Author Archives: David Webb

Michel Serres and the Social

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The revised papers from the conference Michel Serres and the Social, organised by Chris Watkin and held at Churchill College Cambridge in June 2022, have been published in the journal Angelaki. It’s a great collection and includes David Webb’s ‘Michel Serres: the natural contract, narrative and law’ and Bill Ross’ paper ‘Michel Serres and Lyotard: global society, immortality and informatics’. Some, but not all, of the papers are open access. University of Staffordshire students can access all the papers via the University Library.

https://doi.org/10.1080/0969725X.2024.2382578

https://www.tandfonline.com/cang20

Antonin Artaud – Revolutionary Messages, translated by Joel White

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Published here in its entirety in English, Artaud’s Revolutionary Messages collects Antonin Artaud’s political, aesthetic and philosophical writings during his travels to Mexico in 1936.

Not only will you gain crucial insight into Artaud’s time in Mexico and his vision of a “total revolution,” which he places in distinction to Marxist and Surrealist conceptions of revolution, but you will deepen your understanding of the philosophical roots of his theatrical project, which ultimately shaped modern theatre and dance.

The publication includes an introduction by the translator, Joel White, and a preface by Professor of European Philosophy, Howard Caygill.

An exciting Michel Serres translation project

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Michel Serres’ monumental book Le système de Leibniz et ses modèles mathématiques, published in 1968, has long been regarded as having an important place in his philosohical work. At over 800 pages, it has remained untranslated – but that’s now changing. Bill Ross, who completed his PhD at Staffordshire and taught here, had started work on a translation before he died in 2022. Now Joel White has taken up the challenge and has translated the Introduction, ‘Ensembles théoriques’ – itself nearing 100 pages. In this important text Serres sets out the cardinal points in a reception of Leibniz’s work that runs as a current through so much of Serres’ later work. Details on publication to follow.

Recent postgraduate student success

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Graduates from the MA in Continental Philosophy have recently gained places on PhD programs at the University of Chicago, the University of Hawai’i, the University of Durham, and the University of Glasgow.

Sharon Hagenbeek presented her research on animality to the 2023 annual conference of the Nietzsche Society in Lausanne.

Dave Monroe may be writing his PhD on Michel Serres and ethics, but he has a long cherished sideline in the philosophy of food. In May, Dave gave an invited presentation at AI Kitchens and Robot Cooks: Ethical and Social Impacts Expert Workshop in Prague. https://cetep.eu/ai-kitchens-workshop/

Stuart Blaney, who graduated from the MA in Continental Philosophy a few years ago and then completed his PhD at Staffordshire in 2022 has a book forthcoming with Bloomsbury. Equality and Freedom in Rancière and Foucault will appear early in 2025. This follows the publication of Stuart’s paper ‘Politics and Aesthetics: Jacques Ranciere and Louis-Gabriel Gauny’ in the journal Philosophy and Social Criticism. https://doi.org/10.1177/01914537231197447

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Conference on Michel Serres and Bruno Latour

Maison Française d’Oxford Institut français de recherche à l’étranger

https://www.mfo.ac.uk/event/conference-michel-serres-and-bruno-latour-conversation

In May, David took part in a conference at the Maison Française d’Oxford (with the support of La Fondation Michel Serres-Institut) dedicated to the work of Michel Serres and Bruno Latour.

.Eclaircissements (Conversations on Science, Culture and Time) is the original title of the volume of five dialogues between Michel Serres and Bruno Latour published in 1992. Widely translated, this book reflects a time of intense and joyous dialogue and of sharing ideas. The aim of this conference is to shed new light on their philosophical dialogue, explore how their views compare, clash, dovetail and/or are mutually enriching.  How do, for instance, Le Contrat Naturel and Politiques de la Nature, Biogée and Gaia, echo each other. This conference seeks to examine the legacy of Michel Serres in the light of his relation to Bruno Latour and identify continuities and fault lines between the two oeuvres. Beyond the question of legacy, the conference hopes to bring to the fore the ways in which both challenged modern categories to reconnect philosophy with the urgent questions concerning the Earth. The conference will also seek to explore how their respective philosophical practices, as they are breaking away from the traditional codes of academic writing, fashioned an idiosyncratic style of their own and allowed them to engage a larger readership and audience.

Organisers

  • Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent
  • Henriette Korthals-Altes

Participants

  • Frédérique Aït-Touati (EHESS)
  • Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent (Univ Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne)
  • Steven Connor (Kings College, Cambridge)
  • Martin Crowley (Cambridge)
  • Elie During (Université Paris Nanterre)
  • Henriette Korthals-Altes (Maison Française d’Oxford)
  • Catherine Larrère (Université Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne)
  • Lilian Kroth (Freiburg University)
  • Simon Schaffer  (Cambridge University)
  • Massimiliano Simmons (Maastricht University)
  • Victor Simmonet (Université Paris 8)
  • David Webb (Staffordshire University)