CALL FOR PAPERS
Centre for Critical and Cultural Theory
Cardiff University
20th Anniversary Conference
Zoontotechnics (Animality/Technicity)
12th-14th May 2010
Plenary Speakers
Bernard Stiegler, Director of the Department of
Cultural Development at the Centre Georges-Pompidou
and Director of the Institut de recherche et d'innovation (IRI)
David Wills â?¨ (University at Albany-SUNY)
We are also inviting Avital Ronell (New York
University) (participation to be confirmed)
Since the founding of the Centre for Critical
and Cultural Theory in 1989, when the prevalent
currents were postmodernism, poststructuralism
and postcolonialism, new developments have helped
reshape the theoretical landscape. Key among
them have been cyberculture, the digital revolution in
technology, globalization, and the search for
critical modes beyond the human. More recently
philosophical-ethical revaluations of the
'animal' and renewed reflections on various aspects of
technology and technics, both within and beyond
the emerging framework of posthumanism, have
provided two of the most stimulating
developments in critical and cultural theory that might offer
new departures. While there have been numerous
conferences and symposia on each perspective, none
has been organized with a view to encouraging a
critical dialogue between researchers in these two
usually separate fields. If Aristotle's
definition of 'man' was that he is a zoon logon ekhon
(animal having speech) and a zoon politikon
(political animal), in what ways has he become a zoon
tekhnikon? Is this ultimately necessary to
ensure the survival of the species or is it conducive to
its transformation? With an increasingly
globalized 'humanity' installed in the post-9/11 age of a
technology-led terrorism and the credit crunch,
the conference will consider these overarching
questions, as well as others outlined briefly below.
In planning our 20th anniversary, we decided to
address the future, rather than look back
nostalgically on past achievements. This seems a
more invigorating way of convening a truly
celebratory event. With this focus on futurity
in mind, we plan to include a round-table work on the
Futures of Technology and Culture that will
feature the activities interfacing new technologies and
culture that are part of the remit of
Beaubourg's Institute for Research and Innovation led by
Professor Stiegler. Other conference events will
feature performance art at the crossroads of the
animal and the technical. We very much hope that
the conference will prove to be an intellectual
landmark. â?¨
Possible themes for individual papers or panels might include:
? The relation of animality and/or technicity to posthumanismm
? The critical interface between
posthumanism and transhumaniism, 'life sciences',
biotechnology and bioethics, artificiality and hybridization
? Futures of life, animality and technicity and of 'humanity''
? Man's relation to technics and
technology after Heidegger'ss 'The Question Concerning
Technology'
? Man's relation to animality after
Derrida's The Animal That Therefore I Am
? Extensions of technology to redefining
art and humanities, not just extending man (cf.
Technology, Environment, Design)
? Work addressing concepts such as the
prosthetic, the inhuman, the digital, the virtual, etc.
? Animality, technicity and gender
We are particularly interested in proposals for
papers and panels that engage with the interface
between the two main strands of the conference
theme. Papers are also invited on thinkers who have
addressed both aspects, (e.g. the
becoming-animal and the machinic in Deleuze).
Abstracts for papers (no more than 300 words)
and proposals for panels should be sent to
(zoonto /at/ cardiff.ac.uk) by 31st December 2009.
Professor Chris Weedon,
Chair of the Centre for Critical and Cultural Theory
Centre for Critical and Cultural Theory
School of English, Communication and Philosophy,
Humanities Building,
Colum Dri
ve,
Cardiff
CF10 3EU
tel - +44 (029) 2087 5606
fax- +44 (029) 2087 4502
