Tuesday 19 November 2019 , 8:30 am-5:30 pm

Venue: N3.11 REDI multi purpose, Burwood campus, Deakin University

Preregistration: email msharpe@deakin.edu.au, imogen.richards@deakin.edu.au

Schedule

Session 1:

8:45-10 am: (keynote) Tamir Bar-On, “Analyzing the Charlottesville Statement: Alt-Right, New Right, or Old Right?”

Session 2:

10:15-11-45: Imogen Richards, Matteo Vergani, Maria Rae, “‘Political philosophy and the Australian far-right: A mixed-methods analysis of philosophical, political, and far-right media discourses’.

Session 3:

12-1:15: (keynote) Robert Horvarth, “Putin’s fascists: Russkii Obraz and the politics of managed nationalism in Russia.'”

Session 4:

2:15-3:00 Filip Slaveski, ‘Are they all as bad as each other?’ Communists, fascists, and plain old bandits in Soviet Ukraine, 1939-1950 and today.’

3-3:45: John Morss “International Law as Higher Populism​”

Session 5:

4:00-4:45: Geoff Boucher, “Critical Theory on Authoritarian Populism Today: Testing the Communicative Perspective”

4:45-5:30: Matt Sharpe, “Critically, Trump’s: A Survey of Critical-Theoretic Responses to the New Right Populist Wave”

Monday November 18, 12 noon to 5:30 pm

Burwood Corporate Centre, Deakin University, 221 Burwood Highway, Burwood

Download the flyer here

We live in times of increasing political polarisation, wherein forms of Rightist mobilisation long considered impossible after 1945 are re-emerging across the globe, and new prospective “organic intellectuals” appeal to specifically philosophical sources to shape, vindicate, and direct these ‘movement(s)’.  It has often been thought that the antiliberal Right was anti-intellectual, and that its populism speaks against any real political and philosophical ideas informing their movements.  However, from shortly after 1789, reactionaries against modern ideals of liberty, equality and cosmopolitanism have developed theoretical perspectives to justify their hostility to liberalism, democracy, feminism, social democracy, socialism, and multiculturalism.  This event will critically examine the ideas of today’s New or Alt-Right thinkers, and their uncomfortable crossovers with more established philosophical perspectives, led by thinkers like Nietzsche, Schmitt and Heidegger.  Our keynote, Professor Ron Beiner (Toronto) is the author of one of only a few studies of these troubling and important phenomena, and our discussant, Professor Tamir Bar-on (Tecnológico de Monterrey) is a leading expert on the European and global New Right.

Schedule

12-1:30: Opening plenary session: Pr. Ron Beiner, “Dangerous Minds in Dangerous Times”

2-2:40: Rory Jeffs, “The Danger of Idols: On Ronald Beiner’s Dangerous Minds and the Case of Nietzsche’s Politics”

2:40-3:20: As. Pr. Geoff Boucher, “The Frankfurt School and Authoritarian Politics: Classical Positions, New Insights”

3:20-4 pm: As. Pr. Matthew Sharpe, “Golden Calf: Reading Deleuze’s Nietzsche in the Time of Trump”

4:15-5:30: Closing plenary discussion, Pr. Ron Beiner and Pr. Tamir Bar-On

Deakin’s A/Prof Matthew Sharpe was interviewed for ‘Philosophy on the Couch,’ an episode of ABC Radio National’s The Philosopher’s Zone exploring the ongoing influence of Freud in contemporary philosophy. 

The program was broadcast on Sunday 15th September. You can listen to it here, via the ABC Listen app, or wherever you get your podcasts.

‘Gloomy Sunday,’ an exploration of the philosophy of suicide – and the risks involved in philosophising in public about suicide – was broadcast on ABC Radio National’s The Philosopher’s Zone on Sunday 8 September.

The piece is presented and produced by Deakin’s A/Prof Patrick Stokes and features Deakin’s Dr Jon Roffe and Dr Valery Vinogradovs alongside the University of Melbourne’s A/Prof Justin Clemens and Prof. Jane Pirkis.

You can listen to the program here, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Deakin’s Dr Cathy Legg recently helped judge the 2019 Victorian Association for Philosophy in Schools (VAPS) Philosothon. Teams from secondary schools across Melbourne and from as far afield as Ballarat competed, with one winner being presented with a signed ‘Letter to a Young Philosopher’ by Prof. A.C. Grayling. Cathy also presented a prize on behalf of Deakin University for the Most Creative Student. 

Deakin Philosophy’s recent  “Who Needs the Humanities?” forum was featured on a recent episode of ABC Radio National’s The Philosopher’s Zone. You can access the program here.

Check out the audio from our ‘Who Needs the Humanities?’ forum, held at NGV on 31st July 2019 and moderated by Dr Sean Bowden, here.

Click here to watch a recording of “Hope Without God: Is Hope a Secular Virtue?”, the 2019 Max Charlesworth Lecture, delivered by Prof. Robert Stern (University of Sheffield)

“It’s clear,” says Dr Bowden, “that the design of new, marketable technologies requires input from Humanities scholars who are well placed to understand the human dimensions and impacts of these technologies, and to articulate the ethical frameworks that should guide their functioning and use.”

On Wednesday 31st July, Deakin’s Dr Sean Bowden will be facilitating a panel discussion on the topic Who Needs the Humanities? at the NGV’s Clemenger Auditorium (tickets are still available via the link). Joining Sean will be: 

• Prof Joy Damousi, Professor of History at the University of Melbourne and current President of the Australian Academy of the Humanities.
• Prof David Lowe, Alfred Deakin Professor and Chair in Contemporary History, Deakin University.
• Prof Robert Stern, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Sheffield and current President of the British Philosophical Association.
• Dr Miriam Bankovsky, Senior Lecturer in Politics and Director of the Bachelor of Politics, Philosophy and Economics, La Trobe University.
• Dr Emily Potter, Senior Lecturer in Literary Studies and Associate Head of School (Research) in the School of Communication and Creative Arts, Deakin University.

Ahead of the event, Dr Bowden and panelists spoke to Deakin’s Disruptr Magazine about defending a place for the humanities in the twentieth century. 

The value of Humanities research might often be difficult to pin down. But this is only because it is as multi-dimensional as the human world in which we live.

Congratulations to Kiryll Prakapenka (left) for being awarded the 2019 Vice-Chancellor’s Prize, awarded to the top two Honours students in each Faculty. Kiryll’s honours thesis, “Intuitions as Evidence: Intuiting the Intuited,” explored the vital question of how intuitions function as evidence of philosophical propositions. Well done, Kiryll!