa, P., Matters of Care. University of Minnesota Press. 2017.
Essays
- Mattern, S. Maintenance and Care. https://placesjournal.org/article/maintenance-and-care/#0
Podcast
- Hello Neighbour. Rough Translation.
https://www.npr.org/2020/07/08/889047625/hello-neighbor
January 21st – ECOLOGICAL
Essential
Article and Chapters
- Matthewman, S. (2017). Mobile disasters: Catastrophes in the age of manufactured uncertainty. Transfers, 7(3), 6–22. https://doi.org/10.3167/TRANS.2017.070303
- Chomsky, N & Pollin, R., Climate, Crisis and the Global Green New Deal. Chps 1-4.
Further Reading & Listening
- Out of the woods collective. Hope against hope: writings on ecological crisis. Https://www.Commonnotions.Org/buy/hope-against-hope
- Malm, A. Corona, Climate, Chronic Emergency. 2020. Verso.
- Soper, K. Post-Growth Living – For an Alternative Hedonism. 2020. Verso.
February 18th – IDENTITY
Article
- Crenshaw, K., 1990. Mapping the margins: Intersectionality, identity politics, and violence against women of color. Stan. L. Rev., 43, p.1241. https://is.muni.cz/el/fss/jaro2016/SPR470/um/62039368/Crenshaw_1991.pdf
Further Reading & Listening
- Anderson, Benedict. Imagined Communities. Census, Map and Museum. Chp. 10.
- Eddo-Lodge, R. Why I’m no longer talking to white people about race. Bloomsbury. 2020.
Podcasts
- LRB The Absurdities of Race. Paul Gilroy. https://www.lrb.co.uk/podcasts-and-videos/podcasts/lrb-conversations/the-absurdities-of-race
- Start the Week. Brit Bennet on Race, Identity and Protest. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000kgnp
- Start the Week. Identity Politics. Oct. 2018
- So Long Black Pete. https://www.npr.org/2020/06/24/882816031/so-long-black-pete
- Brazil in Black and White. https://www.npr.org/2019/08/20/752866675/brazil-in-black-and-white-update
March 18th ’21 – IDEAS
- Radical Happiness. Moments of Collective Joy. Lynne Segal. pp 157-186.
Further Reading & Listening
- Cottam, H. Welfare 5.0. Why We Need a Solution Revolution and How to Make it Happen. Available at: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/public-purpose/publications/2020/sep/welfare-50-why-we-need-social-revolution-and-how-make-it-happen
- Cottam, H. Radical Help: How we Can Remake the Relationships Between Us and Revolutionise the Welfare State. Virago. 2018. https://www.hilarycottam.com/radical-help/
- Manzini, E. Politics of the Everyday. Bloomsbury. 2019.
April – Easter Break
May 20th – POLITICAL
- Butler, J. The Force of Non-Violence. Verso. 2020.
Public Lecture
- Judith Butler: on COVID-19, the politics of non-violence, necropolitics, and social inequality https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Bnj7H7M_Ek
Further Reading & Listening
- Escobar, A. Pluriversal Politics: The Real and the Possible. Duke University Press. 2020.
June 17th ’21 – SOLIDARITY IN CRISIS
- Spade, D. (2020). Solidarity not charity: Mutual aid for mobilization and survival. Social Text, 38(1), 131–151. https://doi.org/10.1215/01642472-7971139
Further Reading & Listening
- Imagining New Worlds. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRK5j7J7fkU
CLOSE
Design Dissonance 