2022 Events

BOOK LAUNCH & PANEL DISCUSSION

Ian Angus’ recently published Groundwork of Phenomenological Marxism: Crisis, Body, World is a new exploration of the relationship between phenomenology and Marxism in a manner pertinent to contemporary issues at the beginning of the 21st century. It develops themes relevant to Indigeneity; Eurocentrism; ecology; technology, media theory and digital culture; the monopolization of the social representation of value by money; digital labour; the plurality of culture-civilizations; etc. Its philosophy is phenomenological, in the sense of a recovery of the concrete experiential origin of scientific thinking; ecological, in the sense that it would focus on the concrete relations between different parts that construct a whole; and Marxist, in the sense that it would focus on the dynamics of everyday practice and a social representation of value that does not rely on commodity price. 

The book will be discussed by Andrew Feenberg, Glen Coulthard, and Samir Gandesha, with a response by Ian Angus. The event will be followed by a reception.

PANELISTS

• Ian Angus is Professor Emeritus from the Department of Global Humanities at Simon Fraser University. He has published 10 books and edited or co-edited 5 in the areas of contemporary philosophy, Canadian Studies, and communication theory. A Festschrift on his work has been edited by Samir Gandesha and Peyman Vahabzadeh: Crossing Borders: Essays in Honour of Ian H. Angus, Beyond Phenomenology and Critique (Arbeiter Ring, 2020).
• Andrew Feenberg served as Canada Research Chair in Philosophy of Technology in the School of Communication, Simon Fraser University. He also served as Directeur de Programme at the Collège International de Philosophie in Paris. His books include Questioning Technology, Transforming Technology, Heidegger and Marcuse, Between Reason and Experience, The Philosophy of Praxis, and Technosystem: The Social Life of Reason. His forthcoming book is entitled The Ruthless Critique of Everything Existing: Nature and Revolution in Marcuse's Philosophy of Praxis. 
• Glen Coulthard is Yellowknives Dene and an associate professor in the First Nations and Indigenous Studies Program and the Departments of Political Science at the University of British Columbia. He is the author of Red Skin, White Masks: Rejecting the Colonial Politics of Recognition (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2014) and a co-founder of Dechinta Centre for Research and Learning, a decolonial, Indigenous land-based post-secondary program operating on his traditional territories in Denendeh(Northwest Territories).
• Samir Gandesha is a Professor in the Department of Global Humanities and the Director of the Institute for the Humanities at Simon Fraser University. He specializes in modern European thought and culture, with a particular emphasis on the relation between politics, aesthetics, and psychoanalysis; and is the editor of Spectres of Fascism: Historical, Theoretical and International Perspectives (Pluto, 2020), and co-editor (with Peyman Vahabzadeh) of Crossing Borders: Essays in Honour of Ian H. Angus, Beyond Phenomenology and Critique (Arbeiter Ring, 2020).

Jason is keenly focused on PLACEfulness, mutuality with other species, "eco-spiritual" activism, and the presence of a spiritual foundation in addressing the climate emergency in which we currently live. He will engage us in a conversation that includes the evolution of the "Holyscapes" project—an exploration of the inner and outer landscapes we inhabit, explore, and call home, spaces where we find the convergence of place, ecology, and spirituality.

SPEAKER

Jason Brown studied anthropology as an undergraduate, has a master's degree from Yale in their forestry and theology program, and a PhD from the University of British Columbia in what he likes to call the "Earthly Humanities." His webpage is "HOLYSCAPES: Landscapes of earth and soul." He currently teaches environmental humanities courses at Simon Fraser University and Western Washington Universities.

The conference considered what role democratic socialism has in addressing our current situation. Environmental crisis, climate emergency, pandemics, neofascism, unjust and destabilizing inequalities, and the escalating threat of nuclear war pose existential challenges to global civilization.

Can the practices and philosophy of democratic socialism offer a way forward? These topics were addressed by activists, academics, and parliamentarians in the form of discussion and debate.

Sponsored by the SFU Institute for the Humanities through the Joanne Brown Symposium on Violence and its Alternatives and co-sponsored by the Vancity Office of Community Engagement and SFU Labour Studies Program.

