The Centre for Philosophy and Critical Thought, Goldsmiths University of London

Research Centre run jointly between the Departments of Sociology and English and Comparative Literature at Goldsmiths University, London

Category Archives: Events


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Werner Hamacher: “Now: Time” (Walter Benjamin London Research Network)

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One of the world’s seminal readers of Walter Benjamin inaugurates new philosophy research network with a talk on Benjamin’s idea of historical time.

22 Oct 2015
5:00pm – 7:00pm
137a, Richard Hoggart Building

Werner Hamacher is a professor emeritus of comparative literature at the Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main, and a professor of Philosophy and Literary Theory at the European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland. (Frankfurt am Main) http://www.egs.edu/faculty/werner-hamacher/biography/

The Centre for Philosophy and Critical Thought (CPCT) at Goldsmiths, University of London collaborates with the Department of English and Comparative Literature at Goldsmiths, the London Graduate School at Kingston University, and Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London, in a network of research and scholarly exchange related to the work of Walter Benjamin. The network brings together scholars and research students in the London area, and facilitates the exchange of advanced, philosophical and literary-theoretical research on Benjamin between the UK, other parts of Europe, and around the world. The network is co-chaired by Julia Ng (co-director of CPCT), Josh Cohen (English and Comparative Literature), and Andrew Benjamin (LGS Kingston / Monash).

The network hosts an annual lecture series; and text-based workshops that intersperse short formal presentations and close textual analysis of one or several key writings by Benjamin along a chosen theme.

The Centre for Philosophy and Critical Thought (CPCT) is a new centre for philosophical inquiry at Goldsmiths. For further information please visit http://www.gold.ac.uk/sociology/research-centres/cpct/

To sign up for announcements of upcoming events, please subscribe to our mailing list at:http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cpct-announce

www.gold.ac.uk/…/walter-benjamin/


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Dictionary of Untranslatables: A Philosophical Lexicon

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A discussion and launch of Dictionary of Untranslatables: A Philosophical Lexicon, edited by Barbara Cassin (Princeton University Press, 2014)

26 Jun 2015
5:00pm – 8:00pm
137a, Richard Hoggart Building

Barbara Cassin
Étienne Balibar (Kingston)
Lucie Campos (Institut Français)
Jacques Lezra (NYU, co-editor of the English translation)

The Dictionary of Untranslatables is an encyclopedic dictionary of close to 400 important philosophical, literary, and political terms and concepts that defy easy—or any—translation from one language and culture to another. Drawn from more than a dozen languages, terms such as Dasein (German), pravda (Russian), saudade (Portuguese), and stato (Italian) are thoroughly examined in all their cross-linguistic and cross-cultural complexities. Spanning the classical, medieval, early modern, modern, and contemporary periods, these are terms that influence thinking across the humanities. The entries, written by more than 150 distinguished scholars, describe the origins and meanings of each term, the history and context of its usage, its translations into other languages, and its use in notable texts. The dictionary also includes essays on the special characteristics of particular languages–English, French, German, Greek, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish.

Originally published in French, this one-of-a-kind reference work is now available in English for the first time, with new contributions from Judith Butler, Daniel Heller-Roazen, Ben Kafka, Kevin McLaughlin, Kenneth Reinhard, Stella Sandford, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Jane Tylus, Anthony Vidler, Susan Wolfson, Robert J. C. Young, and many more.The result is an invaluable reference for students, scholars, and general readers interested in the multilingual lives of some of our most influential words and ideas.

Organised by Filippo Del Lucchese (Brunel) & Alberto Toscano (Co-Director, CPCT)


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Powers and Limits of Property

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A day workshop on philosophy, legal theory and the question of property

11 Jun 2015
10:00am – 6:45pm
142 and 308, Richard Hoggart Building

Contemporary philosophy has undertaken sustained interrogations of its relationship to law and, to a lesser extent, capital. This has been less true of its questioning of its relationship to the crucial nexus of law and capital: property. Inversely, while critical legal theory has appropriated a welter of concepts and methods from contemporary philosophy, it has often avoided a sustained critical appraisal of the images of law within philosophy itself, and of the place of property within these.

Responding to a resurgent critical interest in the question of property, and especially to contemporary inquiries into the logics of dispossession that subtend capitalism, this workshop will stage a trans-disciplinary dialogue on the legal and philosophical powers – as well the limits and impasses – of property.

Speakers: Étienne Balibar (Kingston), José Bellido (Kent), Brenna Bhandar (SOAS), Robert Nichols (Humboldt), Alain Pottage (LSE), Stella Sandford (Kingston), Bev Skeggs (Goldsmiths), Alberto Toscano (Goldsmiths), Eyal Weizman (Goldsmiths), Mikhaïl Xifaras (Sciences Po), Hyo Yoon Kang (Kent)

Organised by Brenna Bhandar (Senior Lecturer in the School of Law, SOAS) and Alberto Toscano (Co-Director, Centre for Philosophy and Critical Thought, Goldsmiths)

Étienne Balibar (Kingston)
José Bellido (Kent)
Brenna Bhandar (SOAS)
Robert Nichols (Humboldt)
Alain Pottage (LSE)
Stella Sandford (Kingston)
Bev Skeggs (Goldsmiths)
Alberto Toscano (Goldsmiths)
Eyal Weizman (Goldsmiths)
Mikhaïl Xifaras (Sciences Po)
Hyo Yoon Kang (Kent)

Organised by Brenna Bhandar & Alberto Toscano (Co-Director, CPCT).