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DECOLONIZING CRITICAL THEORY DECOLONIAL AESTHETICS AND EPISTEMIC VIOLENCE

NOVEMBER 30–DECEMBER 3, 2018

JOHN EVANS ALUMNI CENTER, NORTHWESTeRN UNIVERSITY

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 30

9 am

Revisions of Senghor and Négritude

Graduate Workshop

Yala Kisukidi

(Université Paris VIII)

Chair: Evan Mwangi

(English, NU)

10.30 am

12 pm

Walter Mignolo

Graduate Workshop

Chair: Jorge Sánchez Cruz

(Critical Theory, NU)

An End to Downtown: The Society of Black Composers, The Brooklyn Community Concerts, and the Black Radical Tradition

Ryan Dohoney

(Musicology, NU)

Black Arts Initiative

Brown Bag Lunch Series

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 1

10:45 am

History and the University after Apartheid” and “What Is the University for?

Workshop

Premesh Lalu

(University of the Western Cape)

Chair and Respondent:

Anna Parkinson

(German, NU)

Respondent: Dilip Gaonkar

(Rhetoric and Public Culture/Center for Global Culture and Communication)

Graduate Respondent:

Candice Jansen

(Mellon fellow, WISER, University of the Witwatersrand)

1:30 pm

break

12:15 pm

lunch

1:45 pm

1:35 pm

Modern/Colonial Esthetics and Decolonial/Dewestern Esthesis

Walter Mignolo

(Duke)

Chair: José Medina (Philosophy, NU)

Panel: "Decoloniality, Postgender, and the Posthuman"

Axelle Karera

(Wesleyan University)

“Blackness and the Pitfalls of Anthropocene Ethics”

Chair: Ryan Dohoney

(Musicology, NU)

Respondent:

Kyoo Lee

(CUNY)

Graduate Respondents:

Benjamin Jones

(Art History, NU)

Jared Rodriguez

(African American Studies, NU)

3:45 pm

Racial Hospitality: on Decoloniality and

Afro-Pessimism

Yala Kisukidi

(Université Paris VIII)

Chair: Juan Obarrio

(Johns Hopkins University)

Respondent: Evan Mwangi

(English, NU)

Graduate Respondents:

Marlon Millner

(Religious Studies, NU)

Carmen De Schryver

(Philosophy, NU)

2:45 pm

Hallucinating Selves: Trans* Embodiments and More-Than-Human Perception within Chicana and Latina Feminisms

Panel

Pedro DiPietro

(Syracuse University)

Chair: Ryan Dohoney

(Musicology, NU)

Respondent: Jorge Sánchez Cruz (Critical Theory, NU)

Graduate Respondent:

Alicia Núñez

(Spanish & Portuguese, NU)

6 pm

Art, Culture, and Critique in the Bahamian Context

Panel

Nicolette Bethel

(University of The Bahamas)

Keisha Oliver

(University of The Bahamas)

Malika Pryor-Martin

(The National Art Gallery

of The Bahamas)

Chair:

Joshua Chambers-Letson (Performance Studies, NU)

Respondent: Arnold Kemp

(School of The Art Institute of Chicago)

4 pm

5:15 pm

Panel: Axelle Karera (Wesleyan University) and Pedro DiPietro (Syracuse University) Chair: Ryan Dohoney (Musicology)

Drinks and Documentaries: Premesh Lalu and Uhuru Phalafala

Screening and Discussion of Rui Assubuji’s “Art of Healing” (CHR, 17min) Premesh Lalu’s “Looking for Ned” (CHR, 13min)

10 am

6:30 pm

The Activism of Decolonizing the University in South Africa

Panel

Uhuru Phalafala

(Stellenbosch University) 

Premesh Lalu

(University of the Western Cape) Chair and Host: Northwestern University’s MAP (Minorities and Philosophy) Chapter

