Thursday 13th June 2019, 6.00 pm
P21 Gallery, 21- 27 Chalton St, Kings Cross, London, NW1 1JD

Sink Without Trace: Exhibition on Migrant Deaths at Sea

Our friend and colleague Federica Mazzara will be launching her book  Reframing Migration: Lampedusa, Border Spectacle and Aesthetics of Subversion, on June 13th at the P21 Gallery in London at 6pm in the context of the exhibition Sink Without Trace, on migrant death at sea, that she has co-curated with artist Maya Ramsay. The book launch is part of a series of events related to the exhibition, including a final symposium with guest speakers including Iain Chambers and Valentina Zagaria. Full details and registration here.

Full details about the exhibition and venue here.

The School of Humanities at the University of Westminster, in which the IMCC is based, is offering two studentships – including a fee waiver of home/EU fees* and stipend of £16,777 per annum for three years full-time study – to commence in either September 2019 or January 2020.

The School of Humanities, based in the University’s historic Regent Street building, offers a vibrant, multidisciplinary research environment. There is a well-established PhD programme and you can study in, or across, a wide range of disciplines, including Contemporary Chinese Studies, English Language, English Literature, French and Francophone Studies, History, Linguistics, Museums and Heritage, Translation Studies, Visual Culture and Cultural Studies.

We welcome applications for doctoral projects which span two or more areas of expertise.

To discuss informally where your research idea might fit within our specialisms, or for queries about any aspect of the application process, please contact Dr Helen Glew h.glew@westminster.ac.uk in the first instance.

For details on how to apply, please visit our How to apply page. Please follow these links to apply for the programme most appropriate to your research. Note that the programme appears as MPhil on UCAS, however there is an option on the form to request PhD via MPhil, which is the standard route:

• MPhil/PhD English Literature P052477
• MPhil/PhD English Language P052481
• MPhil/PhD Linguistics P052485
• MPhil/PhD Visual Culture P052489
• MPhil/PhD Modern and Applied Language P052493
• MPhil/PhD History P052505

The Studentship title is Humanities studentship. The closing date for applications is 5pm on 17th May. Interviews will be held during the week beginning 17th June.

*Please note that while overseas fee paying students may apply, the fee waiver would be at the home/EU rate and successful applicants will need to pay the difference in the tuition fee if assessed as overseas.

Wednesday 3 April 2019, 5.00 pm
Room UG04, University of Westminster, 309 Regent Street, London W1B

Thursday 4th April 2019, 5.00-6.30 pm
UG05 Lecture Theatre, University of Westminster, 309 Regent Street

Race, Occidentalism/Orientalism and Sino-centrism in Wang Chong’s adaptation of Heiner Müller’s Hamletmachine (2009) and his multi-lingual show Revolutionary Model Play 2.0 (2015)
Mary Mazzilli (University of Essex)

Dr Mary Mazzilli is Lecturer in the Department of Literature, Film and Theatre Studies at Essex. Prior to that, she worked at Goldsmiths, University of London in the Theatre and Performance Department (2015-2016) and in 2012-2014, was a post-doctoral fellow at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Her monograph Gao Xingjian’s Post-Exile Plays: Transnationalism and Postdramatic Theatre is published by Bloomsbury Methuen Drama.

Organised by our friends in HOMELandS, the Contemporary China Centre and Language Acts and Worldmaking.

Register via Eventbrite page here.

Thursday 28th March, 6.00 pm
Fyvie Hall, University of Westminster, 309 Regent Street, London W1B

Poetics of Contemporary Art
Peter Osborne (CRMEP) and David Cunningham (IMCC)

The final in our series of six public lectures and exchanges on philosophy, politics and culture is a discussion of the Poetics of Contemporary Art with Peter Osborne, Director of the Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy at Kingston, and David Cunningham, Deputy Director of the Institute for Modern and Contemporary Culture.

All the events have been recorded. We will be posting links soon!

Wednesday 20 March 2019, 5.00 pm
Room UG04, University of Westminster, 309 Regent Street, London W1B

Thursday 14 March 2019, 18:00 – 20:00 pm
Fyvie Hall, University of Westminster, 309 Regent Street, London W1B

Towards a Socialist Cosmopolitanism
Etienne Balibar (CRMEP, Kingston University)

The fifth 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.

Etienne Balibar is Anniversary Chair Professor in Modern European Philosophy at Kingston University and a Visiting Professor at the Department of French and Romance Philology at Columbia University. A contributor to Louis Althusser’s seminal Reading Capital (1965), he is author of Spinoza and Politics (1985), The Philosophy of Marx (1993), Violence and Civility (2010), Citizen Subject (2011) and Equaliberty (2014), among many other works. His most recent book, Secularism and Cosmopolitanism: Critical Hypotheses on Religion and Politics, was published in English translation by Columbia University Press in 2018.

