Professor Samir Gandesha will be speaking at the University of Victoria on Tuesday, September 11th, on "The Rise of Authoritarian Populism: Is Left Populism the Answer?" at 5:00-6:30 pm in the David Strong Building Room C122.  His article in Constellations (2018) “Identifying With the Aggressor: From the Authoritarian to Neo-Liberal Personality” will be translated into Turkish and published in the journal 
“Cogito.”

Dr. Gandesha has another Op-Ed in the Vancouver Sun, this time on the racial dynamics of sport, specifically the World Cup: 

“Black players endured brutal fouls from other players on the pitch, as well as verbal and other forms of abuse from the fans in the stands, and made names for themselves playing for the national team and, perhaps more importantly, opening doors for generations of players that followed in their footsteps. What if these players, in keeping with “victim culture,” had said to themselves: “I don’t see anyone out on the pitch like me, it’s not a ‘safe space,’ so I won’t play?” If these rebels hadn’t somehow found the courage to strike out in bold, new and, frankly, dangerous directions, the football world and, more importantly, anti-racist struggles around the globe would be all the poorer for it.”

In May, Professor Gandesha kicked off his sabbatical by delivering eight talks related to his work on the “Neo-liberal Personality,” at institutions such as the New School for Social Research in New York, the American University in Cairo, the International Sandor Ferenczi Conference in Florence, the Rome Critical Theory Conference, the London Institute of Psychoanalysis and the Portuguese Psychoanalytical Institute. He and Professor Johan Hartle also launched their book Aesthetic Marx at the University of Bologna and Professor Gandesha also participated on a panel discussion of the most recent art work by New York- and Mexico City-based Camel Collective, “Something Other Than What You are,” at Black Ball Projects in Brooklyn, New York. 

Prague Field School is going most historically!

Dr. Samir Gandesha in Open Democracy: Understanding Right and Left Populisms

Professor Emerita in the Humanities, Dr. Kathy Mezei, is enjoying a productive retirement with the publication of her third book, Living with Strangers: Bedsits and Boarding Houses in Modern English Life, Literature and Film. The book "examines the history and cultural representation of bed-sitting rooms and boarding houses in England from the early twentieth century to the present. Providing a historical overview, the authors explore how these alternative domestic spaces came to provide shelter for a diverse demographic of working women and men, retired army officers, gay people, students, bohemians, writers, artists, performers, migrants and asylum seekers, as well as shady figures and criminals."

Dr. Samir Gandesha in the Vancouver Sun on the extremism of first-past-the-post electoral systems.

We are delighted to announce that two of our M.A. Students, Alexis Wolfe and Stephanie Yu, have been awarded Tri-Agency Canada Graduate Scholarships. Ms. Wolfe, who comes to us from U.B.C,  is working on a thesis  entitled SYMBOLIC COLLISIONS: SHORT-CIRCUITS IN THE LIBIDINAL ECONOMY, and Ms. Yu, from the University of Alberta, is working on a thesis  entitled THE FETISHIZATION OF THE "AUTHENTIC" IN AN AGE OF ANXIETY. Both students have been active presenting their work at conferences in the UK, Italy and Toronto.