Dr. Colin Wright’s Keynote Address: The Politics of Hope
December 8, 2012
Dr. Colin Wright, co-director of the Centre for Critical Theory, has kindly given us permission to reproduce here his keynote address, delivered to Vital Theory 2012 delegates. I will say just a very few words about the question of hope, and why it is vital, precisely, that we develop a theory of the politics of …
Update from the Front Line of the Struggle for Hope
December 7, 2012
So far today, we’ve had discussions of hope in Beckett, the events of the Arab Spring, the rebirth of civil society, new art movements and political artistic practices, and feminist utopias! If you’ve missed out on what has so far been a very exciting day, do join us this afternoon in the Engineering and Sciences …
Planning the Aesthetics and Politics Workshop
December 4, 2012
I thought it might be a useful exercise (as both a potential ‘helping hand’ and a metaphorical scream!) to share my present experience of preparing a workshop for Friday’s symposium. With very little experience of facilitating a theoretical workshop it is certainly a daunting affair – as the clock ticks my nails are nearing the …
Securing Funding
November 30, 2012
It is a widely recognised feature of the contemporary academic landscape – especially in the Arts and Humanities – that there is less money than there used to be. Yet – perhaps not entirely coincidentally – things seem to cost a good deal more than they used to. That includes symposia such as ours, and …
Welcome to the Vital Theory Blog
November 21, 2012
Welcome to our Vital Theory Blog. After the success of last year, we’re busy ferreting away to put on this year’s Vital Theory symposium: The Politics of Hope. At this stage our interests include: locating hope within the Marxist tradition; exploring the (mis)appropriation of hope and “hope politics” in mainstream political discourse, and, perhaps most ambitiously, looking …
