News 2010
Centre for Modern Thought Yearly Report 2009/2010
2009/2010 marked the first year in the three-year plan agreed with the College of Arts and Social Science in January, 2009. This plan outlined arrangements for seed funds for conferences and workshops, support for PhD students, a new location, administrative support (a part-time line manager and a part-time secretary), and two academic positions attached to the Centre. In the course of its drafting, the College administration recognized 1.9 FTE existing staff support through the affiliations of Professors Fynsk, Moreiras, Ruiz, and Vilaros-Solers.
In the course of the year, the two administrative positions were filled: Laura MacKenzie (.4 secretary) and Jon Cameron (.5 manager). We have been pleased to welcome them to our community. Searches for the two academic appointments were deferred, pending strategic planning undertaken on an institution-wide basis. Unfortunately, the Centre lost the participation of Prof. Ruiz for technical reasons (his papers did not allow him to continue in an employed capacity; he now has an honorary appointment while we await a change in his citizenship status.) Professors Moreiras and Vilaros-Solers also resigned their positions at Aberdeen in order to take positions at Texas A&M. Relocation has unfortunately been delayed because of the state of the premises identified for our offices and meeting room (Luthuli House requires full rehabilitation after close examination of its structural integrity).
Thus, from a staffing and administrative point of view, the Centre for Modern Thought traversed a trying year. From an intellectual point of view, however, the year was remarkably successful. The Centre hosted five meetings:
- Energy Security (“Criteria for Decision-Making” organized at the very end of the last term by Prof. Fynsk with Prof. Paul Mitchell and Dr. John Paterson)
- The Global Food Challenge, organized with the Rowett Institute, November, 2009
- Haiti and the Politics of the Universal, organized by Dr. Nesbitt, March, 2010
- Blanchot’s Le Pas au-delà, organized by Professor Fynsk, April, 2010
- Mathematics and Literature, organized by Dr. Wickman, May, 2010
All of these meetings held ground-breaking potential and will be followed up with subsequent events at Aberdeen or elsewhere (in planning).
The Centre also co-sponsored visits by Prof. Bruno Bosteels, Dr. Sha Xin Wei, Dr. Davide Tarizzo, Dr. Benjamin Mayer-Foulkes, Dr. Julian Lethbridge, Dr. Peter Paik, and Prof. Simon Critchley (an event at the Glasgow School of Art in May, 2010). It began a fascinating discussion with Dr. Benjamin Brock of the School of Divinity on Heidegger and Theology.
Year-long workshops were also directed by Professor Moreiras (“Nietzsche, Proust, and Deleuze”) and Professor Fynsk (“Blanchot’s Le pas au-delà”)
International links were pursued through the development of the “Politica Comun” project in association with 17, Instituto de Estudios Criticos in Mexico City. The Centre also began planning for a promising new international PhD with the University of Salerno and a number of scholars in Italy. The venture will entail partnering with other institutions in Europe with the objective of securing an Erasmus Mundus grant and sponsorship from other foundations. Applications will be prepared in the fall of 2010.
The Centre anticipates a promising academic year to come, though public events will be concentrated largely in the spring term. Its affiliates are now located in English, French, German, Visual Culture, Hispanic Studies, Divinity, Law, History, Anthropology, Geography, International Relations, and Music. It hopes to advance its relations with the Institute for Complex Systems and Mathematical Biology (under the direction of Prof. Celso Grebogi) and will be exploring research collaborations with colleagues in computing and imaging with the participation of Dr. Sha Xin Wei (who will visit Aberdeen in the spring of 2011).
On the Decision to Close the Department of Philosophy at Middlesex University
News of the decision by Middlesex to close its distinguished Philosophy Department has now reached a large part of the world that is concerned with critical thought and intellectual life in the academy. The expression of support for the philosophers at Middlesex in these early days is nothing less than astounding. (After just one week, 9,000 signatures have been collected on a petition to support the Department.) But the gravity of this event should not be underestimated.
The exceptional quality and success of the Middlesex Philosophy programme are a matter of public record. If this decision has been made on economic grounds, as the University has suggested, then a calculus is at work that is inimical to the very idea of a research university (Middlesex would be cutting its highest ranked research programme—a financially sustainable programme in a core field—for profit motives). If it is based in some measure on ideological prejudice (a subset of which would be philosophical prejudice), the implications remain profoundly disturbing. It would seem that freedom of thought is in danger in the contemporary British academy if a university such as Middlesex can feel free to proceed in this abrupt manner (and so freely surrender its academic stature).
The phrase “freedom of thought” must extend in this case beyond its immediate political connotation. The Middlesex decision effectively targets forms of reflection (historically protected in the university) proper to the humanities. Here it conforms to a dangerous paradigm that has been established in recent years by default, because no provision has been found in contemporary academic and governmental accounting for the “social” contribution of the humanities—particularly the contributions of those parts of humanistic research and teaching that remain “free” by reason of their distinctive modes and temporalities (and particularly in those transgressions of the given that win them the name of “thought”). As in the case of the arts, their forms of activity remain foreign to a technocratic calculus. Needless to say, what escapes this accounting faces possible elimination in a time of crisis if a university abandons traditional academic commitments (including its commitment to prepare students for full participation in society). A “good crisis” in fact amounts to little more than an alibi for such a development. We must recognize that the role of the humanities and the meaning of the contemporary university are at stake in the unfolding developments at Middlesex.
From discussions with colleagues, I am confident that I can speak for the Centre for Modern Thought as a whole in offering a statement of support for the philosophers at Middlesex—staff and students. Let us all work to raise awareness concerning the meaning of this decision and seek forms of concrete support. Let us also wish all strength to our colleagues in Philosophy at Middlesex. Their cause is ours.
Christopher Fynsk
Director of the Centre for Modern Thought
May 6, 2010
12 Feb 2010
Prompted by the passing of Lee Alexander McQueen, 1969-2010
The recent death of Alexander McQueen comes as a blow to all those who have admired the breathtaking force of his creations and interventions in the world of fashion. The apparent circumstances make his act of suicide all the more wrenching.
I cannot claim to speak to the meaning of this loss; I am hardly the most fitting writer on this occasion. But I want to note, on this site, that I am reminded once again that one must record one's hopes, ambitions, successes and losses if one is to give meaning to an enterprise such as The Centre for Modern Thought. The long winter of a difficult transition has left us silent for too long.
Alexander McQueen had been among a group of individuals I have hoped to invite to the Centre--one of those creators who push the meaning of their art into regions where one recognizes that the possibility of creation in our time is at stake. Ferran Adrià showed us what was possible in this respect, and I want to use the impetus of this immediate grief to recommit our project to bringing forward and honouring those creative forces that are at work beyond the institutional filters that produce the pallor of the academic every day.
I am minded to give thanks to those in our film and visual culture group who have continued to carry forward this effort in their own areas of engagement. And I want to welcome further ideas for events as I attend, for my part, to our new friends in Tokyo and to their associates--exceptional artists who know what magic can be done with scissor, thread, and colour. Let me also voice openly the hope that our friend Xa Shin Wei--that wizard of the digital textile--can join us again soon.
Christopher Fynsk
Director of the Centre for Modern Thought
May 6, 2010
