Posts from February 2019

Cultural Representations of the Female Telephone Operator seminar, February 20th

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Wednesday 20th February 2019, 5:00 pm
Room UG04, University of Westminster, 309 Regent Street, London

 

The Socrates of Prague, film showing, March 11th, Regent Street Cinema

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Monday 11 March 2019, 18:30 pm
Regent Street Cinema, 307 Regent Street, London W1B

The Socrates of Prague

In 1977, in Prague, a city at the heart of Europe, the philosopher Jan Patočka became the unlikely spokesperson for Charta 77 — a proclamation signed by a number of dissidents and issued to the communist authorities that pointed out the flagrant disregard of the norms of freedom and legality by the Communist authorities in the then Czechoslovakia. As a result of this principled action Patočka famously suffered the same fate as his hero Socrates, collapsing and dying after a lengthy interrogation by the secret police, at the age of 69. It is largely to Patočka that we owe Vaclav Havel’s famous call for ‘Living in Truth’ and the need for both civility and civil society. As a philosopher Patočka therefore played an important part in laying the foundations for the non-violent overthrow of Communism in Czechoslovakia in 1989, the so-called ‘Velvet Revolution’.

The Socrates of Prague film explores the life and thought of this extraordinary man with several students and friends who in the 1960s and 70s witnessed Patočka’s intellectual and political efforts, and shared with him the intense desire for a social and political renewal after the dramatic end of the Prague Spring in 1968. The main film is in English and is 17 minutes long. It will be shown along with another short film about Jan Patočka made by the Patočka Archive in Prague (and shown with English subtitles). The event will also feature short talks by Franceso Tava, Senior Lecturer at the University of the West of England in Bristol; Nicolas de Warren Nicolas, Associate Professor of Philosophy at Penn State University; and Graham Henderson, who is leading on the publication of a selected edition of Patočka’s work in English translation, due to be published by Bloomsbury in 2020.

Hosted by the Rimbaud and Verlaine Foundation, it is being held in partnership with, and supported by, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Westminster. It is also being supported by the Czech Centre in London and by the Patočka Archives in Prague.

This event is free of charge but please RSVP in advance to info@rimbaudverlaine.org to reserve a place. These will be allocated on a strictly first come, first served basis. Please reserve your place now to avoid disappointment!

Difference Festival, February 25th to March 1st 2019

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There are a whole host of fantastic events organised by IMCC members and affiliates that are happening as part of the Difference festival at the University of Westminster, focusing this year on the idea of the ‘radical’.

Monday 25th February, 6.00 -8.00 pm
Regent Street Cinema

Hold me like before: radical trans representation on film

Join us for a screening of this independent Costa Rican film Hold Me Like Before (Abrázame Como Antès, 2016; in Spanish with English subtitles). Taking place at the historic Regent Street Cinema, the documentary-style film is followed by a Skype Q&A with director Jurgen Ureña and a panel discussion on transgender representation on film and on the radical way the director went about the filmmaking process. Led by Liz Harvey-Katou, Senior Lecturer in Spanish Language and Culture, with Margherita Sprio, Reader in Film and Visual Culture.

Book your place

Tuesday 26th February, 12.30 – 2.00 pm
Foyer, University of Westminster, 309 Regent Street

Picpoetry radical jam

Discover the visual poet in you with picpoet’s radical way of seeing and feeling the world around you through role-play. Take a walk around the university, discover unexplored angles and new ways of thinking and being. Radicalise the ‘Lawscape’ by exploring how norms allow us to move in certain ways and impede us in others. Take quick pictures and write instant texts that capture your own position with regards to what you see. With an opportunity to win modest but fun prizes. Led by Law and Theory Professor Andreas Philippopoulos-Mihalopoulos, the picpoet.

Book your place

Wednesday 27th and Thursday 28th February, 12.30 – 2.00 pm
Old Gym and Foyer, University of Westminster, 309 Regent Street

Banner up! a radical take-over

As you walk through into our Regent Street entrance, drop by and become an activist in our two-day ‘take-over’ using our workshops and activity stations set up there. Make a cartoon or a political placard in our workshops, or your own badge at our activity station. Your creation will feature in our installation of placards and banners to celebrating this year’s Difference Festival radical theme. Led by students and alumni of our MA Museums, Galleries and Contemporary Culture with the Cartoon Museum and Peter Ride, Principal Research Fellow, School of Humanities and IMCC.