Chaired by Elinor Taylor (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.

Wednesday 6th March 2019, 5:00 pm
Room UG04, University of Westminster, 309 Regent Street, London

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

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!

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 25^th 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 26^th 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 27^th and Thursday 28^th 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 27^th 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 27^th 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 27^th 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 28^th 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).

Book your place

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.

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”

Thursday 24 January 2019, 18:00 – 20:00 pm
Fyvie Hall, University of Westminster, 309 Regent Street, London W1B

Is Memory the Basis of History (After Trump)?
Lucy Bond (IMCC) & Howard Caygill (CRMEP, Kingston University)

The second 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.

Lucy Bond is Senior Lecturer in American Literature and Culture at the University of Westminster. She is author of Frames of Memory After 9/11 (2015), co-editor of The Transcultural Turn (2014) and Memory Unbound (2016), and co-author of the forthcoming Trauma in the Routledge New Critical Idiom series.

Howard Caygill is Professor of Philosophy at Kingston University. Among other works, he is author of Kafka: In Light of the Accident (2017), On Resistance: A Philosophy of Defiance (2013), Levinas and the Political (2002) and Walter Benjamin: The Colour of Experience (1998).

Chaired by John Beck (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.

Thursday 17 January 2019, 18:00 – 20:00 pm
UG05, University of Westminster, 309 Regent Street, London W1B

Is Science the Subject of Philosophy? Miller, Badiou and Derrida
Catherine Malabou (CRMEP, Kingston University)

The first 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.

Catherine Malabou is a Professor in Philosophy at the Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy (CRMEP) at Kingston University, and in Comparative Literature at the University of California Irvine. She is author of books including The Future of Hegel: Plasticity, Temporality, and Dialectic (1996), What Should We Do With Our Brain? (2004), The Ontology of the Accident: An Essay on Destructive Plasticity (2009), and Sois mon corps, with Judith Butler (2010).

All welcome, but booking via eventbrite is essential. Book here.

Further events in the series can be found here.

The IMCC is delighted to announce a series of public lectures and exchanges to be held at the University of Westminster in collaboration with our friends in the Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy based at Kingston University. All lectures are free to attend, but booking is essential.

Thursday 17 January 2019, 6.00 – 8.00 pm

Is Science the Subject of Philosophy? Miller, Badiou and Derrida
Catherine Malabou, CRMEP, Kingston University

Thursday 24 January 2019, 6.00 – 8.00 pm

Is Memory the Basis of History (After Trump)?
Lucy Bond, IMCC, University of Westminster & Howard Caygill, CRMEP, Kingston University

Thursday 7 February 2019, 6.00 – 8.00 pm

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

Thursday 28 February 2019, 6.00 – 8.00 pm

What’s Wrong with Human Rights?
Radha D’Souza, Westminster Law School & Peter Hallward, CRMEP, Kingston University

Thursday 14 March 2019, 6.00 – 8.00 pm

Towards a Socialist Cosmopolitanism
Etienne Balibar, CRMEP, Kingston University

Thursday 28 March 2019, 6.00 – 8.00 pm

Poetics of Contemporary Art
David Cunningham, IMCC, University of Westminster & Peter Osborne, CRMEP, Kingston University

All events will be in Fyvie Hall, University of Westminster, 309 Regent Street, London W1B 2HW, except for the first lecture with Catherine Malabou which will be in Lecture Theatre UG05 in the same building.

All lectures are free at attend, but booking via eventbrite is essential. Please book here.

The University of Westminster (including staff in the IMCC) is one of the nine universities that now make up the AHRC-funded technē Doctoral Training Partnership.

technē supports outstanding students pursuing the ‘craft’ of research through innovative, interdisciplinary and creative approaches across a range of the arts and humanities. For more information on technē and the kinds of projects it funds, please see http://www.techne.ac.uk/phd-funding-2019-in-the-arts-and-humanities

As well as financial support, technē offers a developmental framework for doctoral researchers across the collaborating institutions, with research training, supportive community networks, professional and public engagement opportunities and a space for both independent and collaborative scholarship. Studentships include maintenance and fees for three years for a full time student; or six years for a part-time student. Normally to be eligible for a full award a student must have no restrictions on how long they can stay in the UK and have been ordinarily resident in the UK for at least 3 years prior to the start of the studentship.

The deadline for applications is 4 January 2019. Interviews will be held in the week commencing 4 February 2019.

Further details, including how to apply, can be found here: https://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/BON679/techne-ahrc-doctoral-training-partnership