EVENT DETAILS

25th Annual Critical Theory Roundtable

The Department of Political Science, UCI Critical Theory, and the School of Social Sciences are pleased to host the 25th annual meeting of the Critical Theory Roundtable.

The Critical Theory Roundtable is a small, high caliber conference that represents the best of the diverse streams of critical theory in philosophy and the social sciences.  In the past it’s been hosted at Yale University, Northwestern, Dartmouth, the University of Toronto, and other venues across the country.  It draws participants from across the US and often Europe.  The conference now represents a new generation of critical theorists who are focused on diversifying the perspectives and problems in the field.  This includes challenges of neoliberalism, globalization, and nationalism, and fostering creative new critical modalities in the social sciences, humanities, and arts.  This year celebrates the Critical Theory Roundtable's 25th year.  The decision to hold the conference at UC Irvine is signature of these new currents in the field.

Saturday 4 November
1517 Social and Behavioral Sciences Gateway

8:30 am    Coffee and pastries
8:50 am    Opening remarks

9:00-10:30 am   Powers and Freedoms
               
    Chair:  Kevin Olson, University of California, Irvine
 
“A Critical Theory of Political Protest and Resistance: Reflections on Revolt and Revolution”
Maeve Cooke, University College Dublin, Ireland

“The People as Lawless Unity”
Joshua Braver, Tufts University

“Grounding Social Freedom”
Katharine McIntyre, Columbia University
 
10:30-10:45 am break

10:45-11:45 pm Solidarity and Justice in Precarious Times
               
    Chair:  James Steintrager, University of California, Irvine

“Solidarity and Collective Agency”
Barbara Fultner, Denison University

“Capitalism, Class, and Domination in Fraser’s Critical Theory of Justice”
Lillian Cicerchia, Fordham University

11:45-1:30           Lunch

1:30-3:00 pm     Rights and Citizenship
               
    Chair:  Keith Topper, University of California, Irvine

“Legitimating the International Human Rights Order Ecologically:  Modular or Constitutional? A Critique of Buchanan”
David Ingram, Loyola University, Chicago

“Citizenship and the Reconceptualization of Domesticated Animal Rights”
Jorge Valadez, Our Lady of the Lake University

“Neoliberal Globalization and the International Protection of Human Rights”
Cristina Lafont, Northwestern University

3:00-3:15 pm     Break

3:15-4:45 pm     Dark Pasts and Ambiguous Futures
                Chair:  Verena Erlenbusch, University of Memphis

“At the Boundary of Fascism: Georges Bataille and the Excitation of Democracy”
Andrew Poe, Amherst College

“Cultivating Authoritarian Submission: Everyday Practices of American Neoliberalism”
Ashleigh Campi, University of Southern California

“Historical Criticism without Progress: Memory as an Emancipatory Resource for Critical Theory”
Peter Verovšek, University of Sheffield, UK

4:45-5:00 pm     Break

5:00-6:30 pm     Deliberative Epistemologies
                Chair: Simone Chambers, University of California, Irvine

“Post-Truth Politics, and the Crisis of Deliberative Democracy: Habermas, Rawls, and Rorty on Truth in Politics”
Eduardo Mendieta, Pennsylvania State University

“Epistemic Injustice, Powerlessness, and the Division of Deliberative Labor”
John B. Min, College of Southern Nevada, and James Wong, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

“Disagreement and Justification: On Political Reasoning in Rancière and Forst”
Kris Klotz, Pennsylvania State University
Sunday 5 November
1517 Social and Behavioral Sciences Gateway

8:45 am                Coffee and pastries

9:15-10:45 am   Sexuality, Affect, Desire
                Chair:  Christopher Sardo

“’Love is the structural core of all ethical life’: On Honneth’s Use of Psychoanalysis”
Todd Hedrick, Michigan State University

“Queering Critical Theory: Re-visiting the Early Frankfurt School on Homosexuality and Critique”
Bruce Baum, University of British Columbia

“Reading Fanon on White Female Negrophobia”
Nicole Yokum, Pennsylvania State University

10:45-11:00 am Break

11:00-12:30 pm Logics of Politics
                Chair:  Mary McThomas, University of California, Irvine

“Democratic Constitutional Authorship: Clearing Away Three Conceptual Impediments”
Christopher Zurn, University of Massachusetts, Boston

“On Cynical Speech: The Normativity of ‘Blatant’ Strategic Action”
John McGuire, University College Dublin, Ireland

“Political Feasibility: An Interpretive Approach”
Amit Ron, Arizona State University