April 19, 2013, by Tom Harding

CCT Visiting Speaker Series: Peter Hallward, ‘The Dictatorship of the People’, Wednesday 24 April 17:00 in Trent B40

“The will of the people involves collective action and direct participation. A democratic political will depends on the power and practice of inclusive assembly, the power to sustain a common commitment.”

– Peter Hallward, The Will of the People¹

You are all very welcome to join us for the next event in the Centre for Critical Theory’s visiting speaker series which will take place in B40 of the Trent Building at 17:00 on Wednesday 24 April (that’s next Wednesday).

Professor Peter Hallward (Kingston University) works on recent and contemporary French philosophy and is perhaps best known as a translator and critical exegete of the work of Alain Badiou. He has published widely in postcolonialism, with works including Absolutely Postcolonial: Writing Between the Singular and the Specific and Damning the Flood: Haiti, Aristide, and the Politics of Containment.

His most recent work has explored the much maligned intellectual tradition of voluntarism, and has sought to establish its critical and political relevance. The paper he will give on Wednesday – provocatively entitled ‘The Dictatorship of the People‘ – will continue this exploration. With the events of the ‘Arab Spring’ ongoing, and Occupy fresh in our minds, this promises to be an exciting opportunity to rethink (and perhaps radicalise?) the concept of political will.

An abstract will be published here in advance of the event, so do check back! We hope to see you there.

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¹ Hallward, P., 2009. The Will of the People: Notes Toward a Dialectical Voluntarism. In: Radical Philosophy 155: pp. 17-29.

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