John Mowitt in JOMEC

Research Seminar: Wednesday, 4th March @ 4pm, Rm 0.05, Bute Building, Cardiff University

This week's research seminar 'Left Leaning: Toward a Sinister Humanities' will be held by Professor John Mowitt.

 

Abstract

The crisis of the Humanities is now understood to be endemic to the field.  Indeed, this state of affairs threatens to engulf the social thought experiment of the university itself.  Typically, humanists rise in defence of their enterprise by condemning the excesses of "instrumental reason,"  a defence that often has recourse to a concept of "the human" (if not "humanism") that many humanists have begun to trouble.  Drawing on Bernard Stiegler's concept of "technogenesis," this paper develops a response, both theoretical and political, to the crisis of the Humanities that derives the value of the field from its capacity to think a link between the ontology and the palaeontology of the human, a link that, in pointing out the importance of the hand, underscores the special significance of "right-handedness" to the articulation of ontology and palaeontology.  Examining Derrida's GLAS, and two piano concertos composed for Paul Wittgenstein, the paper explores how a certain "sinisterism" might engage the crisis of the Humanities less defensively.

 

Bio

John Mowitt holds the Leadership Chair in the Critical Humanities at the University of Leeds.  He has published widely on the intersections of culture, theory and politics.  His most recent book, RADIO:ESSAYS IN BAD RECEPTION was published by the University of California Press and it will be followed by his new book, SOUNDS: THE AMBIENT HUMANITIES next year.  He also serves as a senior editor of the journal CULTURAL CRITIQUE.