PANELS

1. "The Politics and Philosophy of Democratic Socialism" Speakers: Natalie Fenton, Roberta Lexier, Steve McBride, Mary Mellor
2. "Democratic Socialist Approaches to the Environment/Economy Relationship" Speakers: Bill Carroll/Shannon Daub, Marjorie Cohen, Jim Stanford, Bianca Mugyeni
3. "Facing New Realities in an Era of Crisis and Reckoning" Speakers: Anjali Appadurai, Glen Coulthard, Matthew Green, Avi Lewis
4. "Roundtable: Moving Forward" Speakers: Libby Davies, Ben Issitt, Dimitri Lascaris, Bob Williams, Ashely Zarbatany

In political terms, Marx was much more of a democrat than many of his followers have wanted to admit. His political allies in the 1840s were 'bourgeois liberals', and he was wholly on the side of struggles and revolutions to establish constitutional regimes. In terms of suffrage and economics, he was of course a 'left' democrat, but one who advocated working-class action against middle-class forces only with great reluctance, and only when they turned against egalitarian values. Many of his 'political' works have been devalued, compared with those that have taken pride of place as 'theory'. And some of his 'theoretical' works make more sense when read contextually as political interventions. One of these is 'The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte', which contains a novel theory of democracy, but one not yet appreciated either in the literatures on Marx or on democratic theory. Marx argues that representative democracy and authoritarian/military dictatorship are not poles apart as political constructions, but rather balanced 'on a knife's edge' by ever-present political forces. His account of French revolutionary and counter-revolutionary politics points to the crucial role of elected politicians in representative democracies and how easily they can be turned to abolish the very institutions that they had sworn to uphold. This theory clarifies many of the conflicts and struggles that have taken place since that time—and indeed are occurring in the present—in apparently 'democratic' countries worldwide.

SPEAKER

Terrell Carver is Professor of Political Theory at the University of Bristol, UK. He has published widely on Marx, Engels, and Marxisms, including texts, translations, and biography; and on sex, gender, and sexuality, including masculinities, feminist theory, and queer studies. He is co-editor-in-chief of Contemporary Political Theory, and co-general-editor of three book series: Routledge Innovators in Political Theory (Taylor & Francis); Marx, Engels, and Marxisms (Palgrave); Globalization (Rowman & Littlefield). His latest books are Marx (Polity, 2018); Engels Before Marx (Palgrave, 2021); The Life and Thought of Friedrich Engels, 30th anniversary edition (Palgrave, 2021); Masculinities, Gender and International Relations (Bristol University Press, 2022). He also teaches discourse and visual analysis as interpretive methods for an IPSA summer school at the National University of Singapore.

In Eros and Civilization (1955), Herbert Marcuse argued that Freud’s concept of primary narcissism (the happy and tensionless psychic stage prior to individuation to which the death drive seeks to return) could furnish a positive model for a new non-repressive society. Using Marcuse’s claims as a starting point, this talk explores Adorno’s alternate account of narcissism as a block on social transformation. While Marcuse highlights the emancipatory potential of narcissism, Adorno reads narcissism as an actual collective reaction to cold and repressive social conditions. A better reality, Adorno argues, would require a strengthening of the ego, not its dissolution in gratification. The lecture will suggest that the ego would then be capable of more than mere repression of the drives, directing the death drive against the reified and narcissistic self; we can find in Adorno’s Negative Dialectics (1966) and Aesthetic Theory (1970) attempts to correct Marcuse’s reading of Freud, and that Adorno develops there a more effective understanding of how drives might be organized in a society no longer dominated by the death drive. 

Speaker

Kathy Kiloh is Associate Professor of Humanities at OCAD University in Toronto. Her past research includes work on ethics, aesthetics, and theories of embodiment in T.W. Adorno and Emmanuel Levinas. She is the cofounder of the Association for Adorno Studies and the former editor of the journal Adorno Studies. She is currently writing a manuscript about love, autonomy, and solidarity in Adorno. 

Respondents

• Roberto Longoni is a PhD student in the Sociology program at the Instituto de Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades ‘Alfonso Vélez Pliego’-BUAP, as well as a professor of Political Philosophy in the Department of Humanities at the Universidad Iberoamericana (Puebla). He has been working on the updating of the “classical” Critical Theory of the Frankfurt School (along with a critique of the “invented tradition” of Habermas and Honneth), the New Readings of Marx and the political philosophy of popular insurrections. In particular, his PhD research actually focuses on an interpretation of the popular revolt that broke out in Chile in October 2019 from the perspective of wertkritik and Open Marxism, enhanced by Adorno's negative epistemology and his understanding of critical theory as non-identical knowledge.
• Rogelio Regalado is PhD student in Subjectivity and Critical Theory at the Instituto de Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades ‘Alfonso Vélez Pliego’-BUAP, as well as professor in International Relations program at the same university. He is also editor of ‘Grietas. Revista Crítica de Política Internacional’, a publication of the Instituto de Ciencias Jurídicas de Puebla. His research interest revolve around the critique of nationalism and fascism from a non-orthodox Marxist perspective as well as different expressions of international anti-capitalism. His current research consist of a critical reelaboration of the concept of fascism and its relation to capitalism.

