Course dates: 21-25 August 2017
Deadline for registration: 01 June 2017
Location: Utrecht City Campus, the Netherlands
Costs: 300/500 EUR (course + course materials / +housing)
Read more and apply online via the Utrecht Summer School website.
COURSE DESCRIPTION
The field of posthuman scholarship is in full expansion. The posthuman turn is triggered by the convergence of anti-humanism on the one hand and anti-anthropocentrism on the other. Anti-humanism focusses on the critique of the Humanist ideal of ‘Man’ as the universal representative of the human, while anti-anthropocentrism criticizes species hierarchy and advances ecological justice. Both these strands enjoy strong support, but they refer to different genealogies and traditions. This course rest son the French philosophical tradition of critical Spinozism, which defends a monistic Life philosophy based on non-dialectical processes and is best represented by Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari. This course explores the interconnection between the posthuman predicament and the condition of the Anthropocene. It argues for the need to develop a more ethical and more complex relationship to our planetary dimension and to our relationship to non-human others, both animals, plants and technological artefacts. The Anthropocene as a concept was coined in 2001 by Nobel Prize winner for chemistry, Paul Crutzen, to describe our current geological era in terms of human impact upon the sustainability of the planet. It was officially adopted as a scientific term by the International Geological Association in Cape Town in August 2016 and its official starting date has been set at 1950, the dawn of the nuclear era. Posthuman critical theory argues for the pertinence of posthuman ethics as a way of re-framing the question of life in the Anthropocene, striking a balance between vulnerability and affirmation.
COURSE LEADER
Prof. Rosi Braidotti
TARGET GROUP
This interdisciplinary course is aimed at research-minded advanced master and PhD students with a critical and curious intellectual disposition; post-docs in the Humanities and Arts practices; starting researchers but also practitioners and media activists. A strong background in at least one of the following disciplines is required: critical theory, Continental philosophy, gender studies, media and technology studies, social and political theory, postcolonial and race studies, cultural studies.
COURSE AIM
To provide an introduction to contemporary critical scholarship about the posthuman, the Anthropocene and ethics in the French Continental philosophical tradition through the exploration of debates about contemporary subjectivity, globalization and power, and the politics of affirmation.
STUDY LOAD
Participants of the course are expected to have read compulsory texts for tutorials and lectures before the course. They are also expected to actively take part in tutorials, prepare questions and discussion points for plenary sessions, both the morning ones following Braidotti’s lectures and the closing plenaries after the afternoon tutorials. A special emphasis will be placed on participants’ contribution to the panels and the plenary discussions.
FEE
€ 500 – Course + course materials + housing
€ 300 – Course + course materials
Your application should include:
- Motivation for your application (submit through your account)
- Curriculum vitae (submit through your account)
- Recent set of transcripts (marks/grades) in English, German, French or in Dutch for Dutch students (submit through your account)
- One letter of reference letter
Whenever possible the applications will be evaluated as they come, and applicants will be informed about the results accordingly. However, due to a large amount of applications, we might not always be able to provide a speedy evaluation and response. At the latest, the final results will be known one month after the submission deadline.