Dear all, At the next Critical Antiquities Workshop, we are very excited to host Andy Poe (Australian Catholic University) for his paper, ‘Beginning Abolition.'
This event will be held in a hybrid format in the Vere Gordon Childe Centre Boardroom, University of Sydney, and on Zoom on Wednesday, 9 September 9:30-11:30am (Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne, Brisbane time). Here is the time in other locations: * Los Angeles/Vancouver: Tuesday, September 8, 4:30–6:30 pm * Chicago/Mexico City: Tuesday, September 8, 6:30–8:30 pm (Chicago); 5:30–7:30 pm (Mexico City) * New York: Tuesday, September 8, 7:30–9:30 pm * Santiago/Buenos Aires/Rio de Janeiro: Tuesday, September 8, 8:30–10:30 pm * Dublin/Belfast/London: Wednesday, September 9, 12:30–2:30 am * Paris/Berlin/Rome: Wednesday, September 9, 1:30–3:30 am * Johannesburg/Athens/Cairo: Wednesday, September 9, 1:30–3:30 am (Johannesburg); 2:30–4:30 am (Athens and Cairo) * Beijing/Singapore/Perth: Wednesday, September 9, 7:30–9:30 am * Tokyo: Wednesday, September 9, 8:30–10:30 am * Adelaide/Darwin: Wednesday, September 9, 9:00–11:00 am To register, please sign up for the Critical Antiquities Network mailing list to receive Zoom links and CAN announcements: https://signup.e2ma.net/signup/1930251/1916146 Here is the abstract: Recent critiques of abolition reduce it to the mere termination of oppressive institutions, condemning it as revolutionary rather than reformist. This essay argues that such an account mistakes the abolitionist political logic. Abolition is not simply an ending, but an undercommon mode of political beginning. Drawing on Moten and Harney’s theorization of the undercommons, I develop a reading of abolition as an affective and democratic practice that refuses “common sense” through which existing relations of domination remain politically intelligible. I trace this logic through Solon’s seisachtheia(σεισάχθεια), the “shaking off of burdens” associated with debt slavery in archaic Athens. Solon’s reforms illuminate how abolishing a relation of domination can reconstitute the political community itself. Read alongside modern abolitionist thought, seisachtheia thus discloses abolition as a recurrent democratic practice: not the mere destruction of an institution, but the beginning of a people otherwise. We hope to see you there, Tristan Bradshaw Ben Brown Tom Geue Andy Poe --------- SydPhil mailing list To unsubscribe, change your membership options, find answers to common problems, or visit our online archives, please go to the list information page: https://mailman.sydney.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/sydphil
