2013 Conference - Call for Papers
Villanova University’s 18th Annual Philosophy Conference
Friday, April 12 - Saturday, April 13, 2013
Confirmed Speakers Mladen Dolar | Slavoj Žižek | Alenka Zupancic
Call For Papers
The present is often characterized as a critical moment that totters between possibilities of irresolvable catastrophe
and redemptive restoration. Such claims involve prophecies of an end. Whether consisting in theological predictions
of a messianic end, political predictions of a revolutionary end, or historical predictions of an epochal end, claims on
the future charge the present with immediate significance through the ethical and political demands they place on it.
This is to say, an anticipated end, which in a way is not-yet, is also always enacted in the present. Apocalyptic futures
clearly enter into the structure of contemporary subjects - of their desires and drives, on the planes of fantasy and
of theory - but these relations call for clarification. The multiplicity of ways in which prophecy can be received, for
instance - whether the foretold end is interpreted as already-accomplished, imminent, or in the indeterminate future,
whether the end is met with a spirit of fear or hopeful anticipation, or whether it is understood as necessary and
irrevocable or as contingent and preventable, etc. - invites fundamental inquiry into the conscious and unconscious
relations of the subject to history and its ruptures.
Possible topics may include but are not limited to the following: the end/temporality of history (Hegel, Marx, Kojeve);
political theology and the Messianic: the legacy of Paul in political theology, kariological temporality and klesis
(Agamben, Derrida, Benjamin, Bloch); early modern political philosophy: the role of prophecy in shaping societal
affects (Hobbes, Machiavelli, Spinoza); phenomenological relationality to the future; revolutionary politics; apocalyptic
cinema, science fiction, and art.
The Department of Philosophy at Villanova University welcomes individuals (including graduate students and faculty)
to submit abstracts, papers, proposed panels or artist presentations to be considered for our conference. We
encourage submissions from women and other underrepresented groups.
Submission Guidelines
Submission Deadline: February 1st, 2013
Please send submissions formatted for blind review
to Rachel Aumiller and Chris Drain at villanovaphilosophy@gmail.com
