Centre for the Humanities, Utrecht University, and Other Sponsors
Convened by Frans-Willem Korten and Bram Leven
Utrecht & Rotterdam, June 17-19, 2010
Deadline: January 15, 2010

Over the last decades, several political and cultural theorists have argued that the domain of politics, and even the very idea of the political, has been hollowed out. Politics today appears to have lost its proper status or has been submerged in the more powerful and encompassing infrastructures of late capitalism. Instead of frantically affirming or denying
the emptying-out of the political, this conference traces the appropriation of the political by apparatuses of state, church, capitalism and media in modernity to look for ways to reinvigorate it. To do so, the conference focuses on a key concept: the political moment – the moment in which political agency becomes possible, as well as the formative role of the
moment in politics. Confirmed speakers include: Mieke Bal, Bruno Bosteels, Rosi Braidotti, Simon Critchley, Martin van Gelderen, Olivier Marchart, Patchen Markell, Benjamin Noys, and Alberto Toscano.

Contributions in the form of a 4,000-word positioning paper distributed in advance and to be discussed in a seminar setting could address (but are not limited to) the following issues: what is a political moment? What does the emptying-out of the political imply? How has the appropriation of the political by state, religion or media shaped the conditions of possibility of the political? What is the role of the moment in politics?

A 300-word proposal and short CV listing your current research are due on January 15 2010. For complete information on this call, please direct questions to Frans-Willem Korsten, Professor of Literature and Society, Erasmus University Rotterdam, at korsten@fhk.eur.nl; and/or to Bram Ieven, lecturer in comparative literature at Utrecht University, at b.k.ieven@uu.nl. Click here to browse all opportunities at CHCI member organizations.