Summary

Between 2 and 4 March 2011, the Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis held a conference at the University of Amsterdam. Titled ‘Practicing Theory: Imagining, Resisting, Remembering’, the conference aimed to investigate how ‘theory’ and ‘practice’ overlap, influence and construct one another. The conference also sought to shed light on the productive intersections that arise when the boundaries between theory and practice are considered porous and the gap which lies between them is reinvented as a constructive space of opportunity. Because the conference revolved around the interrogation of the boundaries between conceptual objects of theory and practice, participants from a wide variety of disciplines were invited to submit articles and essays from the fields of science, art and politics. The conference and accompanying workshops were structured along three central themes in which participants were asked to think and/or work through the practicing of theory and the theorising of practice. As outlined in the conference title, these three themes were ‘imagining’, ‘resisting’ and ‘remembering’.

Speakers

During the Practicing Theory conference workshop, keynote addresses were given by several internationally respected scholars. These were:

• Meltem Ahiska, associate professor of Sociology at Bosphorus University in Istanbul
• Mieke Bal, professor of Theory of Literature at the University of Amsterdam
• Ed Cohen, professor at the Department of Women’s and Gender Studies at Rutgers School of Arts and Sciences
• Lawrence Grossberg, professor of Communication Studies at the UNC University of North Carolina
• Jacques Rancière, emeritus professor at the Université de Paris and professor of Philosophy at the European Graduate School in Saas-Fee

Organising committee

Adam Chambers
Aylin Kuryel
Niall Martin
Hanneke Stuit
Irina Souch

Papers

Several papers were compiled for the ASCA International Workshop 2011. These can be downloaded via the links below.

Contact details

For more information about the ASCA Practicing Theory Workshop 2011, please contact:

The Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis
Spuistraat 210 (room 113)
1012 VT Amsterdam
The Netherlands
Email: asca-fgw@uva.nl