Drive, Desire, and Dissent: Philosophy at the Intersection of Politics
and Psychoanalysis 10th Annual Philosophy Student Conference at the
University of New Mexico
Keynote Speaker: Dr. Lorenzo Chiesa (French, Modern European Thought, School of European Culture and Languages, University of Kent)
Faculty Address: Dr. Adrian Johnston (Philosophy, University of New Mexico)
Date: April 13-14, 2012
Submission deadline: January 31, 2012
(Notifications will be received by February 15)
Paper submissions: Dissent from the status quo, desire for change, and the drive for reorganization stand at the forefront of the current political landscape. What role does desire play in the struggle for social and economic change? What drives are at work in both conservative and revolutionary ways of thinking the political? The psychoanalytic tradition can help to illuminate the motivations and aims of political thought and action; throughout the last half century, this tradition has become fused with philosophy in order to provide a framework for both understanding and shaping political activity. Some theories, however, have defined themselves in opposition to psychoanalysis. Our conference seeks to examine the achievements, possibilities, tensions, frustrations, and limitations of the relationship between psychoanalysis, politics, and philosophy. We welcome submissions from the broadest range of philosophical and interdisciplinary traditions, and we highly encourage submissions treating one or more aspects of the conference theme. Submissions from both graduate and undergraduate students will be considered.
Format: Please prepare papers for blind review. Email complete papers (no longer than 4,000 words), preceded by an abstract, to UNMphilconf2012@gmail.com in Word or PDF format; include in the body of your email: 1) title of paper, 2) author’s name, 3) university or institutional affiliation, 4) word count, and 5) contact details. Please refrain from providing any self- identifying information in either the paper or the abstract.
Possible themes and figures: Freud, Lacan, Marx, Althusser, Deleuze & Guatarri, Foucault, Derrida, Irigaray, Badiou, Kristeva, Laclau, Mouffe, Žižek, Malabou, the Frankfurt School, psychoanalytic readings of philosophers and political theorists, philosophical responses to psychoanalysis, political theory in opposition to psychoanalysis, methodological issues in psychoanalysis, questions raised by advances in the neurosciences, comparisons with non-Western philosophy and political thought, related themes in film and literature.