SCMP News: January 2005

posted:21/01/05

The Political Futures of Jacques Derrida

When: 15th February 2005

RSVP: (Tuesday 8th February 2005)

Download PDF flyer here

During the Second World War, Jacques Derrida was excluded from school in occupied Algeria because he was Jewish. Citizenship of the nation and its language community were to be experienced as precarious, marked by traces of a violent racial politics of both anti- Semitism and colonialism. His philosophy of the dislocation of language and identity always recalled this politics in its insistence on the inter-subjective risk implicit in signification.

In Derrida, politics is enacted in an open-ness first to danger but also to hospitality. In a world burdened by economic, national and religious fundamentalisms and their dogmatic discourses, this open-ness bears the lesson of the atrocities that stalk modern and postmodern ethics and history. It was towards an optimistic reconsideration of these problems that Derrida's work grew in the last twenty years of his life.

Consequently, and as an alternative voice to the recent denigrations of Derrida in the press since his death and in an attempt to resist the temptation to fetishize as we mourn him, thus enacting the closure of Derrida's oeuvre, 'The Political Futures of Jacques Derrida' will celebrate the enduring and urgent political significance and relevance of his work, as well as considering and enacting the ethical/political future horizons that it opens.

Some themes to be discussed include:

Derrida & the politics & practice of everyday life - Political terrorism - Derrida, hospitality & affect - The radical reinvention of a political ethics - Derrida & the media - Textual freeplay: Derrida's ethical/political relevance - The politics of memory, mourning & the beyond - Derrida, political decision & absolute risk - Derrida & justice - Derrida & emotion.

STAFF NEWS

posted:27/01/05

Call for nominations for Heads of Departments in the Division of SCMP

I hereby on the 12th January, 2005 call for nominations to the position of Head of Department for the following Departments:

• Department of Media
• Department of Philosophy
• Department of Sociology

In accordance with the Divisional Rules, 28 days must elapse before nominations close. Therefore

NOMINATIONS CLOSE ON Friday, 18TH FEBRUARY, 2005.

Please submit nominations to me in writing on or before Friday, 18th February. Late nominations will not be accepted.

Further please note the following:

• If only one nomination is received, that person is considered elected
• If an election is necessary it shall be by optional preferential voting in a secret ballot and the Head of Division will arrange for ballot papers to be supplied and the ballot to be held
• Those eligible to vote are continuing members of the academic staff of the department who hold appointment for a term of not less than three years
• If there is no candidate the Head of College on the recommendation of Head of Division will appoint at Acting Head for one year
• Each Head of Department will hold office for a term of three years and not for more than two consecutive terms from a date determined by Council

For any further information regarding this process please contact me. Full copies of Division Rules are available from the Registrar's Department on the Web, or contact Ms Heather King on ext. 7300.