[ARENA] ***Italian Thought Today: Biopolitics, Nihilism, Empire***

[ines moreira]

***Italian Thought Today: Biopolitics, Nihilism, Empire***

                   University of Kent, 5th - 6th April 2008


International conference financed by the British Academy, The Kent
Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, and the School of
European Culture and Languages.

Against the background of a recent and widespread resurgence of Italian
contemporary thought, and Italian leftist political theory in particular,
the aim of this conference is twofold. First, the conference intends to
explore the notions of biopolitics, Empire, and nihilism as elaborated in
the recent works of some of the most important Italian living
philosophers. Secondly, and more importantly, this conference aims to
assess the impact of these notions on academic fields as diverse as
political theory, economics, cognitive science, sociology, and literature.

Confirmed speakers: 
*  Professor Gianni Vattimo (Professor of Theoretical Philosophy, University of Turin, Italy): Nihilism as Emancipation
* Professor Roberto Esposito (Professor of Theoretical Philosophy, Istituto Scienze Umane, Naples, Italy): Totalitarianism or Biopolitics
* Dr Sergio Benvenuto (Psychoanalyst and Senior Researcher, Institute for Cognitive Sciences and Technologies, Italian Council for Scientific Research, Rome, Italy): The Drive Towards the Real: Philosophy in the Epoch of Bio-Technologies and Bio-Politics
* Professor Andrea Fumagalli (Associate Professor of Economics, University of Pavia, Italy): Bioeconomy and the Valorisation Process
* Professor Timothy Campbell (Associate Professor, Italian Studies, Cornell University, USA): From the Impolitical to the Impersonal: Roberto Esposito's Politics of Life
* Professor Timothy Murphy (Associate Professor, English, University of Oklahoma, USA): Pedagogy of the Moltitude: Negri on Stage
* Dr Jelica Sumic Riha (Senior Researcher, Institute of Philosophy, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia): Giorgio Agamben's Politics of the Remnant
* Dr Matteo Mandarini (Lecturer in Strategy, Queen Mary University, University of London): Not Fear But Hope in the Apocalyspse
* Dr Alberto Toscano (Lecturer in Sociology, Goldsmiths College, University of London): Abstract Life: The Biopolitical Logic of Capitalism and Empire
* Dr Margherita Pascucci (Marie Curie Fellow, English Department, Royal Holloway, University of London / New York University): The Real Richness: Politics and the Subject
* Ozren Pupovac (Researcher in Sociology, Open University / Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht, The Netherlands): Machiavelli, Negri, Althusser: Encounters and Detours
* Dr Shane Weller (Reader in Comparative Literature, University of Kent): The Art and Ethics of Distortion: Heidegger, Derrida, Vattimo
* Dr Lorenzo Chiesa (Lecturer in Critical Theory, University of Kent): Homo Sacer: A Franciscan Ontology

Conference Organiser: Dr Lorenzo Chiesa (L.Chiesa  kent.ac.uk)
For the conference registration form and the conference programme please
follow this link:

http://www.kent.ac.uk/secl/italian/news/index.html

--
InC
Research Group in Continental Philosophy
Graduate School
Goldsmiths, University of London
New Cross
London
SE14 6NW


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