Equality, Vulnerability, Precarity

Reading Judith Butler’s Precarious Life and Frames of War

Pavilion Parade, University of Brighton

30th April – 11th June 2014

In this term-long reading course, hosted by the Critical Studies Research Group and the Understanding Conflict Research Cluster, we will engage in a close critical reading of Judith Butler’s Precarious Life (2004) and Frames of War (2009). In these texts Butler further develops her recent ethical work, offering a theory of generalised precariousness to interrogate the conditions necessary for a life to be livable. She situates her analysis in the context of modern warfare, focusing her critique on the ‘war on terror’ and the Israeli State’s occupation of Palestine. This course will be relevant to those interested in philosophy, political theory, history, law, sociology, war and peace studies, memory studies, gender studies, queer theory, international relations, cultural studies and geography.

The reading course is free and open to all members of University of Brighton and University of Sussex. All sessions will be held between 16:00 and 18:30 on Wednesday afternoons in B5 Pavilion Parade, BN2 1RA.

To register interest please contact Tim Huzar: t.huzar1@uni.brighton.ac.uk.

The Critical Studies Research Group (CSRG) was founded in 2011 by postgraduate students in the School of Humanities, University of Brighton, with the aim of providing an interdisciplinary forum for the discussion of critical ideas and practices in light of the socio-political struggles we face today. The challenges that interdisciplinarity might pose are counteracted by our shared interest in the role and scope of critical thought and practice in the context of contemporary capitalism. For more information on the CSRG, please visit: brightoncsrg.noblogs.org.

The recently established Understanding Conflict research cluster brings together expertise in humanities and social sciences from across the University of Brighton. The cluster aims to develop, over a number of years, a valuable interdisciplinary synthesis for understanding and engaging with the forms and legacies of recent and contemporary violent conflict.

Course Outline

All sessions will be held between 16:00 and 18:30
on Wednesday afternoons in B5 Pavilion Parade, BN2 1RA.

Precarious Life

30th April

‘Explanation and Exoneration, or What We Can Hear’ – Chapter One
‘Violence, Mourning, Politics’ – Chapter Two

7th May

‘Indefinite Detention’ – Chapter Three
‘The Charge of Anti-Semitism: Jews, Israel and the Risks of Public Critique’ – Chapter Four

14th May

‘Precarious Life’ – Chapter Five
‘Violence, Non-Violence: Sartre on Fanon’ in Graduate Faculty Philosophy Journal, 27:1, 2006

Frames of War

21st May

‘Introduction to the Paperback’
‘Introduction: Precarious Life, Grievable Life’

28th May

‘Survivability, Vulnerability, Affect’ – Chapter One
‘Torture and the Ethics of Photography: Thinking with Sontag’ – Chapter Two

4th June

‘Sexual Politics, Torture, Secular Time’ – Chapter Three
‘Non-Thinking in the Name of the Normative’ – Chapter Four

11th June

‘The Claim of Non-Violence’ – Chapter Five
Mills, C. (2007), ‘Normative Violence, Vulnerability and Responsibility’, Differences, 18:2
Jenkins, F. (2007), ‘Toward a Nonviolent Ethics’, Differences, 18:2

The Critical Studies Research Group resumes its activity with a new series of work-in-progress presentations. We conceived the series as a way to present our work within a supportive and welcoming environment, sharing thoughts and ideas over lunch break. This term we will start next Tuesday (January 14th) with Tim Huzar‘s presentation on Judith Butler’s concept of nonviolence. He’s prepared a brief outline of his presentation:

“In this presentation I offer an overview of Butler’s account of nonviolence, situating it in the context of ‘proper’ and ‘improper’ forms of resistance. As Judith Butler has noted, liberal understandings of nonviolence are flawed in that they typically refuse to recognise the ubiquity of the variety of forms of violence attendant to the modern subject. In this way the modern subject finds themselves “mired” in violence – a violence which is often beyond their control – making the notion of a nonviolent act, ethos, or ethics unsustainable. Nonetheless, Butler maintains that the question of what nonviolence could mean is still pertinent precisely because of the ubiquity of violence in the continuing formation of the modern subject. Can we understand nonviolence as an improper form of politics?”

We will continue meeting between 1-2pm in room 303, Pavilion Parade Building (between 12-13 Pavilion Parade and Pavilion Street). Entry is free and open to all students and staff of the Universities of Brighton and Sussex. For the door code to gain access to the building, please contact us.

The following work-in-progress presentation will be given the 21st of January by Ana Zivkovic on the British Discursive Constructions of the Struggle for Independence in Montenegro until the Congress of Berlin in 1878. We will post soon a full list of this term’s presenters, as a well as some more information about the graduate conference we are preparing.