Dear All,

We are having a Philosophy Ball, this Winter.

Please register for tickets by 19th November. Details of this are just here:

The first formal winter ball at the The Hancock pub on 29th November 2017, and that tickets are available online through the Students Union website until midnight on 19th November.

Tickets: https://www.nusu.co.uk/getinvolved/societies/society/7346/

and a reminder of some other things happening soon:

———Conference advice, Monday 20^th November 3pm, conference advice session: BSTC3.31. Present your ideas at a conference: where to look, how to apply, get funding to attend, and what to present. Stephen Overy reveals all.

——— HELP WITH ESSAYS! Essay-writing workshop for people from Stages 2 and 3 (joint session): ‘Stepping Up: Enhancing your Work at the Next Level’

                                                       November 29^th, 12-1

                                                       Room: BEDB.1.75

Please come!
Conference advice, Monday 20th November 3pm, conference advice session: BSTC3.31, with Stephen Overy.
Learn how to present at conferences, how to apply, what to do, where to go, etc.!
All welcome!

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/philosophy-at-blackwells-ian-parker-philosophy-and-revolution-tickets-38432310074?aff=efbeventtix 

Tuesday 12th December 2017

18:30 – 20:30 GMT

What are the possibilities for revolution in our time? What, if any, realistic alternatives to the current world order may be achievable? Although Ian Parker’s Revolutionary Keywords for a New Left may not answer these questions directly, it sets out to address the conceptual densities of contemporary revolutionary keywords ranging from academicisation to neoliberalism, from fascism to feminisation, from postcolonialism to Zionism, while also focusing on thinkers including Alain Badiou, Judith Butler, Sigmund Freud, and Slavoj Žižek. In laying bare each concept, Parker provides the philosophico-historical lines of its formation and situates it within its broad social conditions. The book is a pioneering convergence of activist writings and philosophical inquiry.

Parker’s talk, ‘Philosophy and Revolution’, will consider the kinds of resources that philosophy, and related disciplines like psychoanalysis, critical theory, and critical psychology can bring to questions of revolution and political change. At a time when few on the left seem able to imagine, let alone provide the theoretical or practical resources to realise, a future that might be different from the present, this talk will offer an analysis of the pervasive cynicism in which we seem to be mired, and even hold out the prospect of an antidote. This event is a book launch for Revolutionary Keywords for a New Left.

The author:

Ian Parker is a world-renowned academic psychologist, an activist, and a practising psychoanalyst. He is most widely known as one of the most vociferous critics of the discipline of psychology. He has published numerous books including Slavoj Žižek: A Critical Introduction and Revolution in Psychology.

An update on the philosophy events for this term:

The next event is 3 sided football on the 6th, next Monday.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_sided_football

This isn’t competitive football, just a chance to have some fun in the park. Before I go and buy cones etc with departmental money, I want to check that we will have three teams, so I have made a sign up list online at

http://www.signupgenius.com/go/60b0d4ba4ad2ba7f58-monday

So long as more than 20 people sign up by 12:00 on Friday, we shall go ahead with it. If not, I’ll let anyone who does sign up know on Friday afternoon. I appreciate this is in reading week, and I don’t want people cancelling plans for an event that can’t go ahead.

Due to organisational issues, the careers session scheduled for the 20th has to be postponed. Hopefully we can run it next semester. It has been replaced by a workshop about speaking at and submitting essays to undergraduate conferences.

The AV club on the 13th is about celebrity meltdowns and the existential issues they reveal. It will be lead by Zoe, one of our MLitt students.

(on behalf of Stephen Overy, stephen.overy1@ncl.ac.uk)

Another possible conference for at least third years to consider going to:

Southampton Undergraduate Philosophy Conference 2018 – Call for Papers

On January 4^th to 5^th 2018, Philosophy at Southampton will host a conference for upper level undergraduate students. The event will involve presentations by Southampton faculty – Professor Aaron Ridley, a specialist in aesthetics and the history of philosophy (especially Nietzsche), and Dr Giulia Felappi, a specialist in philosophy of language and metaphysics. In addition, there will be up to 6 sessions for student presentations.

