Dear Friends of CPCT,

We’re pleased to announce the publication of “Singularity’s -Abilities,” a Special Dossier of the Modern Language Notes: Comparative Literature Issue 139.5 (December 2024), which has just been made openly accessible on Project Muse. The dossier collects reworked versions of most of the talks that were delivered at a conference at CPCT (online) and co-organized with Northwestern University in December 2020 in celebration of Samuel Weber’s 80th birthday and in honor of his distinguished career and far-reaching influence on several generations of critical theorists now spread around the globe. The dossier also includes a new piece by Sam entitled “Transference: A Cliché?”.

By way of summary, here is an excerpt from the “Introduction to the Dossier,” co-authored by the issue’s co-editors, James Martel and Julia Ng:

“Three and a half years ago, the new normal of video conferencing forced upon the world by the COVID-19 pandemic turned forth an unexpected silver lining: scholars separated by seemingly insurmountable physical distances were able to gather in celebration of Samuel Weber’s 80th birthday at an online event jointly organized by the Centre for Philosophy and Critical Thought at Goldsmiths, University of London and Northwestern University. Over the course of his long and prolific career, Weber has been a mentor and an inspiration to several generations of scholars, and it is a testament to his vast impact that those who spoke at the conference not only hail from all around the globe (inter alia Taipei, Berlin, London, Paris, Chicago, San Francisco, Santiago de Chile) but also work across so many different fields in the theoretical humanities and social sciences. From German, Romance Languages, East Asian studies and comparative literature to modern European and continental philosophy, from political theory and theology to psychoanalysis, from the history and philosophy of science and media studies to theories of the Global South–to name just the fields represented by the participants–, Weber’s work has been a tremendous resource and fuel for thought. In this dossier, we are publishing essays deriving from that conference, which took place in December 2020. Their authors speak to the importance of Weber’s many influential publications for their respective fields as well as to one another in reflecting on his personal influences on them as thinkers and writers.”

For anyone interested in hearing the talks from the December 2020 conference, you can find the recordings on our YouTube channel here.

We hope you enjoy reading this.

Sincerely,

CPCT, on behalf of James Martel and Julia Ng