Cfp: "Deleuze: Ethics and Politics," 4th Biennial Philosophy and Literature Conference, Purdue University, April 9-10, 2010.

The philosopher Michel Serres once described Gilles Deleuze as “an excellent example of the dynamic movement of free and inventive thinking.” Without a doubt, Deleuze was one of the most singular and prolific philosophers of the 20th century. It is no surprise then, that the impact of Deleuze’s thought continues to reverberate throughout a host of diverse disciplines. With recognition of Deleuze’s influence in these various fields, and in the spirit of Serres’ assessment, this conference seeks to motivate an exploration of Deleuze’s inventive thinking in the particular areas of politics and ethics by bringing together faculty and graduate students interested in engaging, developing, or critically examining these areas of Deleuze's work. This two-day conference will consist of four panels, each with three to four accepted graduate students presenting, three keynote addresses, and a wine and cheese reception.

Possible topics include but are not limited to:

• immanent vs. transcendent criteria in ethics
• political theory, law and jurisprudence
• the role of the State in relation to capitalism
• the possibility of social forms of organization radically exterior to the State forms
• the positive or productive function of desire as a creative force directly invested in the social field
• the problem of micro-fascism with respect to individual and collective processes of subjectivation
• forms of resistance enabled by minor literature and other processes of becoming-minor
• conceptions of cartography as a critical and transformative social analytic of power relations.

Keynote Speakers:

Dr. Daniel W. Smith is known for national and international projects including translations of Deleuze and Klossowski and several works on Deleuze leading up to the forthcoming publication of his book on Deleuze’s philosophical system. Dr. Eugene Holland specializes in social theory and modern French literature, history, and culture. He has published widely including a 1999 volume on Deleuze and Guattari’s Anti-Oedipus and a forthcoming book on Nomad Citizenship. Dr. Arkady Plotnitsky has contributed numerous publications on Deleuze and on the topics of science, literature, and philosophy. He is currently working on a book entitled Space-Time-Matter-Thought: Non-Euclideanism from Riemann and Deleuze, and Beyond.

Submission deadline: January 15, 2010.
Email submissions to: philconf@purdue.edu.

Papers and abstracts should be sent as Word documents. Personal information is to be sent in the body of the email and should not appear on the paper itself.