Italian Thought Today: Biopolitics, Nihilism, Empire
University of Kent, 5th – 6th April 2008
International conference financed by the British Academy and the School of European Culture and Languages
Conference Organiser: Dr Lorenzo Chiesa (L.Chiesa@kent.ac.uk)
Against the background of a recent and widespread resurgence of Italian contemporary thought, and Italian leftist political theory in particular, the aim of this conference is two-fold. First, the conference intends to explore three key notions elaborated in the recent works of some of the most important Italian living philosophers (Gianni Vattimo’s “emancipatory nihilism”, Antonio Negri’s “Empire”, and Giorgio Agamben’s and Roberto Esposito’s “biopolitics”). Secondly, and more importantly, this conference aims to assess the impact of these notions on academic fields as diverse as international relations, political economics, history, and literature.
“Italian Thought Today” therefore aspires to promote an interdisciplinary dialogue across the humanities and social sciences that should at the same time also problematise the philosophical notions mentioned above in light of their application to a non-philosophical domain. Is Negri’s idea that the globalisation of world markets has led to a progressive decline in the sovereignty of nation-states useful to explain the Realpolitik of today’s diplomacy? How can Vattimo’s emancipatory concept of “active” nihilism be challenged by the “passive” nihilism that seems to pervade much of the new Italian narrative? Shouldn’t Agamben analyses of the politics of life be expanded in order to include detailed economical considerations? More generally, why are Italian philosophers imposing themselves at a global level at this precise time in history?
Although the notions investigated in this conference have lately been the object of much attention, the novelty of this conference lies in its intention to contextualise them beyond the boundaries of philosophical discourse. This conference will bring together two of the protagonists of today’s Italian philosophical scene (Vattimo and Esposito), a number of well-established critics of their work, as well as a number of leading scholars from across the humanities and social sciences who, in their recent research, have been confronting themselves with the concepts of nihilism, Empire, and biopolitics.
Confirmed speakers:
Professor Gianni Vattimo (Professor of Theoretical Philosophy, University of Turin, Italy): [title t.b.a.]
Professor Roberto Esposito (Professor of Theoretical Philosophy, Istituto Scienze Umane, Naples, Italy): Totalitarianism and Biopolitics
Dr Sergio Benvenuto (Psychoanalyst and Senior Researcher, Institute for Cognitive Sciences and Technologies, Italian Council for Scientific Research, Rome, Italy): Return to the Real: Philosophy in the Epoch of Bio-Technologies and Bio-Politics
Professor Andrew Benjamin (Professor of Critical Theory and Philosophical Aesthetics, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia): Why Paul? Why Today?
Professor Timothy Campbell (Associate Professor, Italian Studies, Cornell University, USA): From the Impolitical to the Impersonal: Roberto Esposito’s Politics of Life
Professor Timothy Murphy (Associate Professor, English, University of Oklahoma, USA): Pedagogy of the Moltitude: Negri on Stage
Dr Matteo Mandarini (Queen Mary University, University of London): Not Fear But Hope in the Apocalyspse
Dr Alberto Toscano (Sociology, Goldsmiths College, University of London): Abstract Life: The Biopolitical Logic of Capitalism and Empire
Dr Ozren Pupovac (Sociology, Open University / Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht, The Netherlands): Machiavelli, Negri, Althusser: Encounters and Detours
Dr Shane Weller (Comparative Literature, University of Kent): The Art and Ethics of Distortion: Heidegger, Derrida, Vattimo
Dr Lorenzo Chiesa (Italian Studies, University of Kent): Homo Sacer: A Franciscan Ontology
