The Centre for the Study of Theory and Criticism
Stevenson Hall 2157, Western University London, ON, Canada

In his recent book Earworm and Event (Duke UP 2022), Eldritch Priest explores music, daydreams, and other imaginary refrains to address what might be called the earworm unconscious. Playing fast and loose with concepts drawn from a variety of sources including animal studies, process philosophy, stand-up comedy, philosophy of language, stream of consciousness, and neuroscience, Priest rebels against certain of the metaphysical distractions of recent sound studies but also ...the sober remit of the cognitive sciences, both of which overlook just how weird and funny earworms are. That said, this talk will not be about the earworm per se. Instead, through a reverie on reverie, Priest considers the infectious refrain of daydreaming from an idle pastime to an addictive meantime that signals the outbreak of an oneiric contagion. https://www.uwo.ca/theory/events/speaker_series.html See more

London, Ont. places 3rd in ranking of Canada’s best university towns https://preply.com//blog/best-university-cities-in-canada/

This talk explores the impasse of blackness and indigeneity around labour, primarily in the Caribbean’s black radical tradition. It argues that this impasse does not originate in the tradition but is prior to it. It is the expression of the structural necessity of anti-blackness to anti-indigeneity that is central to processes of accumulation, as well as the terminology and language of political and economic critique. It is also central to the establishment of a biopolitical ...break between right and sovereignty in the postcolonial state. That break consolidates the conversion of economic into political right that undergirds Creole sovereignty as a still partial expression of settler-master desire necessary for the maintenance of power. Ultimately, Beyond Constraint seeks to work through this impasse and identify openings to indigeneity within the radical tradition, as well as a means by which we can read against the grain of the always already of the conversion of black and native labours and lives for capitalist political economy. The project sits at the nexus of black, Indigenous, settler, and postcolonial studies, as well as at the nexus of literary and social science objects and methodologies. Join us via Zoom https://uwo.ca/theory/events/speaker_series.html Contact theory[at]uwo.ca for Passcode

The symposium features talks by current Theory Centre students Suhyang Baek, Spencer Kent, Mina Rosefield, and Anna Stoutenburg. Speakers will discuss anticolonial resistance, animal labour, other-than-human agency, and rights discourses in response to the shared precarity of humans and other animals in Africa, the Americas, Palestine, and South Asia. Remote participation is available for those who cannot attend in person. https://westernuniversity.zoom.us//tJAqceurpz8oHNxC2Fgd3Al

Since the advent of Gutenberg’s printing press in the sixteenth century, the medium of the book has mediated and transformed public spheres and private lives up to the present. During the last century, however, continental philosophers have not only read and written many books, but they have also used "the book" as a figure for something much more than bound pages and movable type. This presentation loosely follows the journey that "the book" has taken in recent continental p...hilosophy, not as a mere physical object, but as a metaphysical image for the relationship between human beings and the world. This presentation draws from Lucien Febvre’s The Coming of the Book, Edmond Jabès’ Book of Margins, Jacques Derrida’s "End of the Book," Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari’s 'ontology of the book' in On the Line, Jean-Francois Lyotard’s figural book, Maurice Blanchot’s The Book to Come, and more, all in order to both challenge and further the age old notion that the world is, and always has been, a book. Contact [email protected] for Zoom info

Following up on Arts and Politics of the Situationist International, 1957-1972 (Rowman, 2021), Prof. Matthews delves deeper into Guy Debord’s ‘politics of communication’ as it refers to an association of potentially-revolutionary speaking subjects living and communicating with each other under pervasive forms of legal authority and political power. For the Situationists, the end-game of a politics of communication is a conscious attempt to articulate a different praxis of freedom that not only opens up a new, unnamed mode of socio-cultural existence, but also provides a new kind of ‘Northwest Passage’ toward an unnamed, potential future that is not always-already-there. Contact theorysessions[at]groups.uwo.ca for Zoom info

Congratulations Alexandra M. Hudecki on the publication of your Master's thesis "Second Sight": Acknowledging W.E.B. Du Bois's "Double Consciousness" as a Step Towards Dissolution. https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/7434

Congratulations Matthew Prokopiw on the successful completion and publication of your PhD dissertation "Religion in Modern Sports Fanaticism: From Classical Antiquity to Online Sports Forums." https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/7427/

