Between 6 and 10 June the Early Modern and Eighteenth-Century Centre and Department of History are hosting an IAS Visiting Professorship: Professor Dena Goodman (University of Michigan)

• Lunchtime talk: ‘Peace Dividends: Collective Kangaroos for Science, Public, and Nation During the Peace of Amiens’ (post attached), discussant Michael Bycroft, 6 June, 12-2pm, FAB 2.43.

• Postgraduate and Early Career Discussion ‘Understanding the American Academic System’, Tuesday 6 June, 3-5pm, FAB 5.01.

• Conference, ‘Sociability in Politics, Food and Travel in the Early Modern Era’ (see attached poster), Keynotes from Rebecca Earle (Warwick) and Dena Goodman (Michigan), 8-10 June.

The Early Modern and Eighteenth-Century Centre at the University of Warwick, together with GIS Sociabilités/Sociability network in France, aims to explore the intersection of sociability with the themes of food, politics and travel in the early modern period (1550-1850).

Historical research on sociability has been developing for several decades. It has been enriched by theoretical frameworks for understanding networks and the rise of public spheres. Sociology and cultural anthropology have been especially helpful for conceptualising how, why and the conditions under which people interact in specific ways. Recent studies of emotions – individual and collective – have thrown light on various forms of sociability. Although there is a rich literature on the topic to draw from, the aim of this conference is to home in on how sociability was imbricated in other cultural phenomena. We are especially interested in exploring the relationship between sociability and political culture, food and drink studies, and trade, travel, and overseas exchange.

Conference programme here: https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/history/ecc/eventsnew/sociability_politics/.

To register, email EMECC@Warwick.ac.uk indicating the days you wish to attend.

For further details about these events please contact Naomi Pullin naomi.pullin@warwick.ac.uk and Charles Walton charles.walton@warwick.ac.uk

Writing about web page https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/hrc/confs/homecoming/

‘Symposium on Adorno’s “Sexual Taboos and Law Today” – Sixty Years On’, held at the University of Warwick and on Zoom on 25 February 2023

This symposium was dedicated to Theodor W. Adorno’s essay ‘Sexual Taboos and Law Today’ and its contemporary relevance. It brought together junior and senior scholars from the fields of legal studies, psychoanalysis, pedagogics, social theory, and philosophy to revisit Adorno's controversial essay in times of #MeToo, identity politics, and heightened public concern for gender equality and transgender right.

The event was divided into three thematic panels and a roundtable discussion. Each panel engaged with one key dimension of Adorno’s text and its relevance today. Panel 1, composed of Prof. Christine Kirchhoff (IPU Berlin) and Prof. Julia König (University of Mainz), approached the text in light of recent developments in psychoanalysis; Panel 2, composed of Dr Marcel Stötzler (Bangor University) and Craig Reeves (Birkbeck), read Adorno’s essay in light of current research in social theory and sociology; Panel 3, composed of Prof. Nicola Lacey (LSE) and Dr Iris Dankemeyer, reflected on Adorno’s essay in light of recent transformations in the legal sphere and legal theory. The roundtable discussion, in which all speakers, with the exception of Prof. Lacey, participated, enabled all scholars to engage in detail with each other’s arguments and to reflect on the value of Adorno’s contribution.

Throughout this symposium – and, particularly, during the concluding roundtable discussion – it became clear that, rather than being outdated, Adorno’s reflections are still thought-provoking and productive. This was particularly evident in the context of the current punitive turn in legal theory and praxis, recent discourses of queer and transgender identities, and, more generally, the acute and challenging task, faced by scholars of legal and social theory, philosophy and psychoanalysis alike, to theorise desire in contemporary society.

List of papers and speakers:

• Christine Kirchhoff (International Psychoanalytic University, Berlin): Sexual Taboos and Law Today? Reflections from the Perspective of Psychoanalysis
• Julia König (University of Mainz): Reflections on the ‘Minors-Complex’ in Adorno’s ‘Sexual Taboos and Law Today’ and in Current Moral Panics

• Marcel Stoetzler (Bangor University): Law, Lust, and Otherness in the Society of Total Domination: On Adorno’s Essay ‘Sexual Taboos and Law Today’
• Craig Reeves (Birkbeck): Persecution, Punishment, and the Potential for Freedom: Reactualising Adorno's Critical Moral Psychology

• Iris Dankemeyer (University of Art and Design, Halle): Presumption of Innocence: On the Topicality of Adorno's Lines of Inquiry in 'Sexual Taboos and Law Today'
• Nicola Lacey (LSE): A Feminist Criminal Lawyer’s Retrospective on Adorno’s Text

The symposium was a great success. All six invited speakers gave original papers that were met with lively discussions. The interdisciplinary character of the event was particularly productive, and we were excited to witness fruitful scholarly exchange across disciplinary boundaries. The roundtable session at the end provided a good opportunity for speakers and the audience to reflect on the symposium’s theme.  

The results of this conference will be published – together with some additional contributions on Adorno’s essay ‘Sexual Taboos and Law Today’ – in a special issue of the Journal of Adorno Studies, a key journal within the field of critical theory research. This special issue will be edited by the conference organisers, Simon Gansinger and Antonia Hofstätter.

The symposium was attended by 30 people in person and 25 people online (excluding the organisers). Of these 55, fewer than 20 were affiliated with the University of Warwick, where the conference was held. At least 5 members of the general public came to Coventry from other parts of the UK (Oxford, London). Several online participants joined the meeting from mainland Europe and the US. Roughly half of in-person participants were postgraduate students (we cannot give a reliable number for online participants). Half of the in-person participants joined the conference dinner, which testifies to the great interest among audience members. 

