The UCLA Political Theory Workshop aims to host a diverse set of presentations each year in the field of political theory. Presenters circulate a paper in advance (posted here) and we hope that all participants in the workshop will take care to read the paper before the workshop itself. Our guests offer only a brief précis of their papers and a designated respondent then provides an initial assessment before opening the floor for a general discussion. Presentations are open to the public and anyone is welcome to attend; please feel free to circulate notice of upcoming talks to interested parties. The Workshop generally takes place on Friday afternoons in 4357 Bunche Hall. The Winter 2012 workshop convener is Giulia Sissa. More information on political theory at UCLA can be found here. 

Previous schedules and papers from last year are available in the Political Theory Workshop Archive.

Winter 2012

Friday, February 10th
Vincent Farenga, USC
"Authoring Justice: A Dialogue between Contemporary Theories of Justice and the Literature of Injustice"
Bunche 4357, 4:00pm

Discussant: Roni Hirsch

Friday, February 17th

Marcel Henaff, UCSD

Rationality and Symbolic Deficit  :  Emotions, Rituals, and Democracy"

Bunche 4357, 4:00pm

Fall 2011

Friday, September 30th
Brian Walker-Esparza, UCLA
"Jane Bennett and the Yogic Body:  On Pluralism and Dogma in Environmental Rhetoric"
Bunche 4357, 4:15pm
Discussant: Kirstie McClure

Friday, October 21st
Jason Frank, Cornell University
"Delightful Horror: Burke, Paine, and the Aesthetics of Democratic Revolution"
Bunche 4357, 4:15pm
Discussant: Rebekah Sterling

Friday, November 4th (with REP Workshop)
Paul Apostolidis, Whitman College
"Migrant Day Laborers, Neoliberal Temporality, and the Politics of Time."
Bunche 4357, 4:15pm
Discussant: Raul Moreno

Friday, December 2nd
Mark Brown, CSU Sacramento
"Climate Change Denial and Counter-Democracy"
Bunche 4357, 4:15pm
Discussant: Beltrán Undurraga

[Rescheduled for Spring quarter: Shannon Stimson, UC Berkeley
"The General Will After Rousseau: Tropes of the Imagination in the Political and Economic Thought of Smith and Hume"
Bunche 4357, 4:15pm
Discussant: Megan Gallagher

FALL 2011 -Theory-related events

Thursday, Nov. 10th
W. J. T. Mitchell, University of Chicago
Lecture — "Seeing Through Race: Teachable Moments in Contemporary Media"
Royce 314 at 5pm
[Comparative Literature Dept. Lecture]

Nov. 17-19:  'Life! Motions, Motives, Emotions'

This three-day conference will be held on UCLA's campus and at the Instituto Italiano di Cultura of Los Angeles, in Westwood, between Thursday November 17th and Saturday November 19th. Organized by the network of Italian Scholars Abroad, the Instituto Italiano di Scienza Umane (SUM), the Fondazione SUM, the UCLA Center for Jewish Studies, and the UCLA Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, each day of the conference is oriented toward a different aspect of the 'emotional turn,' a paradigm shift affecting disciplines across the university.

The theme of Thursday's events, co-organized with the UCLA Center for Jewish Studies, is Italian unification and political identity. The first session will be dedicated to the emotions which are always crucial in the building of a nation, particularly in political theory, in literature, in the theatre, and in the opera.  The theme of Friday's events, co-organized with the UCLA Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, is 'The Renaissance of the Passions: Ancients and Moderns.' Panels will be devoted to epistemology, erotic passions, gender, aesthetics, and political passions, among other topics.  Saturday's events will consider the emotional turn from the perspective of the social sciences.

Check out the conference website for details at http://lifeconference2011.wordpress.com/panels-papers/

For more information, please contact Giulia Sissa (sissa@ucla.edu ), Libby Barringer (libby.barringer@gmail.com), Megan Gallagher (mgallagher@ucla.edu), or Althea Sircar (sircar@ucla.edu).