This Friday @ 3:00 p.m. Jennifer Komorowski on "The Pleasure/Humiliation Discourse of Saint Káteri Tekahkwí:tha." https://westernuniversity.zoom.us/j/93030563554

Congratulations Justas Patkauskas on the publication of your Doctoral dissertation "An Archaeology of Contemporary Speculative Knowledge." https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/7417/

Call for Papers The Self and the Selfless: Hannah Arendt and Simone Weil on Individual Action in Dark Times Online Conference from Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario Conference Dates; April 15-17, 2021... Confirmed Plenary Speakers: Dr. Lissa McCullough, California State University, Carson, CA and Dr. Elvira Roncalli, Carroll College, Helena, MT We welcome abstracts of 250-500 words that engage both or either Weil and Arendt; and their conceptions of self, action, and how to comport oneself in dark times. Please send your abstract no later than December 6, 2020 as a word document cleared of personal data/metadata for blind review to [email protected] and include a brief bio including your name, institutional affiliation, position, and areas of specialization.

Congratulations Elden Yungblut on your MA thesis "Between Worlds, Between Times: Thinking with Trans Narratives at the Limits of Ontology and Temporality" now available online! https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/7412/

Congratulations Taylor McGoey on the successful publication of your MA thesis "Toward a Fluid Cinematic Spectatorship and Desire: Revisiting Laura Mulvey’s Psychoanalytic Film Theories." https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/7401/

Congratulations Natalie Trevino on the most highly attended PhD public lecture in Theory Centre history, with your presentation on "Cosmos, Unfinished." Stay tuned for the successful publication of Natalie's dissertation titled "The Cosmos is Not Finished."

The Canadian Society for Continental Philosophy is pleased to present a lecture by Dr. Ewa Ziarek. Professor Ziarek will be lecturing on Hannah Arendt and big data. All are welcome! https://emich.zoom.us/we/register/WN_Ns4DXxagRQW5mwkD966avQ

Congratulations Austin Chisholm on the successful completion of your MA thesis "Foucault, Affect, History: On the Art of Feeling." https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/7293/

Congratulations Jacob Vangeest on the publication of your MA thesis "Nietzschean Problematics"...you are a Master of the Arts! https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/7295

Congratulations Ryan Shuvera on the successful defense and publication of your dissertation "Sounding Unsettlement: Rethinking Settler States of Mind and Re(-)cognition through Scenes of Cross-Cultural Listening." https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/7208

Congratulations Camilo Hoyos on the publication of your MA thesis "An Ontological Critique of the Self: The Daoist ‘Non-self’ at the Heart of Jung’s Analytical Theory." https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/7169

Founded in 2003, the Society for Existential and Phenomenological Theory and Culture (EPTC) is a Canadian-based international academic society that aims to promote rigorous scholarship drawn from the traditions of existentialism and phenomenology, broadly construed. In addition to theoretical work on core philosophical issues and figures, we are especially interested in providing a forum for showcasing practical and applied research, as well as cross- and interdisciplinary de...velopments of existential and phenomenological themes. Our current call for papers and call for panel proposals can be found on our website, and we welcome submissions from all interested authors. The deadline for paper submissions is 4 January 2021 and the deadline for panel proposals is 30 September 2020. Further inquiries can be directed to us at [email protected].

Congratulations Kathryn Carney on the successful defense and publication of your Master's thesis "Encountering Others: Degeneration, Distortion, and Disability in Interwar German Visual Culture, 1918-1933."

Congratulations to Won Jeon on the publication of her MA thesis "Resonance, a step towards a fluency for complexity: The science, language, and epistemology of Gregory Bateson" All the best in your upcoming Doctoral studies!

Congratulations to Doctoral candidate Christina Burke on receiving the 2020 Film Studies Association of Canada Graduate Student Writing Award! The award was officially announced during the FSAC's virtual Annual General Meeting. The FSAC Student Writing Award recognizes graduate students who show outstanding ability in film and media scholarship. Christina's essay engaged in innovative ways with the future of cinema, cinephilia and cine-eroticism. Well done!

Students can now take advantage of digital delivery and no-contact pickup services for print library collections. https://www.lib.uwo.ca//providing_access_in_the_age_of_cov

Be sure to wear a mask or covering

Congratulations Michelle Liu on the publication of your MA thesis "com-posing abolitionistposthumanism: notes on incommensurability, incomputability and incognita syn-aesthetics."