Tag Archives: cultural studies

Events, Past Events

Common Ground: Democracy & Collectivity in an Age of Individualism

We live in an epoch of personal choice, hyper-mobility, celebrity-worship and fiercely competitive labour markets. But this is also the age of networked communication, of global culture, of Occupy and the new politics of ‘the Commons’.

What are the connections and tensions between such apparently diverse tendencies, and do they help democracy to develop, or render it impossible?

This public seminar, marking the launch of Jeremy Gilbert’s book Common Ground (Pluto Press),  will discuss the relationship between collectivity, individuality, affect and agency today, asking whether personal freedom is the great achievement of our era — or if individualism is actually forced on us by capitalist culture, fatally limiting our capacity to solve the problems that we can only solve together.What forms of politics, culture and philosophy might take us beyond the limits of traditional conservatism or banal individualism?

At: Brilliant Corners, 470 Kingsland Road, Dalston, London, E8 4AE

Speakers: Anthony Barnett, Lisa Blackman, Mark Fisher, Jeremy Gilbert
Continue reading Common Ground: Democracy & Collectivity in an Age of Individualism →

Past Events

Hauntology with Mark Fisher

Ghosts of My LifeCCSR welcomes Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative? author Mark Fisher to launch his new book Ghosts of My Life, in conversation with the London-based artist and writer Laura Oldfield Ford. Are we, as Fisher argues, haunted by futures that failed to happen?

“Ghosts Of My Life confirms that Mark Fisher is our most penetrating explorer of the connections between pop culture, politics, and personal life under the affective regime of digital capitalism. The most admirable qualities of Fisher’s work are its lucidity, reflecting the urgency of his commitment to communicating ideas; his high expectations of popular art’s power to challenge, enlighten, and heal; and his adamant refusal to settle for less.” Simon Reynolds, author of Retromania and Rip It Up and Start Again.

Venue: Room US.G.17, University of East London, University Square Stratford, 1 Salway Road, E15. 1NF

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Stuart Hall and Cultural Studies at UEL

Stuart Hall, the globally-respected and much-loved public intellectual and giant of cultural studies, who has just died, had a huge influence on the development of Sociology and Cultural Studies at the University of East London.

UEL (then still North East London Polytechnic) was the first university in the UK to establish an undergraduate degree in, and later a department of, Cultural Studies. The BA, launched in 1980, was developed by a group of UEL staff several of whom had had strong links with the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS) at the University of Birmingham, the unit directed by Stuart Hall. Continue reading Stuart Hall and Cultural Studies at UEL →

Past Events

Birmingham Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies 50 Years On

CCSR is pleased to publicise this event which will explore the legacy and influence of the CCCS 50 years after its inception.

To mark the launch of an archive of the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies at the University of Birmingham, this conference will reflect on the influence and legacies of the CCCS, both inside the academy and beyond. Following Richard Hoggart’s pioneering decision to embark on the research of popular culture, and the subsequent appointment of Stuart Hall, the Centre became one of the biggest influences on the development of cultural and media studies around the world. The aim of the conference is to bring together former members of staff with all those interested in its work and influence, both inside and outside universities. It will examine the global reach of the Centre, the teaching and research methods that were employed and the lessons the Centre can provide in the current political and cultural contexts.

Speakers

Confirmed speakers include Geoff Eley, Lawrence Grossberg, Stuart Hall, Richard Johnson, Jo Littler and Jackie Stacey. A full programme will be posted online in due course.

Contemporary Cultural Studies Conference flyer

Events, Past Events

Radical Space

radical space cover v3Our conference for 2013 will address the problematics of space both as concept and as lived social reality, with a particular emphasis on the tension between spaces of control in the context of contemporary neoliberalism, spaces of resistance and the apocalyptic spaces which emerge from war, forced migration and the failures of consumer capitalism.

What are the politics of space in contemporary contexts? How can we re-think space beyond the public/private divide? How do spatial arts re-configure space and the way in which it is experienced? What new configurations of space may emerge from burgeoning forms of community? How do the theatres of contemporary war force a re-assessment of spatial concepts? Is it still possible for the notion of virtual space to function in opposition to the striated space of contemporary cities?

We are pleased to announce that Deborah Dixon and Carl Lavery of Aberystwyth University,  Dimitris Papadopoulos (University of Leicester) and the independent artist Joanna Rajkowska have been confirmed as keynote speakers. The conference will also offer the chance to participate in movement workshops and performative explorations of space.

REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN

FULL PROGRAMME

RADICAL SPACE PAGE

Events, Past Events

CCSR Annual Lecture 2013: Tariq Ali

TA_Cafe Oto_ 8_11_10 (1)CONFLICTING  LEGACIES, HUGO CHAVEZ AND MARGARET THATCHER: Neo-liberalism and new wars versus social justice and peace

Tariq Ali is a writer and filmmaker. He has written over two dozen books on world politics and history. His novels, including the series known as the ‘Islam Quintet’, have been translated into many languages. He is a longstanding editor of the New Left Review and writes regularly for the London Review of Books and the Guardian

Continue reading CCSR Annual Lecture 2013: Tariq Ali →