MAJOR NYC CONFERENCE
COMMUNISM, A NEW BEGINNING?
Organised by ALAIN BADIOU and SLAVOJ ZIZEK
Cooper Union, New York, October 14th-16th 2011
Livestream at: www.versobooks.com
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A new conference with leading thinkers to discuss the continued relevance of the communist idea.
"The long night of the left is coming to a close" wrote Slavoj Zizek and Costas Douzinas in their introduction to THE IDEA OF COMMUNISM. The continuing economic crisis, the shift away from a unipolar world defined by American hegemony, and the ecological crisis mean that growing numbers of people are keen to explore an alternative, and to re-discover the idea of communism. With the advent of the Arab awakening millions have sought new ways to overcome corruption and dictatorship.
Responding to Alain Badiou's proposition of the ‘communist hypothesis’, the leading thinkers of the left convened in London in 2009 to discuss the perpetual, persistent notion that, in a truly emancipated society, all things should be owned in common. Two years later, the discussion continues—this time in New York.
Organised with Verso Books, eight leading thinkers will be discussing COMMUNISM: A NEW BEGINNING? at Cooper Union on the weekend of October 14th-16th.
Verso is glad to announce that we will live stream the conference on our website, from Friday, Oct 14th at 6pm. You'll need to log in to access the video page, so please register now if you don't yet have an account.
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CONFERENCE PROGRAMME:
FIRST SESSION: Friday Oct 14, 6-9 PM (moderator: ZIZEK)
Slavoj Zizek: SHORT INTRODUCTORY REMARKS
Frank Ruda: REMEMBERING THE IMPOSSIBLE. FOR A META-CRITICAL ANAMNESIS OF COMMUNISM
Alain Badiou: POLITICS AND STATE, MASS MOVEMENT AND TERROR (read by Bruno Bosteels)
SECOND SESSION: Saturday Oct 15, 10AM-1PM (moderator: ZIZEK)
Bruno Bosteels: ON THE CHRISTIAN QUESTION
Susan Buck-Morss: COMMUNISM AND ETHICS
THIRD SESSION: Saturday Oct 15, 3-7 PM (moderator: BOSTEELS)
Adrian Johnston: FROM SCIENTIFIC SOCIALISM TO SOCIALIST SCIENCE. NATURDIALEKTIK THEN AND NOW
Jodi Dean: COMMUNIST DESIRE
Etienne Balibar: COMMUNISM AS COMMITMENT, IMAGINATION, AND POLITICS
FOURTH SESSION: Sunday Oct 16, 10AM-1PM (moderator: BOSTEELS)
Emmanuel Terray: COMMUNISM: WAYS AND MEANS OF THE RECONSTRUCTION
Slavoj Zizek: CONCLUSION: FREEDOM IN THE CLOUDS
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UPDATE: Alain Badiou unable to attend
With great regret we have to announce that, due to illness, Alain Badiou will not be able to attend the conference Communism, A New Beginning? this weekend. We are all extremely disappointed but we hope you'll join us in wishing Alain a swift recovery. He has prepared a text to be read (by Bruno Bosteels) so will still be able to contribute to the conference, and we still expect the conference to be an extraordinary event.
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Praise for SLAVOJ ZIZEK
“The most formidably brilliant exponent of psychoanalysis, indeed of cultural theory in general, to have emerged from Europe in some decades.” – TERRY EAGLETON
“Superstar messiah of the new left.” – OBSERVER
“An intellectual whirlwind.” – TELEGRAPH
“Slavoj Zizek is a superstar of Elvis-like magnitude–a bogglingly dynamic whirlwind of brainpower.” – DAZED AND CONFUSED
Praise for ALAIN BADIOU
“An heir to Jean-Paul Sartre and Louis Althusser” – NEW STATESMAN
“Badiou is at his strongest in pointing to the inconsistencies of a facile multiculturalism, the pluralism of the food court and the shopping mall, which wilts in the face of any genuine expression of cultural hostility to liberal values.” – RADICAL PHILOSOPHY
“Alain Badiou could be the most important philosopher alive today” – IRISH LEFT REVIEW
“Badiou is by turns speculative, provocative…and droll.” – TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT
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SLAVOJ ZIZEK is a Slovenian philosopher and cultural critic. He is a professor at the European GraduateSchool, International Director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities, BirkbeckCollege, University of London, and a senior researcher at the Institute of Sociology, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. His books include LIVING IN THE END TIMES, FIRST AS TRAGEDY, THEN AS FARCE, IN DEFENSE OF LOST CAUSES, six volumes of the ESSENTIAL ZIZEK, and many more.
ALAIN BADIOU teaches philosophy at the École normale supérieure and the Collège international de philosophie in Paris. In addition to several novels, plays and political essays, he has published a number of major philosophical works, including THEORY OF THE SUBJECT, BEING AND EVENT, MANIFESTO FOR PHILOSOPHY, and GILLES DELEUZE. His recent books include THE MEANING OF SARKOZY, ETHICS, METAPOLITICS, POLEMICS, THE COMMUNIST HYPOTHESIS, FIVE LESSONS ON WAGNER, AND WITTGENSTEIN’S ANTI-PHILOSOPHY.
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For more information on the Verso livestream from New York:
http://www.versobooks.com/blogs/706-communism-a-new-beginning-alain-badiou-and-slavoj-zizek-with-verso-books-at-cooper-union-new-york-october-14th-16th-2011
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The contributions at the 2009 London conference have been collected in:
THE IDEA OF COMMUNISM
Edited by SLAVOJ ZIZEK and COSTA DOUZINAS
ISBN: 978 1 84467 455 8 / $95.00/ £55.00/$118.50 / Hardback / 240 pages
ISBN: 978 1 84467 459 6 / $26.95/£14.99/$33.50 / Paperback / 240 pages
For more information:
http://www.versobooks.com/books/513-the-idea-of-communism
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