The generous support by the HRC has been acknowledged on our website: https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/philosophy/news/conference/adorno/

Culture and Global Responsibility:  

Rethinking Habitability in the Age of the Anthropocene  

12-14 May 2023

Registration for the interdisciplinary symposium Processing the Pandemic III: Hope is now open.

Both days of the event will be fully hybrid, taking place simultaneously at the University of Warwick and online.

This event is the final phase of Processing the Pandemic: a multi-year series of seminars and symposia that explore how the experiences of the past may guide society’s emotional and social responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. The series asks how we—as an open community of scholars, teachers, archivists, social workers, and practitioners—might learn from these experiences and from each other in transformative, inspiring, transdisciplinary ways. How can such dialogues reframe existing discussions around the history of emotions, our responses to trauma, and how we navigate from loss to hope? Moreover, how can the study of peoples’ responses to traumatic events in the past and present help guide our own experience of the pandemic and its unfolding future?

Following our first in-person symposium on LossLink opens in a new window at the Newberry Library in April 2022, and a series of virtual seminars—1: Lord Have Mercy - Popular Print and Communal Loss (Sperry & Totaro)Link opens in a new window; 2: Mexican Futures in a Post-Pandemic World (Hughes);Link opens in a new window 3:Scholarship as Hope (Otaño Gracia and HernandezLink opens in a new window)—we are now concluding our discussions around the theme of Hope as we attempt to trace new pathways to answer the question of how communities in both the past and present move from Loss to Hope, navigating the complex constellations of emotions that result from such crises.

The series is co-organised by Bryan Brazeau (Liberal Arts, Warwick), Christopher Fletcher (Center for Renaissance Studies, Newberry), and Rose Miron (Director of the D'Arcy McNickle Center for American Indian and Indigenous Studies, Newberry). This event is made possible due to generous support from the School for Cross-Faculty Studies, The Centre for the Study of the Renaissance, and The Humanities Research Centre at Warwick, along with support from the Center for Renaissance Studies and the D'Arcy McNickle Center for American Indian and Indigenous Studies at the Newberry Library (Chicago, USA).

The full programme is available below. Please click here to registerLink opens in a new window.

Online links and room information will be sent to participants several days before the conference. Should you have any questions, please contact Bryan Brazeau at B.Brazeau@warwick.ac.ukLink opens in a new window

PROGRAMME

Thursday, 13th April, 2023

12:15-12:30 p.m. — Welcoming Remarks

• Bryan Brazeau (The University of Warwick, UK)
• Christopher Fletcher (The Newberry Library, USA)
• Rose Miron (The Newberry Library, USA)

12:30-1:30 p.m. —

Keynote Lecture I: “Pandemics and Apocalypse in World Literature”

• William Franke (Vanderbilt, USA)

1:45-3:30 p.m. — Pedagogies of Hope

• “The Future is Green: Processing Hard Emotions to find Hope”

• Bruno Grazioli (Dickinson College, Italy)

• “Remembering Covid in Teams? Troubling care and affective unravelling”

• Cathy Wade and Lisa Metherell (Birmingham City University, UK)

• “Resilient Stillness – a Performative-Based Workshop”

• Brittney S. Harris (Old Dominion, USA)

4-5 p.m. — Looking Back / Looking Forwards

• Roundtable Reflection with Participants from Previous Events and Workshops in the Series

• Dolores Bigfoot (University of Oklahoma, USA)
• Angelica Duran (Purdue, USA)
• Tara Bynum (U. of Iowa, USA)
• Jennifer Scheper Hughes (University of California, Riverside, USA)
• Cathy Caruth (Cornell University, USA)

5:30 p.m. — Reception sponsored by

Warwick Centre for the Study of the Renaissance 

Friday, 14th April, 2023

From Trauma to Hope in Past and Present

9:30–11:00 a.m. — Roundtable I: Legacies of Trauma, Legacies of Hope

• “Making Sense of Traumatic Times: Resiliency, Reason, and Hope in Women’s Trans -Historical Writings”

• Joanne Wright (University of New Brunswick, Canada)

• “On the Road to Bliss: The Triumph of Hope in Prints and Moral Philosophy as a Cure for Religious Conflicts in the Borderlands of the Hapsburg Empire (1526-1662)”

• Maria Vittoria Spissu (University of Bologna, Italy / The Newberry Library, Chicago)

• “Crusading Ghosts and Ambiguous Hopes in Times of Trauma”

• Thomas Herron (East Carolina University, USA)
• Anne-Hélène Miller (University of Tennessee, Knoxville, USA)

11:30 a.m.–12:15 p.m. — Creative Workshop

• “All Shall Be Well: Finding Modern and Medieval Hope Inside a Pandemic Bubble”

• Kathy Greenholdt (Songwriter, Chicago, USA)

New Pathways for Hope: Indigenous and Postcolonial Subjectivities

1:30-2:30 p.m. —

Keynote Lecture II: “Hope Through the Lens of Indigenous Futurity"

• Blaire Morseau (University of Massachusetts, Boston, USA)

2:30–3:45 p.m. —

Roundtable II: Native American and Indigenous Experiences:

Past, Present, and Future

• Moderator:

• Rose Miron (D’Arcy McNickle Centre for Native American and Indigenous Studies, Newberry Library, USA)

• Discussants:

• Alexandra Lamiña (University of Texas, Austin, USA)
• Alyssa Mt. Pleasant (After the Whirlwind (ATW) Research and Consulting, USA)
• Alika Bourgette (University of Washington, USA)

4-5 p.m. — Keynote Lecture III: "Hope Against Hope"

• Jesse McCarthy (Harvard University, USA)

5:00 – 5:30 p.m. — Conclusions and closing remarks