QUILTING POINTS:

We are delighted to formally announce that, for our summer term guest talk, we will be joined by Dr Natalia Cecire, lecturer (assistant professor) in English and American literature at the University of Sussex. We are also pleased to say that we'll be hosting this talk in collaboration with the American Studies Research Group, based in the School of English ( https://ahc.leeds.ac.uk/english-research-innovation/doc/american-studies-research-group-1 ).  Cecire's talk draws on Freud's use of nineteenth-century theories of microscopic life in Beyond the Pleasure Principle to situate Marianne Moore's poetics, often described as "shelled" or in various ways hard-surfaced and repelling, in relation to the surprisingly intense research in the biology of sex, inheritance, and generation at Bryn Mawr, the women's college that she attended from 1905 to 1909. Following the Q&A, we will be hosting a wine reception in the School of English.  All students ...

Nancy Spero, Performance , 1990 27 March | 5.00 - 6.30pm | Room 1, LAHRI (29-31 Clarendon Place) | All welcome! Guest Seminar from Griselda Pollock, and a Wine Reception We are delighted to announce that, for our final session of the semester, we have invited Professor Griselda Pollock (School of Fine Art, History of Art & Cultural Studies, University of Leeds) to lead us through a reading of Anne Emmanuelle-Berger's The Queer Turn in Feminism: Identities, Sexualities, and the Theater of Gender (2014). In particular, we  will be focusing on the final chapter in Berger's book, 'Roxana's Legacy: Feminism and Capitalism in the West'. Access to the pdf can be found here . In addition to this, Pollock has provided a reading guide to Berger's work, which can be downloaded here . Pollock's guide provides useful theoretical and historical context to Berger's arguments and her source material, so we recommend reading it alongsi...

Thursday 15 November | 5 - 6.30pm | LHRI | All welcome  For our third session of the year, we will be focusing on Butler’s analyses of hate speech, censorship, and ‘obscenity’ in the introduction to Excitable Speech: A Politics of the Performative (1997). Excitable Speech continues Butler’s investigation of subject categories in the context of language and rhetoric. She returns to speech act theories, this time developing questions related to hate speech, injurious name-calling (such as racial slurs or epithets), pornography, rap lyrics, and gay self-expression in the US military – all these topics receive an introductory gloss in this week’s material. Central to her thesis is the rhetorical elision between physical and linguistic injury. Can words wound? How are bodies implicated in, or interpellated by, verbal pain or injury, such as name-calling or legal legislation? Her introduction, and the study as a whole, demonstrates an anxiety about the limits of resignification....

#2: 'Queerness' 25/10/2018 Thursday 25 October | 5 - 6.30pm | LHRI: Room 1 | All Welcome  For our second session of the year, we will be reading the eighth chapter of Butler’s Bodies That Matter (1993), entitled ‘Critically Queer’. We will be reading Butler’s discussion of queer identity, queerness and drag alongside a short section from Maggie Nelson’s The Argonauts (2015). In ‘Critically Queer’, the concluding chapter of Bodies that Matter , Butler evaluates the refunctioning of the term ‘queer’ from its pejorative origins. She urges for the ongoing critique of a totalising queer identity category as ‘crucial to the continuing democratization of queer politics’ (227). If, as Butler argues, a performative discourse succeeds only through its iterability and ongoing citation, then the reification of a queer subject must be interrogated for its own exclusionary practices. The reading for this week allows an investigation of Butler’s claims and a reflection on ho...

Quilting Points returns for its seventh consecutive year with a new focus on Judith Butler. We are very pleased to announce the return of Quilting Points, an interdisciplinary critical and cultural theory reading group based at the University of Leeds. This year, we will be conducting a year-long discussion on the work of Judith Butler. Since the publication of her first two monographs, Subjects of Desire (1987) and Gender Trouble (1990), Butler’s theories on gender and identity, and power and language, are now widely recognised as cornerstones in the development of contemporary critical theory and philosophy . While Butler’s most notable impact has been in the fields of gender studies, feminist theory, queer theory, and ethics studies, there are few areas in the Humanities left untouched by her work. From her foundational notion of gender performativity to her recent and ongoing work on precarity, Butler’s intellectual range is both established and continually evolving. Ove...

Our next meeting is Wednesday, May 20th. We will discuss Giorgio Agamben's "The State of Exception as a Paradigm of Government," which you can download here . Ryan Topper and Benjamin Chwistek, Quilting Points directors, will introduce the discussion. Agamben in Pasolini's The Gospel According to St Matthew We will meet in the Leeds Humanities Research Institute from 15:30-17:30. As always, all are welcome. Ben Chwistek and Ryan Topper Directors, Quilting Points 2014/2015

April 22nd: Michel Foucault, 'Parresia' Our first meeting back after the Easter break will be on April 22nd. In it we will be discussing the recently translated ' Parresia ' by Michel Foucault. Introducing the discussion will be Andrea Basso, PhD student in the School of Classics. We will meet in the Leeds Humanities Research Institute from 15:30-17:30. As always, all are welcome. Ben Chwistek and Ryan Topper Directors, Quilting Points 2014/2015

In our next meeting, we will discuss Achille Mbembe's "Necropolitics," a critique of Foucauldian sovereignty. You can download the PDF  here . Dr. Sam Durrant (Senior Lecturer in Postcolonial Literature) will introduce our discussion. We will meet in the Leeds Humanities Research Institute from 15:30-17:30. As usual, all are welcome. Ryan Topper and Ben Chwistek Directors, Quilting Points 2014/2015

This Wednesday, we will discuss Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri's "Biopolitical Production," a chapter from Empire .  Click here  to download the PDF. We hope to interrogate the ways Hardt and Negri interpret and build upon Foucault's work, so feel free to bring relevant Foucault texts to the discussion. Antonio Negri and Michael Hardt. Wikimedia Commons Quilting Points co-directors, Ryan Topper and Benjamin Chwistek, will introduce the meeting, which will take place from 15:30-17:30 in the Leeds Humanities Research Institute.

