The 2018 summer school, titled “Posthuman Ethics, Pain and Endurance,” which will take place between the 20th-24th of August 2018 at Utrecht University, in Utrecht, the Netherlands, combines an introduction to the basic tenets of Braidotti’s brand of critical posthuman theory with an overview on contemporary debates about the ethical implications of posthumanism and the so-called ‘posthuman turn’.
While the emphasis of the course will be on the mutually enriching relationship between the posthuman, neo-materialism, and the ethics of affirmation, this year the main topic will be both the practical and theoretical issues around the notions of pain and endurance in the contemporary world.
How does a vision of the posthuman subject as a process of interaction between human, non-human and inhuman forces help us cope with the multi-facetted challenges of the contemporary world, caught between the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the Sixth Extinction? How does the neo-Spinozist notion of endurance foster the project of constructing an affirmative ethics for posthuman subjects, at a time of social and political regression on so many fronts? How does this vital ethics of affirmation help us confront suffering, death and dying? What does it mean to lead an anti-fascist life in brutal times?
Following an established tradition, each day of the course is structured as follows: the mornings are devoted to plenary keynote lectures, by the course leader, invited teachers and special guests. The afternoons are devoted to parallel seminar sessions. All of the participants will be sub-divided into smaller tutoring groups, led by a team of tutors who follow the same group throughout. Participants will be notified of the group they have been assigned to and receive the name and contact details of their tutor before the summer school starts. Rosi Braidotti will be present every afternoon, will visit all the groups and will participate in all of them in turns. Adjustments and changes to the assigned groups can be made if necessary. At the end of the afternoon all the tutorial groups come together for a closing plenary discussion session, chaired by Braidotti.
Please click on the following registration link if you are interested in participating: https://www.utrechtsummerschool.nl/courses/culture/posthuman_ethics_pain_and_endurance
Or send an e-mail to receive more information to: gw.braidottiass@uu.nl