This weekend in the reading roundup:
Have a good weekend.
Photo credit: Zach Dischner
This weekend in the reading roundup:
Enjoy!
Photo credt: mtkopone
This weekend in the reading roundup:
Have a good weekend.
Photo credit: eirikref
Popular Culture and World Politics v. 5.0
9-11 November, 2012
Hobart and William Smith Colleges
Geneva, New York, 14456, USA
What do zombies have to do with world politics? How might the Twilight sagas inform and illuminate our way of understanding world politics and changes in the global political economy? In what ways do videogames, the sales of which now exceed those of music CDs and DVDS combined, shape the identities and political understandings of frequent players? Is visual media destined to replace print as the primary source of news and entertainment in advanced industrial societies and how might this affect the construction of meaning of world affairs? As a means of communication readily available to an ever-expanding number of individuals and groups, how might the internet offer paths of resistance to corporate and Western news and entertainment hegemony? How can tango dancing make the world a more peaceful place?
This conference explores the multiple ways of investigating the intersections of world politics and the production, circulation, content, and consumption of various popular cultural forms. Engaging a range of disciplines and practices in the social sciences, humanities and the arts, the conference encourages participants to question what terms such as ‘global,’ ‘popular,’ and ‘culture’ mean both in isolation and when used in conjunction. It asks in what ways and with what effects popular culture has become a series of sites at which political meaning is made, where political contestation takes place, and where political orthodoxy is reproduced and challenged. The conference provides a highly-focused and interdisciplinary environment in which the increasing numbers of scholars that are engaging in culture-related research can present their work and participate in the kind of extended discussion that larger conferences do not permit. The conference aims to provide an intimate forum at which debates about interdisciplinary methods and theoretical approaches can be developed to facilitate debate across disciplines that share interests in world politics and culture. We welcome proposals for performances, screenings, panels, or individual papers, on any aspect of world politics and popular culture.
Building on the preceding four PCWP conferences, version 5.0 will be held on the campus of Hobart and William Smith Colleges, a small liberal arts institution located in the beautiful Finger Lakes (wine-making) region of western New York state.
Inquiries should be sent to PCWP@hws.edu
The deadline for proposals is 15 July 2012
Many thanks to Kevin Dunn who has graciously agreed to host and organize this year's event!
This weekend in the reading roundup:
Have a good weekend.
Photo credit: Abhi Shinde
This weekend in the reading roundup:
Happy New Year!
Photo credit: feileacan
This weekend in the reading roundup:
Peace on earth and goodwill to all humans.
Photo credit: Jennifer Boyer
This weekend in the reading roudup:
Hang in there.
Yesterday, Reuters ran a story about Saif Gaddafi's 2002 painting exhibition that was shown in London. Called 'The Desert is Not Silent' it was scheduled to go on tour to Paris, Berlin, Tokyo, Madrid, Sao Paulo, and Moscow. After looking at the on-line gallery of photos on Boing Boing, it's pretty obvious why the tour never happened: the paintings are not particularly good.
But what interests me about Saif Gaddafi artiste is what this can tell us about power. For some critics, like Jonathan Jones of the Guardian, the relationship is straight forward. Jones argued:
The exhibition was an ugly display of power, not in Libya, but in London ... the fact of their being vaunted as worthwhile art in a fancy exhibition spoke of hideous self-delusion and imposture.
Thus, Jones positioned the exhibition as a manifestation of the megalomania of dictatorship. Such an understanding is very similar to a primary characteristic of psychopathy that is noted by the criminal psychologist Robert Hare. He claims that affected attempts to be appear 'sophisticated' through superficial displays of cultural knowledge are a common practice for 'psychopaths'.
My take on the power-relations underpinning Saif Gaddafi artiste is slightly different, though not necessarily mutually exclusive to those that look to the pathological. What strikes me as interesting are the resonances of colonialism at play. I see this in at least two senses. First, the paintings are ersatz versions of Western styles, traditions, and conventions (e.g., surrealism, still-life, pop art). The exhibition shows that these have been internalised and mimicked--albeit with limited ability. Second, is the desire that the work be shown in metropolitan centers of financial and cultural power. It is not the paintings themselves but where the shows take place that confers the legitimacy and authority of Saif's artistic 'vision' and 'talent'.
In the end then, I think the collection is a microcosm of the complex power dynamics that contributed to the longevity of the Gaddafi regime. Gaddafi's Libya was both defiant of, and compliant with Western norms in seeking acceptance as a legitimate global actor. Concurrently, Western powers were too often willing to confer undeserved legitimacy when Libyan mimesis flattered their specific preferences.
In this week's reading roundup:
Have a good weekend!
Photo credit: Nick J Webb