February 11th: 'The Malthus Effect: Population and the Liberal Government of Life' In our second meeting of this semester we will be reading Foucault's concepts of biopolitics and biopower through the lens of Mitchell Dean's essay on Malthus and the Liberal Government of Life. The text will be introduced by David Wingate, PhD Student in the School of Earth and Environment. For anyone who did not make our last session, it is recommended (though not required) that you read Foucault's 'Right of Death and Power over Life'. A link to the text can be found in our previous blog post. In addition to the Foucault text, we will be reading Mitchell Dean's essay, which is available here:  ' The Malthus Effect: Population and the Liberal Government of Life' This semester we will be meeting at the slightly later time of 15:30, and will be finishing at 17:30. As before, we will be meeting in the LHRI Seminar Room. As always, all are welcom...

Our final meeting of 2014 is on December the 17th. We will be reading Foucault's 'Afterword to The Temptation of Saint Anthony '. Introducing the text will be Ryan Topper, PhD student in the School of English and co-director of Quilting Points. A link to the text can be found here:   'Afterword to The Temptation of Saint Anthony ' . As per usual we will meet in the LHRI (29-31 Clarendon Place), from 3-5pm. Ben Chwistek and Ryan Topper Directors, Quilting Points 2014/2015

In our next meeting we will discuss Michel Foucault's "What is Enlightenment?" alongside Immanuel Kant's "An Answer to the Question: What is Enlightenment?" Dr. Simon Swift (Senior Lecturer in Critical and Cultural Theory) will introduce our discussion. The links to the readings can be found here: " What is Enlightenment? " and  " An Answer to the Question: What is Enlightenment? " As usual, we will meet in the Leeds Humanities Research Institute from 15:00-17:00, followed by a trip to a local pub. Ryan Topper and Ben Chwistek Directors, Quilting Points 2014/2015

In our next meeting we will be discussing two short texts: 'Return to History', which will be introduced by Dr Denis Flannery (Senior Lecturer in American Literature); and 'Different Spaces', which will be introduced by Professor Jane Taylor (Wole Soyinka Chair of Drama and Theatre Studies). The link to the readings can be found here: 'Different Spaces' ;   'Return to History' . As per usual, we will meet in the Leeds Humanities Research Institute from 15:00-17:00. After this we will head to a local pub. Ben Chwistek and Ryan Topper Directors, Quilting Points 2014/2015

After one meeting, this year looks like an exciting time to be a part of Quilting Points. Thanks to all who share our goal of promoting theoretical inquiry across academic disciplines. Our second meeting is approaching. On Wednesday, October 22nd, we will discuss "Two Lectures" from  Power/Knowledge . The lectures are found in chapter five of the link provided. For a separate PDF of "Two Lectures," click here . Dr. Thomas Campbell (Lecturer in Social Theory) will be introducing our discussion. As always, we will meet in the Leeds Humanities Research Institute from 15:00-17:00, followed by a trip to a local pub. 29-31 Clarendon Place, Leeds Humanities Research Institute

The last meeting of Quilting Points before the spring break  will be Wednesday, the 26th of March, 3.30pm-5pm at LHRI (Leeds Humanities Research Institute, 29-31 Clarendon Place) Seminar Room 1.  We will be reading:  1. Walter Benjamin's  Critique of Violence   2. Jacques Derrida's ' Force of Law' [bilingual version] Carla Douglas (English) will be introducing the text. Soft drinks and nibbles provided. 

The next Quilting Points reading group will be: Wednesday 19 th Feb, 3.30pm , Leeds Humanities Research Institute ( 29-31 Clarendon Place), Seminar Room 1 We shall discuss: 1.       Walter Benjamin, Critique of Violence [ available here ] 2.       Simon Critchley, Faith of the Faithless, Ch. 5 'Nonviolent Violence '. Texts introduced by Dr Stefan Skrimshire (School of Philosophy, Religion and the History of Science) We would like to remind you about the upcoming workshop with Prof Agata Bielik-Robson on the 28 th of February.  Here are the details: Quilting Points / Northern Theory School are pleased to invite you to: "Walter Benjamin: All Shades of Gnosis": A workshop with Professor Agata Bielik-Robson (Nottingham University) on themes of political theology, divine violence and tragedy in the thought of Benjamin. Please let us know if you intend to come as soon as possib...

You are warmly invited to join us for the next meeting of Quilting Points: Reading Benjamin on the 23rd of October at 3.30 pm. This week we will meet in Seminar Room 6 (School of English, House 9). We will be reading Benjamin's 'On  the Theory of Knowledge, Theory of Progress' . For an accompanying reading, following Layla's advice, we suggest Rolf Tiedmann's 'Dialectics at Standstill.' If you would like a copy of the text, please contact the organisers at quiltingpoints@gmail.com . The reading group is generously supported by the LHRI. If you are interested in introducing one of the texts in the future, please contact the organisers.