CALL FOR PAPERS
The New School for Social Research's Seventh Annual Radical Democracy Conference:
WHAT IS TO BE DONE?
New York City, April 27-28, 2018.
Keynote speaker: Professor Martin Breaugh (York University)
Deadline for abstract submission: February 15, 2018
The Department of Politics at The New School for Social Research is sponsoring its 7th Annual graduate student conference on the concept, history, practices and implications of radical democracy.
If the preconditions for the rise of the far-right, xenophobia, white supremacy, ethno-nationalism, right-wing populism, religious fundamentalism and fascism can be found within liberal democracy and neo-liberalism, laying bare the violent foundations of the liberal democratic project, then what hope can theories of radical democracy offer toward re-founding society on democratic principles? How have the rise of social movements such as Occupy, the Arab Spring, Rojava, Black Lives Matter, Standing Rock, 15M, AntiFa, and the emergence of left alternatives such as Podemos, MAS and Syriza both exposed the contradictions of institutionalism, capitalism, rule of law, deliberation and other aspects of liberal democracy, and also illuminated the need for radical democratic alternatives? How can we draw inspiration from movements of resistance and networks of solidarity from those being organized inside prisons and detention centers to those occurring from Ferguson to Palestine? How can radical democratic theories help us to (re)imagine strategies of resistance and beyond, opening up new prospects of what is to be done?
We invite abstracts and panel proposals that deal with these questions or other themes dealing with the implications or critiques of radical democracy in our current historical conjuncture. We welcome papers that engage with the myriad of radical democratic theories, from a historical perspective investigating its salience in the history of political thought to more contemporary formulations like Abensour, Brown, Castoriadis, Davis, García Linera, Laclau, Mouffe, Negri, Rancière and Wolin among others. Proposals should not be limited to this list, on the contrary, we are particularly interested in papers and panels utilizing or critiquing the concept of radical democracy itself from the point of view of feminism, post- anti- or de-colonialism, queer theory, indigenous studies, disability studies, critical race theory, or social movements.
Our keynote speaker is Martin Breaugh, Associate Professor of Political Theory at York University (Toronto). His research focuses on the theory and practice of emancipatory politics and radical democracy. He is the author of The Plebeian Experience. A Discontinuous History of Political Freedom published in Paris in 2007 and translated in 2013 at Columbia University Press. He is also the author of the co-edited volume, Thinking Radical Democracy: The Return to Politics in Post-war France, published in 2015.
For individual paper proposals, please submit a one-page abstract (max. 300 words) that includes institutional affiliation, academic level and contact information. Complete panel proposals with up to four papers are strongly encouraged. Please submit your paper or panel abstracts by February 15, 2018 to radicaldemocracy@newschool.edu. Selected participants will be notified early March. Full conference papers are due by April 15th, 2018.