he question of the relationship of social movements to the state is one of the most pressing of our time. The Occupy Movement, as well as those in Greece and Spain, organize around goals but often without specific demands on the state. Historical experience shows that the autonomy of social movements is necessary for social change. At the same time the state controls important resources, is in a more powerful position than the movements, and tends to try and control or repress them. How can this dilemma be approached beyond either a simple total rejection of the state or a cooptation of the movements? Can autonomy be constructed while with a relationship to the state? [read more»]

Keynote Address for Contemporality: A Symposium on Culture, Politics, and Time by David Scott, with presentations by Brian Goldstone, Harry Harootunian, Janet Roitman, Kristin Ross, Joan Scott, and Sara Pursley, with comments by Gary Wilder [read more»]

A roundtable presentation featuring Alicia Borinsky, Arlene Dávila, Nora Glickman, Marta Savigliano, and Anahi Viladrich [read more»]

The transoceanic voyages of the fifteenth century began a transformation of the planet’s ecology, economy, culture, and politics that produced the globalized world we live in today. From the exchange of capital to land use, from religious practice to cultural production, contact with hitherto separated peoples and places sparked ongoing changes worldwide. [read more»]

In Ghosts of Revolution (2011), Shalah Talebi’s haunting account of her years as a political prisoner in Iran, she engages two interrelated premises put forth by Walter Benjamin: that telling stories of lived experiences opens the possibility of a true human connection, the transmission of wisdom, and individual and social transformation; and, to paraphrase Benjamin, that death sanctions everything the storyteller can tell, for the storyteller borrows her authority from death. [read more»]

Please join Boris Groys for a gallery talk and reception from 6-8pm Wednesday April 10th for the conceptual and experimental exhibition “After History: Alexandre Kojève as a Photographer,” which presents the photographs, collected postcards, and hand-drawn itineraries of the French-Russian philosopher Alexandre Kojève (1902-1968) to compose a visual exposition of his philosophy. [read more»]

This lecture, drawn from Demos’ forthcoming book Return to the Postcolony: Spectres of Colonialism in Contemporary Art (2013), examines Belgian artist Vincent Meesen's film Vita Nova (2009), and opens up the aesthetics of its colonial hauntology. [read more»]

Mayanthi Fernando, author of “France is my Bled': The Unpredictable Future of Impolite Citizenship” and Yarimar Bonilla, author of “Non-Sovereign Futures? French Caribbean Politics in the Wake of Disenchantment” be in discussion with Tony Alessandrini, Vincent Crapanzano, Kaiama L. Glover, Judith Surkis [read more»]