On Friday morning, Christopher Taylor will speak on “Theory in the Age of the Less-Lethal.”

Taylor, whose work reads political theory against the past and present of popular uprisings in the Americas, has published widely on critiques of economic liberalism in thought and political action in the Americas since the height of European colonialism (cf. his article “The Refusal of Work: From the Postemancipation Caribbean to Post-Fordist Empire” in Small Axe, 2014).

In his keynote lecture, which is based on his current research project, Taylor will address the function of critical theory in the context of hyper-administered and hyper-policed publics which are symptomatic of the state’s curtailing of individual agency, on one hand, and the resurgence of social movements globally which can be read as collective insubordinations against the structures which condemn “the 99 percent” to fail, on the other. Specifically, Taylor will explore the recent eruption of what he calls “sad theory,” i.e. critics’ preoccupation with notions denoting negative affects, e.g. precariousness and vulnerability, alongside the shift to less-lethal modalities of policing contentious publics (e.g. tear gas).

A truly critical theory, he argues, can only emerge through engagement with and supplementation from contemporary social movements such as the Arab Spring or Occupy Wall Street.

Geert Lovink will deliver a keynote lecture on “Post-Snowden Internet Culture: From Selfies to the Politics of Mask Design.”

Lovink has done extensive research in the field of digital networks and their effect on human agency. In his recent book, Networks Without a Cause (2011), he critically examines our collective obsession with identity and self-management coupled with the fragmentation and information overload endemic to contemporary online culture.

In his keynote lecture, Lovink will discuss the impact of a digital surveillance/sousveillance culture on human agency and posthumanist promises of the “liberatedˮ or “empoweredˮ self.