Critical Theory in (a Time of) Crisis
A two-day Early Career & Postgraduate Conference
Organised by the Centre for Applied Philosophy, Politics & Ethics (Brighton) and the Research
Centre for Studies in Social and Political Thought (Sussex) 5 and 6 November 2019
DAY 1
Venue: University of Brighton (City Campus)
Grand Parade Building Room 318b
09.00 – 09.15 – REGISTRATION
09.15 – 11.00 – PANEL 1 (Followed by 45 mins of Q&A with the audience).
Paul Ingram (Birkbeck, University of London, UK)
The Institutionalization of Adorno and the Viability of Social Pathology.
Cain Shelley (London School of Economics and Political Science, UK)
Freeing socialism from its attachment to Marx? Honneth’s recent political turn and its limits.
Neil Harris (University of Sussex, UK)
Beyond Domestication: Adorno and the Reanimation of Social Pathology Diagnosis
*** Short Break ***
11.15 to 13.00 – PANEL 2 (Followed by 45 mins of Q&A with the audience).
Luke Edmeads (University of Brighton, UK)
Adorno’s relevance: Non-identity as a response to domination in contemporary society.
(Lynn) Alena Roth (University of Sussex, UK)
Re-thinking Social Transformation: Utopian Consciousness within Critical Theory.
Muhammad Qasim (University of Sussex, UK)
An anti-colonial deficit in critical theory and a need for de-colonial turn in it.
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13.00 – 14.00 – Lunch break
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14.00 – 15.45 – PANEL 3 (Followed by 45 mins of Q&A with the audience).
Sabrina Muchová (Charles University, Czechia)
Art and Democracy: Wellmer’s Aesthetic Conception.
Aikaterini-Maria Lakka (Sorbonne, France)
“O, speak to (for) me no more! These words like daggers enter in my ears”: understanding intellectuals’ role in a time of crisis.
Will Stronge (Brighton University, UK)
'Entering the Fray: leaving traditional intellectuals behind'.
*** Coffee break ***
16.00 – 17.45 – Keynote speaker: Prof. Michael J. Thompson (William Paterson University, US)
Title: Critique of Crisis of the Crisis of Critique? Rethinking the Project of Critical Theory.
ABSTRACT. Critical theory has taken a decisive turn away from Marx and Marxian ideas since the
19.30 – Conference Diner at the NEW ERA restaurant (details – see conference pack)
DAY 2
University of Brighton (City Campus)
Grand Parade Building Room 318b
09.00 – 10.45 – PANEL 4
Paul Ewart (University of Sussex, UK)
Capitalist Realism, Popular Critical Theory and New Left Movements.
Roderick Howlett (University of Sheffield)
“Reclaiming the Radical Enlightenment: a response to Post-Truth”.
David Gould (University of Leeds, UK)
Critical Theory in a Time of Crisis: What is a Crisis?
*** Coffee break ***
11.00 – 12.45 – PANEL 5
Ben Cross (Wuhan University, China)
Justice, Social Justice, and Critical Theory - why activists have got it right, and analytic philosophers have got it wrong.
Jacopo Condo' (University of Brighton, UK)
Mental Health & the limits of procedural conception of autonomy in critical theories.
Joseph Backhouse – Barber (University of Sussex, UK)
‘Making the social play along’: Luhmann’s recognition of both subjective and social aspects of
experience.
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12.45 – 13.45 – Lunch break
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13.45 – 15.00 – PANEL 6
Sara Kermanian (University of Sussex)
Time and the Politics of International Imaginaries: Rethinking the impasse of Derridean
critique of modern temporality.
Harrison Lechley-Yuill (University of Brighton)
Deconstruction: The Proper and Violence.
*** Coffee Break ***
15.15 – 17.00: Keynote Speaker: Prof. Darrow Schecter (University of Sussex)
Title: On the sociology of functional differentiation: What kind of dialectics underpin a critical
theory of contemporary society'?
Darrow Schecter is Professor of Critical Theory and Modern European History at the University of Sussex.
End of the conference