November 15, 2013
University at Albany, SUNY
The symposium will take an interdisciplinary approach in exploring the relation between the functions of affect--whether as feeling, emotion, or bodily sensation--and political dynamics in 18th- and 19th-century European, American, and trans-Atlantic colonial contexts. In what ways were literature, political philosophy, social policy, cultural rhetoric, or religious practice motivated powerfully by new perspectives on human feeling that emerged during and after what has been called the Enlightenment? How did affect absorb or pose a disturbing challenge to the politics of the day, whether in terms of sovereignty, power relations, revolutionary rights, or socio-cultural hierarchies? The symposium will investigate these questions by inviting a diversity of disciplinary, conceptual, and historical perspectives, including political theory, philosophy, history of medicine, aesthetics, literary studies, and sociology.
The symposium is the first of a two-part series of events addressing the interconnections among aesthetics, politics, and ethics. The follow-up conference, "Affinities: Aesthetics, Ethics, and Politics," will be hosted by the University at Albany on April 10-12, 2014. Please see the CFP for more details.
Sponsored by UAlbany's English, Political Science Departments, and University Auxiliary Services.
The symposium is the first of a two-part series of events addressing the interconnections among aesthetics, politics, and ethics. The follow-up conference, "Affinities: Aesthetics, Ethics, and Politics," will be hosted by the University at Albany on April 10-12, 2014. Please see the CFP for more details.
Sponsored by UAlbany's English, Political Science Departments, and University Auxiliary Services.