Humanities

Space, Control, Resistance: Call for Abstracts for International Deleuze and Guattari Studies Conference, Belgrade

The Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory and Faculty of Media and Communications are sponsoring the 15th International Deleuze and Guattari Studies Conference in Belgrade, Serbia on 3-7 July, 2023 (Camp) and 10-12 July, 2023 (Conference). 

Organizers invite paper and panel proposals from scholars of all disciplines, as well as performance and installation proposals from artists related to the theme of the Conference. We also kindly ask students interested in the Camp to send us their applications.

Confirmed keynote speakers:
∙           Ian Buchanan
∙           Claire Colebrook
∙           Patricia MacCormack
∙           Chis L. Smith
∙           Janae Sholtz
∙           Nicholas Thoburn

‘Control’ is the name which in 1990 Deleuze gave to the ‘new monster’ that is now our present. He said then, and it resonates still, that the most important question of our time is where and how we will find ‘new forms of resistance’. The old societies of discipline, which Deleuze saw as the predecessor to those of control, operated through spaces of confinement and enclosure. Their crisis gave way to a different type of spatial organization of power: instead of discreet enclosures, we find ourselves in open spaces and within a continuous network. 

Deleuze and Guattari remind us, ‘resistance comes first’. The concepts of line of flight, war machine, micropolitics, deterritorialization, rhizome, becoming-minoritian, or becoming-woman, testify to the importance of thinking resistance in terms of an active force. This thought of the outside is more pertinent now than ever, because as Deleuze once protested, ‘resistance to the present’ is what we lack the most.

The conference asks: what is the nature of the form of power we are exposed to today and where can we find real potential for change? How can we think and construct spaces that would act as areas of resistance against the oppressive strategies of control?

The conference aims to show how an engagement with the philosophy of Deleuze and Guattari contributes to the project of discovering emancipatory dimensions of space. We welcome explorations of the way philosophy, art, or science create spaces that allow escape and counterattacks? In what way can music, art, or travel act as areas that would not be re-captured by the contemporary network of control? How can internet phenomena, such as piracy or viruses, assist us in scrambling the digital flows of controlled data? 

Questions? Email [email protected]

Deadline to submit is Sunday, February 12

---

Cross Reference: Call for Submissions,Opportunities,Humanities