Marking the centenary of Walter Benjamin's immensely influential essay, Toward the Critique of Violence—edited by Peter Fenves and Julia Ng—presents readers with a new, fully annotated translation of a work that is widely recognized as a classic of modern political theory.

The volume also includes framing essays by the editors and twenty-one notes and fragments by Benjamin, along with passages from all of the contemporaneous texts to which Benjamin’s essay refers. Readers thus encounter for the first time in English provocative arguments about law and violence advanced by Hermann Cohen, Kurt Hiller, Erich Unger, and Emil Lederer, as well selections from Georges Sorel's Reflections on Violence. The translators’ prefaces discuss the contexts in which these scholars developed their arguments as well as the role that their work played in the composition of Benjamin’s essay.

With its challenging argument concerning violence, law, and justice—which addresses such topical matters as police violence, the death penalty, and the ambiguous force of religion—Benjamin's work is as important today as it was upon its publication in Weimar Germany a century ago.

This roundtable with the editors and translators will explore the timeliness of Benjamin’s arguments as they are illuminated by the work of editing and translation.

PARTICIPANTS

• Peter Fenves, the Joan and Serapta Professor of Literature at Northwestern University, is a professor of German, Comparative Literary Studies, and Jewish Studies.  He is the author of several books, including The Messianic Reduction: Walter Benjamin and the Shape of Time (Stanford) and Late Kant: Toward another Law of the Earth (New York and London).
• Julia Ng is Senior Lecturer in Critical Theory and co-director of Goldsmiths' Centre for Philosophy and Critical Thought, though on this occasion she is speaking in a personal capacity in solidarity with the ongoing campaign to #BoycottGoldsmiths and reject its management's efforts to push through redundancies and structuring across academic and professional staff.
• Lisa Marie Anderson is Professor and Chair of German at Hunter College, City University of New York. She is the author of German Expressionism and the Messianism of a Generation (Rodopi 2011), as well as the translator/editor of two books on Johann Georg Hamann with Northwestern University Press. Her articles have appeared in The Wilson Quarterly, The Goethe Yearbook, German Life & Letters, and a number of other venues. Her translations have appeared with Lexington Books and The Journal of Nietzsche Studies.
• Austin Harrington is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Leeds, UK. His recent publications include German Cosmopolitan Social Thought and the Idea of the West: Voices from Weimar (Cambridge University Press, 2016) and Georg Simmel: Essays on Art and Aesthetics (University of Chicago Press, 2020).
• Dana Hollander is Associate Professor at the Department of Religious Studies at McMaster University (Hamilton, Ontario), where she is also an associate member of the Department of Philosophy and a member of the MA Program in Cultural Studies & Critical Theory.  Her research areas are twentieth-century French and German philosophy, modern Jewish thought, and German-Jewish studies.  She is the author of  Ethics Out of Law: Hermann Cohen on the “Neighbor” (University of Toronto Press, 2021) and Exemplarity and Chosenness. Rosenzweig and Derrida on the Nation of Philosophy (Stanford University Press, 2008) and the translator of Jacob Taubes, The Political Theology of Paul (Stanford University Press, 2004). 
• Bruce Rosenstock is Professor of Religion at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. His most recent monograph is Transfinite Life: Oskar Goldberg and the Vitalist Imagination (IUP, 2017). He is currently working on a book exploring the themes of kinship and incest in the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament and the influence of these themes on the emergence of the African slave trade and anti-Black racism in the modern era.
• Alberto Toscano is professor of critical theory and codirector of the Centre for Philosophy and Critical Thought at Goldsmiths, University of London, and visiting faculty at the Digital Democracies Institute in the School of Communication at Simon Fraser University. He is the author of Cartographies of the Absolute (2015, with Jeff Kinkle) and Fanaticism: On the Uses of an Idea (2nd ed., 2017) and the coeditor of The SAGE Handbook of Marxism (2021). He is a member of the editorial board of Historical Materialism and series editor of the Italian List for Seagull Books.