We invite submission of papers by undergraduate students suitable for 20-30min presentation. Submissions will be blind-reviewed. You must ensure that you remove any identifying information from your submission. Send your paper as an attachment to Tracy Storey: t.storey@southampton.ac.uk. In the accompanying email, include your name, institution, year of study, and programme of study.

The deadline for submissions is November 27^th 2017. We aim to communicate our decisions by December 4^th 2017.

The conference will be free and open to all. Philosophy at Southampton will cover the costs of meals for presenters and provide them with bursaries toward the costs of travel and accommodation.

We particularly encourage submissions from members of underrepresented groups in philosophy. The conference will be organised in accordance with the BPA-SWIP best practice guidelines.

Registration

To register, please contact Tracy Storey at the above email address with your name and affiliation.

Accessibility

The event is wheelchair accessible, as is the dinner venue. Service animals are welcome. An induction loop can be made available. A quiet room can also be made available. If you have any queries or requests relating to accessibility, please get contactt.storey@soton.ac.uk. We will seek to accommodate any requests we receive in advance.

Childcare

The University Nursery is OFSTED-regulated and offers a limited number of places for children aged between four months and five years. Advance booking is required for this service and is made on a ‘first come, first served’ basis. We can also support parents in making alternative arrangements.

A late addition to the list of Wednesday afternoon talks, to which you are welcome, on Wednesday 8th November at 2pm, in BSTC 2.39, Roger Burrows speaks on Nick Land and the ‘dark Enlightenment’, architecture, and many other things besides:

The updated list of events is as follows:
Day and Time: Wednesdays, 2–4pm
Room: BSTC 2.39 (Barbara Strang Teaching Centre), Central Campus, Newcastle University
Readings: Where they are not obvious, recommended readings associated with each talk will be communicated nearer the time by individual lecturers. For the reading groups, students may collectively choose the text they study.

— Introductions are primarily for MLitt students and interested undergraduates.
—‘Talks in apostrophes’ are Work in Progress talks to which all, including staff, are invited.

Semester I
Week

4 25/10 Michael Lewis (Newcastle), Introduction to Italian Thought: Agamben’s What is Philosophy?
5 1/11 Michael Bavidge (Newcastle), Introduction to Wittgenstein
6 8/11 **STOP PRESS!*** Prof. Roger Burrows (Newcastle), ‘Urban Futures and the Dark Enlightenment’
7 15/11 Stephen Overy (Newcastle), Introduction to Psycho-analysis and the Unconscious
8 22/11 Miriam Baldwin (Newcastle), Introduction to Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy
9 29/11 Michael Lewis (Newcastle), ‘Paolo Virno’s Essay on Negation: From Anthropology to Politics’
10 6/12 Stephen Overy (Newcastle), ‘Three Manifestations of Time in Vintage Wine’
11 13/12 Essay and Book Review advice session (Mlitt’s only)

Newcastle students! Please come along to the events organised by the Newcastle University Philosophy Society.

On Facebook https://www.facebook.com/NCLPhilSoc/,

Twitter: https://twitter.com/NCLPhilSoc,

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nclphilsoc/

Many other philosophical events take place around the North East:

Newcastle Philosophy Society (http://newphilsoc.org.uk/wpress/) and the Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle (http://www.litandphil.org.uk/) are para-academic institutions and may be investigated with profit, even though they have no connection with Newcastle University.

Please tell the library to buy any books you need that aren’t there!

http://www.ncl.ac.uk/library/services/suggest-book/ 

Fill our shelves!

Newcastle University people! Have you heard of Box of Broadcasts? An excellent service offered through the Newcastle library catalogue. They record huge numbers of television programmes, including films on TV, including vaguely philosophical and totally philosophical things, and make them available online, for free, with no TV licence (to the best of my knowledge) needed.

https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ondemand

As long as you swear it’s for ‘educational purposes’, you’re fine: and if you can watch anything and not learn something from it, you probably shouldn’t be watching anything.

Stay sane and well during your first weeks at university/the first weeks of term.

M

More details at:  bshp2018.weebly.com