News and Events
Cultures of the Left: Global Pandemic and Gender
We have gathered a stellar group of scholars to discuss issues of gender and pandemic including:
Elin Diamond (Rutgers University, NJ)
Lisa Fitzpatrick (Ulster University)
Olivera Jokic (CUNY, NY)
Anuradha Kapur ( Ambedkar University, New Delhi)
Nivedita Menon (JNU, New Delhi)
Shirin Rai (Warwick University)
Urmimala Sarkar (JNU, New Delhi)
The session was hosted by Bishnupriya Dutt (JNU, New Delhi)
For this session we have read:
1) The Coming Insurrection, a text produced by The Invisible Committee, a group of French radicals arrested for planning an attack on rail lines but also for having written The Coming Insurrection in 2007 (translated into English, published by Semiotext(e) in 2009).
https://radicalimagination.institute/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/dienst-2012-1.pdf
2) (http://www.cps.iitb.ac.in/surviving-a-shadow-pandemic-domestic-abuse-in-the-time-of-covid-19/)
3) The Fawcett Society (www.fawcettsociety.org.uk) has been gathering information and responding to the impact of Covid-19 on women in Britain, and have some online conversations with experts in different fields. This is the discussion of women, work and welfare: https://www.fawcettsociety.org.uk/Event/struggling-to-survive-women-work-and-welfare
4) An essay by Olga Tokarczuk, on the pandemic https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/a-new-world-through-my-window
5) Women's research plummets during lockdown - but articles from men increase (https://www.theguardian.com/education/2020/may/12/womens-research-plummets-during-lockdown-but-articles-fr).
6) The Coming Insurrection, a text produced by The Invisible Committee, a group of French radicals arrested for planning an attack on rail lines but also for having written The Coming Insurrection in 2007 (translated into English, published by Semiotext(e) in 2009).
https://radicalimagination.institute/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/dienst-2012-1.pdf
For this session we have watched:
1) A short film by Nandita Das made few days back on this issue. (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=scwYray2Dsk&feature=youtu.be)
2) A wonderful performance directed by our own Anuradha Kapur Dark Things (dir: Anuradha Kapur and Deepan Sivaraman, music :Sumangala Damodaran, text : ( https://youtu.be/ipDzm8f3LM4)
3) SSER Lecture idea lecture series ; Gendered Global Macro-economics of Covid 19 by Jayati Ghosh (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdWA0CcM5AA)/ 14 May 2020
Cultures of the Left in the Time of the Pandemic - 1st May 2020
This is the first in our series of conversations under the working title "Cultures of the Left in the time of the Pandemic". This first session held on May 1st, The International Workers' Day included our JNU partners Bishnupriya Dutt and Ameet Parameswaram joining us from New Delhi, Emine Fisek from Bogazici University in Istanbul, Olivera Jokic form CUNY, New York, Igor Stiks from the Faculty of Media and Communication in Belgrade, and Milija Gluhovic and Silvija Jestrovic of SCAPVC tuning in from Birmingham and Leamington Spa, respectively. The following three articles were our point of departure:
Judith Butler
https://contactos.tome.press/human-traces-on-the-surfaces-of-the-world/
Slavoj Zizek
ttps://www.welt.de/kultur/literarischewelt/article206829259/Slavoj-Zizek-on-Corona-Barbarism-with-a-Human-Face.html
Arundhati Roy
https://www.ft.com/content/10d8f5e8-74eb-11ea-95fe-fcd274e920ca
'Performing Worksites of the Left' - our Studies in Theatre and Performance Journal special issue is now out!
Edited by Silvija Jestrovic and Ameet Parameswaram, this special issue explores how theatre and performance offer ways of seeing and experiencing the Leftist thought-in-action: as it unfolds within specific time/space frameworks, through distinct rhythms and on different scales, as accumulated critical legacy of the past, and how it exposes new forms of inequalities in the present. 'Performing Worksites of the Left' covers a range of case studies from UK, India, Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, and Germany, featuring contributions from: Milija Gluhovic, Bishupriya Dutt, Silvija Jestrovic, Ameet Parameswaram, Janelle Reinelt, and Igor Stiks, as well as the original cover artwork by Dragan Todorovic.
Our special issue is available in print and on-line:
https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rstp20/current