The main intention of this workshop is to open a space for dialogue and critical reflection on some social phenomena that we understand as an expression of the deep crisis that neoliberal capitalism has been going through since at least 2008.

This, of course, does not mean that before 2008 neoliberal capitalism was in a state of harmony and absence of crisis. Expressions of rage and discontent such as the Zapatista uprising in 1994, the Battle of Seattle in 1999 or Genoa in 2001, can be interpreted as evident signs of the instability of the dynamics of financialization and indebtedness that capitalism has had to assume more broadly since the late 1970s in order to sustain its logic of valorization.

However, the year 2008 is emblematic in this sense, since, hand in hand with the collapse of the banks and the great stock market centers, various signs of resistance and rebellion sprouted with force throughout the world, which to this day are recognizable by their power, creativity, contradictions and heterogeneity.

In this regard, a wide range of analyses and interpretations have been established, which have mainly focused on understanding the struggles from a normative and liberal point of view, an issue with which we profoundly differ and which we are interested in discussing. Above all, because we sense that the tensions and complexities inherent to these struggles cannot be reduced to the framework of interpretation of democratic liberalism. Our argument in this regard (which of course we also open to discussion) is that the signs of resistance and rebellion that have emerged and have been maintained in the era of neoliberal capitalism are an expression of a crisis of its own foundations, that is, of the form of social relations determined by the value that sustains it.

Specifically, we propose to dialogue and reflect on three phenomena that seem to us important and current, not only to be thought in their geographical and historical specificity, but also to be thought from the concerns that may arise from the context of crisis and resistance in Canada: the fascist advance in global terms, with emphasis on the Mexican case, and the possibility of an anti-fascist resistance; the Chilean revolt of 2019 and its relation to a historical constellation in which the tension between fascism and socialism persists; and the actuality of the Zapatista struggle and the challenges that emanate from it around the possibility of thinking “other” ways of resisting and building a non-hegemonic and truly inclusive globalization.

Sessions

1. Mar 10: "Capitalism and the Global Fascist Advance: Theoretical Elements and the Mexican Case"
2. Mar 17: "The 2019 Chilean Revolt and the Specter of Fascism/Communism"
3. Mar 24: "Zapatista struggle and the Challenge of a Non-hegemonic Globalization"
4. Mar 31: "A Presentation on the Research Conducted at the Instituto de Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades - BUAP"

Presenters

• Roberto Longoni is a PhD student in the Sociology program at the Instituto de Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades ‘Alfonso Vélez Pliego’-BUAP, as well as a professor of Political Philosophy in the Department of Humanities at the Universidad Iberoamericana (Puebla). He has been working on the updating of the “classical” Critical Theory of the Frankfurt School (along with a critique of the “invented tradition” of Habermas and Honneth), the New Readings of Marx and the political philosophy of popular insurrections. In particular, his PhD research actually focuses on an interpretation of the popular revolt that broke out in Chile in October 2019 from the perspective of wertkritik and Open Marxism, enhanced by Adorno's negative epistemology and his understanding of critical theory as non-identical knowledge.
• Rogelio Regalado is PhD student in Subjectivity and Critical Theory at the Instituto de Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades ‘Alfonso Vélez Pliego’-BUAP, as well as professor in International Relations program at the same university. He is also editor of ‘Grietas. Revista Crítica de Política Internacional’, a publication of the Instituto de Ciencias Jurídicas de Puebla. His research interest revolve around the critique of nationalism and fascism from a non-orthodox Marxist perspective as well as different expressions of international anti-capitalism. His current research consist of a critical reelaboration of the concept of fascism and its relation to capitalism.

West Coast Coalition Against Racism invites you to attend a panel of experts to commemorate Black History Month on February 15, 2022 at 7PM PST.

Black History Month (BHM) is an annual celebration that started in the US in 1926. In December 1995, the House of Commons officially recognized February as Black History Month in Canada, following a motion introduced by the first African Canadian woman elected to Parliament, the Honorable Jean Augustine.

Why is it important to celebrate BHM? Because the role of Black Canadians and their communities in so-called Canada have been largely ignored despite being key to the country’s history. Few people in Canada are aware of the fact that African people were enslaved on the colonized territories now known as Canada; or how those who fought enslavement helped lay the foundation of Canadas reputation as a diverse and inclusive society.

Black History Month is a time to learn more about these stores and the many other important contributions that Black Canadians and their communities have made to the history and continued growth of this place we call home.

