hi all, (apologies for cross posting)
the marxist reading group here at the university of florida has finalized the plans for our next conference. last year's conference was a smashing success -- thanks especially to barbara foley's participation. like the mlg, this conference features one session at a time, as well as intimate interaction between faculty and graduate students. plus, fun parties with loads of good food. i encourage everyone who can make it to submit an abstract and come on down to florida in march... (the weather's quite good that time of year, too...)
your help in getting the word out about our conference will be much appreciated (just copy the text below into a new message window).
btw, rosemary hennessy's new book -- which our reading group has just begun to study -- is wonderful. _profit and pleasure_ -- check it out, and if you can, come hear her in march -- we're thrilled to have her as one of our keynote speakers this year.
thanks, laura sullivan
************************************ Please forward to interested parties ************************************ The UF Marxist Reading Group would like to announce its third annual interdisciplinary conference:
ALMOST ALWAYS DECEIVED: REVOLUTIONARY PRAXIS AND REINVENTIONS OF NEED
March 29 - 31, 2001 at the University of Florida
Keynote speakers: Rosemary Hennessy and Peter McLaren
The conference seeks papers that focus on how need and desire are produced in a late capitalist society and on possible revolutionary strategies that might help us understand those needs that capitalism attempts to prevent us from seeing. What do human beings need as citizens, workers, and lovers? How do cultural and historical processes determine our needs and desires? Does class and geographical region influence our expression of those needs and desires? Can capitalism's apparent satisfaction of needs be countered by a politics based in revolutionary needs?
Rosemary Hennessy is a significant voice in contemporary materialist feminist theory. Her book Profit and Pleasure: Sexual Identities in Late Capitalism (Routledge) argues for an analysis of sexual identity rooted in a rigorous understanding of the structures of late capitalism, labor and commodification. Hennessy has also written Materialist Feminism and the Politics of Discourse, and co-edited Materialist Feminism: A Reader in Class, Difference, and Women's Lives with Chrys Ingraham. Her work has appeared in numerous journals including Cultural Critique, Rethinking Marxism, Genders, and Mediations. She is an associate professor in the English department at the University of Albany, SUNY where she teaches classes in feminist theory, Marxist theory, postmodern critical and cultural theory, lesbian and gay studies and queer theory.
Peter McLaren is one of the most influential advocates of critical pedagogy, bothnationally and internationally. A major proponent of the work of the late Paulo Freire, McLaren covers a wide range of topics, from film criticism, to cultural studies, to the pedagogy of Che Guevara. His books include Critical Pedagogy and Predatory Culture, Che Guevara, Paulo Freire, and the Pedagogy of Revolution, and Life in Schools. McLaren is Professor of Urban Schooling: Curriculum, Teaching, Leadership & Policy Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. His current research interests include post-colonial and postmodern theories applied to curriculum development and instruction; critical social theory and cultural studies in the development of approaches to urban school reform; the development of pedagogical theory and practice based on critical multiculturalism, critical ethnography, and critical literacy.
Prospective panels include (but are not limited to) the following:
Critical and revolutionary pedagogies: Freire & Guevara Radical and materialist feminisms The need for a Marxist political philosophy Commodity culture, advertising, and desire Popular/working culture and aesthetics Disability studies Red love and the family Capitalism and sexual identities New structures of feeling The politics of desire and pleasure Acceleration of needs: the colonization of lifestyle Species being and needs Needing to leave: travel literature and tourism Capitalism, theft, and intellectual property Urban landscapes: cities of need Utopian literatures and philosophies The need for a revolutionary future Charity, hunger, and activist cultures Ethics of need and the welfare state Class and wage labor in the new economy Gender and modernity Cinema Do we need literature? Liberation theology Revolutionary theater
Non-traditional or performative panels will be considered. The deadline for submissions is February 1, 2001.
One page abstracts, questions, and comments should be submitted to the Marxist Reading Group at extinction at clas.ufl.edu. Further conference information can be found at http://web.english.ufl.edu/mrg