The Neil Postman Graduate Conference
Thinking Through Collapse
Philosopher Simon Critchley, keynote speaker
Friday, March 23, 2012
20 Cooper Square, 7th Floor
In the past year we have been confronted with many sites of present and impending collapse: the collapse of oppressive regimes in the Arab world, a global economy pushed to its limits, our own political system in paralysis, the teetering of the fourth estate, continuing environmental collapse and so on. In each of these sites, visions of apocalypse exist alongside those of renewal, inviting the imagination of new forms of organization and sustainability. In the academy, they are prompting new interdisciplinary assessments of the conditions – historical, social, political, economic, cultural, technological – that have brought us to these limits, and are forcing the question: where might we go from here?
In light of the above, the 2012 Neil Postman Graduate Conference takes Thinking Through Collapse as its theme.
10:00 Doors open | Coffee served
10:20 Welcome
Marita Sturken, Chair, Department of Media, Culture, and Communication
10:30 “Speculative Realism and Catastrophe,” Aaron Pedinotti
11:15 Panel: Environmental Politics
“Delimiting Catastrophe and its Objects,” Max Liboiron
“Perishable New York,” Jonathan Zalman
“Climate Propaganda & North Korea’s Arduous March,” Stephanie Llamas
12:30 Lunch
1:30 Panel: Europe in Collapse
“Politics of Fiction in Antoine Volodine’s Work,” Claire Richard
“Collapse of the Celtic Tiger,” Yvonne Garrett
“Youth in the Not-Good-Enough Society: Postwar Balkans & Youth Politics,”
Adnan Selimovic
2:45 Break
3:00 Keynote
“Shit is Fucked Up and Bullshit,” Simon Critchley, Hans Jonas Professor, The New School
3:30 Keynote Discussion
4:00 Roundtable: Art, Politics, and Critical Engagement Today
Kouross Esmaeli, Jessica Feldman, Carlin Wing
5:15 Closing Remarks
5:30 Reception