The 2022 theme for Black History Month is: “February and Forever: Celebrate Black History today and every day,” which focuses on recognizing the substantive daily contributions that Black Canadians make in the country. There are a multitude of accomplishments to be proud of, especially in breaking barriers to live full and joyful lives with representation throughout society.

Panelists

• David Lewis: Labour Mediator, Practicing Labour Relations Consultant, Negotiator, Facilitator and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion advocate.
• Ana Mohammed: Principal, ARM Meditation and Consulting. Lawyer, adjudicator, mediator, investigator, educator/coach, human rights champion.
• Carol Brown: Diversity and Inclusion lead, Ontario Ministry of Health, a strong believer of “a rising tide lifts all boats.”

Thakore Visiting Scholar Award 

The Thakore Visiting Scholar Award has been awarded annually since 1991 at Simon Fraser University. It honours individuals who have devoted their lives to “creativity, commitment, and a deep concern for truth in public life, which includes, but is not limited to, showing the connection between academic values and critical public spirit." The award also recognizes commitment to Gandhi’s ideals of truth, non-violence, social justice, religious tolerance, education, and ethics in politics. In addition to these principles, the award adds racial equality and concern for balance between industry and the environment.

This year's award recipient is SFU350 for their commitment to climate justice and systemic change in solidarity with intersecting movements.

SFU350, 2022 Thakore Visiting Scholar

Simon Fraser University has a rich history of student activism and recent years have seen a surge in climate-related actions. SFU350 is a student-led group dedicated to engaging the university in climate justice and while recent victories have been encouraging, the group is eager to continue striving for greater changes.

Operating on the unceded territories of the səl̓ilw̓ətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), kʷikʷəƛ̓əm (Kwikwetlem), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish), and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) Nations, on which SFU Burnaby is located, SFU350 has been active since 2013 and is known as “SFU350” because 350ppm of CO2 represents the safe amount of carbon dioxide for our atmosphere––currently, we sit at over 400ppm of CO2. 

SFU350 is dedicated to creating meaningful impacts through various campaigns. By directly lobbying those in positions of power, SFU350 has generated impetus for positive change at the highest level. The club ensures equity, sustainability, and Indigenous sovereignty are centered in all campaigns and has a dedicated working group active with the express purpose of advocating for climate justice. 

As this year's Thakore Visiting Scholar, the first student group to receive this award, SFU350 will discuss their formation, current campaigns, and future plans to further engage the SFU community on- and off-campus in tackling climate change. The panel will be followed by a reception.

PANELISTS

• Liam Mackay (he/him) is an undergraduate student in Environmental Science with a specialization in applied biology. He is the co-president of SFU350, and a member of the Core Leadership team. He is working to address the goals of the SFU 2025 Sustainability Plan through participation in the SFU Food Emissions working group. He has worked closely with executive members of the SFU administration, and has presented to the SFU Board of Governors; he is a member of the SFU Climate Coalition along where he collaborates with Embark Sustainability and ChangeSFU; and he has been involved in various other climate action campaigns, such as the Fossil Fuel Nonproliferation Treaty motion in the city of New Westminster.
• Paige Hunter (she/her) is an undergraduate student in Resource and Environmental Management at Simon Fraser University and the lead of SFU350's Climate Education working group. As part of her work with SFU350 she has been part of the Climate Literacy, Education, and Skills working group alongside SFU students, staff, and faculty to address goals of the SFU 2025 Sustainability Plan. She has worked with the Action on Climate Team as a research assistant since 2020, and has also worked with the BC Ministry of Forests. Her research background includes climate justice, green infrastructure, and local government climate policy.
• Skye Noh (she/her) is a fourth-year Sustainable Business joint major student at Simon Fraser University. Born and raised in the Okanagan Valley, Skye’s journey in the environmental movement is fueled by her passion for climate justice and interest in using capital flows for transformative change. Her past youth leadership experience includes positions as the former SFU350 Co-President, an impact analyst at RADIUS Social Innovation Hub, an ESG analyst at the Beedie Endowment Asset Management fund, a League of Innovators Labs Batch 3 Founder, a Canada 150 Youth Delegate, and a TEDx Youth Speaker. She is currently a member of Re_Generation (formerly known as the Canadian Business Youth Council for Sustainable Development) on the career development and curriculum change team.
• Pranjali J Mann (she/her) is a third year communications major and international studies minor student at SFU. Along with working as a Research Assistant with Digital Democracies Institute and News Writer for The Peak, she is actively involved with the community, volunteering with progressive social organizations both on and off- campus.