Note: If you plan to attend the symposium, please RSVP by filling out this Google form.
With the generous support of the Humanities Center, the Humanities Core Course Program is thrilled to be hosting a one-day symposium on the interrelation of Anarchy, Plasticity, and Worldbuilding, hosted on May 12th from 12PM-6PM (reception to follow), in HG 1030.
Given ongoing political turmoil across the globe, anarchism has reemerged in popular thought for how one might “detach from patriarchal masculinity, norms of family, gender, sexuality, racialisation, individual responsibility and the destruction of our planet, and replace them with ideas of sustainable living, with ties of mutual aid, and the horizon of collective liberation" (Branson, 2022). Such “detachment” and “replacement” finds interesting resonances with Catherine Malabou’s notion of “plasticity" - akin to an anarchist approach, plasticity provides a way to conceptualize movement and bending in response to cracks in hegemonic orders that open up different ways of encountering being, including sociality and politics itself. Together, then, anarchy and plasticity provide theoretical, conceptual, and potentially even practical tools for approaching worldbuilding.
Our symposium will bring together thinkers and scholars from across the school to consider how worldbuilding benefits from and is challenged by thinking of anarchism and plasticity together, building on conversations about worldbuilding that have been in motion this academic year through both the Humanities Core Program and the Humanities Center. Please refer to the schedule below for the full list of topics to be discussed by our brilliant participants.
Noon: Opening remarks – Jonathan Alexander (UC, Irvine)
12:30-2:00 – "Plasticity, or the Anarchy of Art." Amanda Boetzkes (University of Guelph), introduced by and in conversation with James Nisbet (UC Irvine)
2:00 - 3:15 – “Anarchism and the Thief of Time.” Scott Branson (Oberlin College), introduced by and in conversation with Jonathan Alexander (UC Irvine) and Catherine Malabou (Kingston University, European Graduate School, UC Irvine)
3:15 - 3:30 – coffee break
3:30-4:30 – “Malabou's Au Voleur! Anarchisme et philosophie: A Conversation,” including a reading and discussion of a new translation from the work of Catherine Malabou by Susan Jarratt (UC Irvine) and George Lang (University of Ottawa)
4:30 - 6:00 – “Anarchy and Plasticity.” Catherine Malabou (Kingston University, European Graduate School, UC Irvine)
6:00 – reception
We would be delighted to have you in attendance, and kindly request that you RSVP by filling out this Google form.