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 2

From Critique of the Postcolony to a Postcolonial Form of Critique

Panel

María del Rosario Acosta López

(DePaul University) Respondent: Rocío Zambrana Graduate Respondent:

Eskil Elling

(Philosophy) 

7:15 pm

dinner

10:40 am

Presentation on Juan Obarrio’s The Spirit of the Laws in Mozambique

Panel

Samera Esmeir

(UC Berkeley)

Respondent:

Pamila Gupta (WISER)

Graduate Respondent: Gabriela Mayes

(Rhetoric and Public Culture, NU)

MONDAY, DECEMBER 3

9 am

Discussion of Al-Saji’s “Glued to the Image: Fanon and Muslim Racialization through Works of Art,” and Maldonado-Torres’s “On Metaphysical Catastrophe, Post-Continental Thought, and the Decolonial Turn”

Workshop

Nelson Maldonado-Torres (Rutgers University) 

Alia Al-Saji

(McGill University)

Chair: Rachel Riedl (Director, African Studies Program, NU)

11:20 am

Presentation on Samera Esmeir’s Juridical Humanity: A Colonial History

Panel

Juan Obarrio

(John Hopkins University)

Graduate Respondents: Lauren Baker

(Political Science, NU),

Owen Brown

(Political Science, NU),

Nathalia Justo

(Political Science, NU)

11 am

Fanonian Meditations, the Decolonial Turn, and the Spirit of Bandung

Nelson Maldonado-Torres (Rutgers University)

Chair: Doris Garraway (French & Italian, NU)

Respondent: Alia Al-Saji (McGill University)

roundtable lunch

12:30 pm

12 pm

Decoloniality, Legal Multiplicity, and the Violence of the Law

Discussion

Juan Obarrio, Samera Esmeir, and María del Rosario Acosta López

Chair: Alejandra Uslenghi (Spanish & Portuguese, NU)

1 pm

lunch

2:30 pm

Pasarse Políticamente: Hopeful Acts of Protest in Puerto Rico

Panel

Rocío Zambrana

(University of Oregon, Eugene)

Chair and Respondent: Ramón Rivera-Servera (Performance Studies, NU) Graduate Respondents: Arnaldo Rodríguez- Bagué (Performance Studies, NU) Zorimar Rivera Montes (Spanish & Portuguese, NU)

12:30 pm

Concluding Lunchtime Discussion:

Fanon After Fanon

Sam Aranke, “On National Culture” (The Muscular Tension of Subjects Moving Towards Decolonization)

Yala Kisukidi: “The Death of Lumumba” (Fanon and Césaire on the Death of Lumumba)

William Paris: Fanon’s “This is the Voice of Algeria” read with Sylvia Wynter

Pedro DiPietro: Fanon with Octavia Butler

Nelson Maldonado-Torres: Fanon and the Spirit of Bandung

Chair: Barnor Hesse (African American Studies, NU)

4:30 pm

Discussion of Aranke on the Black Panthers’ engagement with Fanon’s revolutionary

Sampada Aranke

(School of the Art Institute of Chicago)

Chair:

Huey Copeland

(Black Arts Initiative/ Art History, NU)

Graduate Respondents:

Le’ah Kaplan

(African American Studies, NU)

Mlondi Zondi (Performance Studies, NU)

5:15 pm

My Name is Afrika: Keorapetse Kgositsile, Black Arts Movement, and Polyglot Internationalism
Discussion

Uhuru Phalafala

(Stellenbosch University)

Chair: Huey Copeland (Black Arts Initiative/ Art History, NU)

Respondent:

Harris Feinsod (Comparative Literary Studies, NU)

Graduate Respondent: Susanna Sacks (English, NU)

6 pm

Drinks and Discussion: Sampada Aranke and Uhuru Phalafala Chair:

Huey Copeland (Black Arts Initiative/ Art History)

Graduate Respondent: Tyrone Palmer (African American Studies, NU)

7:15 pm

dinner

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