Book your place

Wednesday 27th February, 12.00 – 1.00 pm
Soho Poly Theatre Basement (meet in Foyer), University of Westminster, 4-12 Little Titchfield Street

Radical voices: poetry matters   

Drawing on previous radical Soho Poly Project experiments disrupting time and space with our lunchtime theatre, found sounds and ghost gigs projects, we return to Poetry Matters and the history of poetry at the Polytechnic offering two radical takes. First, Mike Garry, Writer in Residence at Westminster Law School, offers his own radical take on poetry. Second, we offer a further radical take, again disrupting time and space and streaming this lunchtime performance live. Expect surprises. Organised by Guy Osborn, Professor of Law and Matt Morrison, Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing, working with Anna McNally, Senior Archivist.

Book your place

Wednesday 27th February, 1.30 – 3.00 pm
Soho Poly Theatre Basement (meet in Foyer), University of Westminster, 4-12 Little Titchfield Street

The radical in popular culture: alternative theatre in Westminster, a virtual tour

Take a virtual visit of sites and venues in the borough of Westminster to discover why it became a centre of innovative theatre. Tour includes: Inter-Action’s Ambiance lunchtime theatre club in Queensway, their staging of Britain’s first Black Theatre and their time at the Almost Free Theatre in Rupert Street, scene of Britain’s first women’s theatre season in 1974 and first gay theatre season in 1975; the ground-breaking Soho Poly (later the Soho Theatre); the ILEA’s Cockpit Theatre; and the ICA’s controversial socialist theatre season. Find out also about the Cartoon Archetypal Slogan Theatre (CAST), and writing initiatives such as Foco Novo and Joint Stock. Led by our guest Susan Croft, playwright, historian and curator, and Unfinished Histories; organised by Guy Osborn and Matt Morrison, with Anna McNally.

Book your place

Wednesday 27th February, 6.00 – 9.00 pm
Fyvie Hall, University of Westminster, 309 Regent Street

Radical film: voyeurism in documentary filmmaking on migration

Together with a screening, we invite you to sit at our Long Table and take part in discussions with filmmakers, protagonists, curators and activists sharing their work and radical strategies to resist voyeurism in film-making on forced migration. Explore our positions as storytellers, curators and media consumers, think about the responsibilities of those who create visual narratives based on another’s experience and engage with some of those to whom these stories belong. Everyone is welcome to take a seat at the Long Table, breaking down hierarchies of ‘spectator’ and ‘expert’; come and go between table and audience and help the conversation outside on leaving the table. Led by Alternative Fictions, a collective of visual anthropologists and documentary makers, and Migration Collective; organised by Federica Mazzara, Senior Lecturer in Intercultural Communication, and Lily Parrot, School of Law and co-founder of Migration Collective.

Book your place

Thursday 28th February, 6.00 – 8.00 pm
UG04, University of Westminster, 309 Regent Street

Radical curation: race, memory and activism in heritage practice

Join us as we bring together activists, heritage professionals and academics developing new strategies to counter the naturalisation of racial injustice. This roundtable and Q&A examine the challenges of representing and commemorating black and minority histories. Together, we explore ways to bring marginalised pasts to public attention and make hidden histories visible. Followed by a drinks reception. Led by Lucy Bond, Lecturer in English Literature, School of Humanities and IMCC, and Jessica Rapson, Lecturer in Cultural and Creative Industries, King’s College London, with activists and heritage professionals from Tate, Museum of London, Black Cultural Archives, Black History Walks and the Organisation of Women of African and Asian Descent (OWAAD).

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Stella Sandford on Reason in Reverse, February 7th 2019

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Thursday 7 February 2019, 18:00 – 20:00 pm
Fyvie Hall, University of Westminster, 309 Regent Street, London W1B

Reason in Reverse: Kant and Freud on Faults
Stella Sandford (CRMEP, Kingston University)

The third in a series of six Public Lectures on Philosophy, Politics and Culture, co-organised by the IMCC with the Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy.

Stella Sandford is Professor in Modern European Philosophy at Kingston University. She is author of Plato and Sex (2010), How to Read Beauvoir (2006) and The Metaphysics of Love (2000), as well as co-editor of Further Adventures of the Dialectic of Sex: Critical Essays on Shulamith Firestone (2010).

Chaired by Leigh Wilson (IMCC).

The event is free, but booking via eventbrite is essential. You can book here.

Details on the rest of the series can be found here.

Dennis Duncan, Nitpickers vs Windbags: Weaponizing the Book Index, February 6th

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Wednesday 6th February 2019, 6:00 pm
Room UG04, University of Westminster, 309 Regent Street, London

Dennis Duncan
“Nitpickers vs Windbags: Weaponizing the Book Index”