QUILTING POINTS:

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...

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. Friday 28th February, 3.00-5.30 The University of Leeds: ( Leeds Humanities Research Institute , 29-31 Clarendon Place) Schedule: 2.30pm - Tea / Coffee 3.00pm Talk and discussion with Professor Bielik-Robson 5.00pm Wine / refreshments We shall also have dinner somewhere in the city centre at 6.30pm: please let us know if you intend to come to this. Professor Bielik-Robson has published widely in all areas of Jewish philosophy with special emphasis paid on modern Jewish thought, from Spinoza to Derrida. She also researches contemporary philosophy and psychoanalysis, particularly when in a dialogue (or polemic) with theology. This workshop will be of benefit to Benjamin scho...

Dear all, As we hit the new semester running, we are pleased to announce a new series of 'Reading Benjamin' seminars, as well as an exciting, one-off workshop at the end of Feb (see below). This semester’s theme is Violence / Tragedy, focusing on readings of and around Benjamin’s essay The Critique of Violence. Next reading group meeting: Wednesday 5th Feb, 3-5.30pm, Leeds Humanities Research Institute (29-31 Clarendon Place) We shall discuss: 1.       Benjamin, Critique of Violence [available here] 2.       Judith Butler ‘Critique, Coercion and Sacred Life in Benjamin’s Critique of Violence’, [available here] (or ask us for PDFs) The Quilting Team

A workshop on  Michel Foucault’s writings on the Iranian Revolution led by Professor Michael Dillon (Lancaster University). In 1978, Michel Foucault visited Iran twice as the Revolution began to unfold and subsequently interviewed the Ayatollah Khomenei in his Paris exile. He went on to write some 15 articles for the Corrierre della sera , Le nouvel observateur and Le monde reflecting upon the implications of the Islamic Revolution. To be sure, Foucault’s writings upon Iran are now some of the notorious in his body of work and have been roundly criticised by scholars for at best political naivete and at worst complicity with Khomenei’s regime. However, after more than 30 years of radical political Islamism of all persuasions, the ‘Iranian’ Foucault also begins to seem remarkably prescient, almost prophetic: Foucault was arguably one of the first western thinkers to grasp the complex nexus of religion and revolutionary politics that has become one of the defining chal...

We warmly welcome all of those interested in 'the past'/past(s), how it is constructed, remembered, memorialized, theorized and otherwise invented, objectified, subjected and/or turned into 'History' - in short Philosophy of History and theories of History - to come along to the meetings.  Please do not feel that you don't 'know enough'.  Philosophy of History is only now re-emerging as a serious, critical topic, and our group was the first new collection of scholars in the UK and other English-speaking contexts to form together to discuss the issues in over a decade.  In this we were quickly followed and since then have been lucky to partner with these developing networks and programs, as well as the previous generation of groups and scholars.  The point is that the material, ideas and discourses are fresh to most of the people who come to the meetings, so please feel open to attend.  The discussions, although lively and serious, are also ver...

The next meeting of Quilting Points is Wednesday 4th December, 3.30pm, Alumni Room, School of English We will be continuing our exploration of history and redemption by discussing Benjamin's "Eduard Fuchs: Collector and Historian" which is available here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/96807532/Walter-Benjamin-Eduard-Fuchs Also recommended to accompany this, is his shorter essay "Unpacking my library" which is available here: http://art.yale.edu/file_columns/0000/2138/benjamin.pdf The text will be introduced by Leila Nassereldein (School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies) We hope you can join us! As this is our last session this semester, there is talk of going for a drink after the discussions.

Quilting Points: Reading Benjamin will meet: Wednesday 20th November, 3.30pm, The Alumni Room, School of English We shall be continuing our discussion of Theses on the Concept of History – use this link for a (perhaps) better translation than the one used last week http://cscs.res.in/dataarchive/textfiles/textfile.2010-11-02.7672177498/file In addition, we shall consider Adorno’s essay ‘Progress’, which can be accessed in full in google books (the ‘Critical Models’ volume) here: http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=W1Refr-z8roC&pg=PA143&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=3#v=onepage&q&f=false All welcome!