Call for papers – Moments of rupture: Event and negativity in modern thought

This looks fascinating, shame it’s so far away from me:

International conference

Moments of rupture: Event and negativity in modern thought

October 29 & 30, 2014

Universidad Diego Portales, Santiago de Chile

Keynote speakers:

Andreas Kalyvas (The New School, USA)

Eduardo Sabrovsky (Universidad Diego Portales, Chile)

Rupture is a motif central to modernity. A certain “culture of rupture” has animated in various forms the development of modern political and social thought, from the speculative philosophy of Hegel to the deconstruction of Derrida. The word “rupture” suggests a break in the status quo, an unexpected and irreversible event which interrupts the continuity of established institutions and practices, a singular occurrence which shatters the apparent consistency of the symbolic and normative order. Moments of rupture inspire hopes of a new beginning and emancipation but also instill fears of disorder and destruction.

The recent scenes of economic crisis, social discontent and political revolt have forcefully brought the topic of rupture to the fore. In the contemporary thinking about this topic, a peculiar opposition can be observed. While, in some forms of political philosophy, moments of rupture are celebrated as radical, extraordinary, genuinely political events, in the social sciences rupture tends to be seen as a common element of everyday disputes and struggles.

We invite proposals for presentations in English or Spanish that explore the notion of rupture from a philosophical, political, or sociological perspective. Possible topics include:

– The semantics of the concept of rupture

– The notions of event and the extraordinary

– The relation between rupture/event and negativity

– The problems of narrating and representing rupture

– Foundation, revolution and constituent power

– The significance of moments of rupture for the philosophy of history and political time

– Crisis and conflict

– Secular miracles and political theology

We welcome submissions both of complete papers and of extended abstracts of around 500 words. They should be prepared for blind review and sent tocoloquio_ruptura@mail.udp.cl. The deadline for submissions is June 27. Notices of acceptance will be sent by July 22.

The conference is hosted by the Instituto de Humanidades and the Facultad de Ciencias Sociales e Historia of the Universidad Diego Portales. For additional information, please contact the organizers, Rodrigo Cordero and Wolfhart Totschnig, at the email address above.

Support: FONDECYT Initiation Project No. 11121346