After a thousand years of world ascendency, the Euro-American archive might finally be running dry. Meanwhile, not only is the world moving South and East, but so is theory. The redrawing of the global intellectual map which started during the era of decolonization is proceeding unabated. The worldwide dissemination of thought is buttressed by a worldwide circulation and translation of texts, a highly productive invention and re-appropriation of concepts and the de-nationalization of the great academic debates. Under what conditions can the de-nationalization of the humanities bring a truly global perspective to conventional theory and criticism and rekindle our research imagination?
To address these issues, the Johannesburg Workshop in Theory and Criticism in collaboration with the Franklin Humanities Institute at Duke University is launching a new initiative, Southern Theory | Global Humanities. The first event under this rubric will consist of a Lecture Series on Frantz Fanon by Achille Mbembe. The second event consists of a series of roundtable discussions with Andile Mngxitama and others.
The Lecture Series and roundtables will build on the ‘return’ of Fanon in academic and activist circles in South Africa and the rest of the world. It will explore his unique contribution to twentieth-century critical thought and will read the latter against that of Benjamin, Freud, Lacan and Foucault in particular.
Monday 28 May, 6-8.30pm, Fanon, Benjamin and Foucault by Achille Mbembe
Tuesday 29 May, 6-8.30pm, Fanon, Freud and Lacan by Achille Mbembe
Thursday 31 May, 6-8.30pm, Fanon on Blackness - a roundtable discussion with Andile Mngxitama, Achille Mbembe and others.
Wednesday 8 August, 4-6.30pm, Fanon on Love and Community - roundtable TBC.
The venue for the above public engagements will be the WISER Seminar Room, 6th Floor, Richard Ward Building, East Campus, Wits. For further information contact Leigh-Ann.Naidoo@wits.ac.za
