My JCU - John Cabot University

Beyond Reification:
Critical Theory and the Challenge of Praxis
May 21 – 23, 2008
John Cabot University
Via della Lungara 233
Rome, Italy
Coordinator:
Stefano Giacchetti Ludovisi
John Cabot University
Session Chairs:
Lucia Aiello, Brunella Antomarini, Arianne Conty,
Luca De Caprariis, David Miller, Vincent Rocchio –
John Cabot University
Keynote Speakers:
Andrew Cutrofello – Loyola University Chicago
Andrew Feenberg – Simon Fraser University, Vancouver
Alessandro Ferrara – University of Rome, Tor Vergata
David Ingram – Loyola University Chicago
Giacomo Marramao – University of Rome, Roma Tre
Martin Matustik – Purdue University
Hugh Miller – Loyola University Chicago
Stefano Petrucciani – University of Rome, La Sapienza
Francesco Saverio Trincia – University Of Rome, La Sapienza
Presentations from:
Lucia Aiello – John Cabot University; Patrick Ahern – Vanderbilt University; Ian Angus – Simon Fraser University, Vancouver; Brunella
Antomarini – John Cabot University; Andrea Aureli – St. John’s University, Rome; Stefan Bird-Pollan – Harvard University; Noel Boulting –
Noboss; Arianne Conty – John Cabot University; Deborah Cook – University of Windsor,Canada; Andrea Cortés-Boussac – Sergio Arboleda
University, Colombia; Frances Daly – Australian National University; Idit Dobbs-Weinstein – Vanderbilt University; Brian Elliott – University
College Dublin; Benjamin Frymer – Sonoma State University; Samir Gandesha – Simon Fraser University, Vancouver; Stefano Giacchetti
Ludovisi – John Cabot University; Andy Hamilton – Durham University; Johan Frederick Hartle – University of Rome, Roma Tre; Claudie
Hemel – Centre Marc Bloch, Berlin; Jennifer Holt – Vanderbilt University; Gillian Howie – University of Liverpool; Milan Jaros – Newcastle
University; Anders Johansson – University of Gothenburg, Sweden; Timo Jütten – University of Sussex; Iain Macdonald – University of
Montreal; Wojciech Malecki – University of Wroclaw; Valentina Martina – University of Calabria; Michael McGettigan – Loyola University
Chicago; C. McQuillan, L. Caryer, J. Miller – Emory University; Duston Moore – Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne; Brendan
Moran – University of Calgary; Alastair Morgan – University of Nottingham; Radu Neculau – University of Windsor, Canada; Eric Sean Nelson
– University of Massachusetts Lowell; Paul North – New York University; Brian O’Connor – University of Dublin; Nicole Pepperell – RMIT
University, Melbourne, Australia; Wesley Phillips – Middlesex University, London; Andrew Pierce – Loyola University Chicago; Lars
Rensmann – University of Michigan; Vincent Rocchio – John Cabot University; Beppe Sebaste – Writer; James Sorrell – University of
Nebraska Medical Center; Simon Susen – Goldsmiths College, University of London; Italo Testa – University of Parma; Frederik Van Gelder
– Institut fuer Sozialforschung J.W. Goethe-Universitaet, Frankfurt; Steven Vogel – Denison University, Ohio; Rocio Zambrana – New School
for Social Research.
John Cabot University – Via della Lungara 233 – 00165 Rome, Italy
info: www.johncabot.edu or sgiacchetti@johncabot.edu (Registration is free of charge)

Wednesday, May 21
Aula Magna
8.45 - 9.00
Coffee
9.00 - 9.15
Welcome by the President of John Cabot University.
9.15 - 10.00 (Chair: Stefano Giacchetti Ludovisi)
David Ingram, Loyola University Chicago “Is There a Human
Right to Subsistence? Revisiting Habermas’s Theory of
Global Justice in an Age of Globalization”
10.00 - 10.45
Alessandro Ferrara, University of Rome, Tor Vergata “The
Nugget and the Tailings. On Axel Honneth’s Reinterpretation
of Reification”
10.45 - 11.00
Coffee Break
11.00 - 11.45
Giacomo Marramao, University of Rome, Roma Tre
“Messianism Without Delay. Benjamin and Critical Theory”
11.45 - 12.30
Brunella Antomarini, John Cabot University “Walter Benjamin
and the political task of the translator”
Afternoon Sessions
Aula Magna
15.00 - 15.40 (Chair: Stefano Giacchetti Ludovisi)
Frederik Van Gelder, Institut fuer Sozialforschung J.W. Goethe-
Universitaet, Frankfurt “On ‘non-identity’, ‘contradiction’ and
‘reflection’ in Adorno’s Negative Dialectics”
15.40 - 16.20
Stefan Bird-Pollan, Harvard University “Adorno and Kant on
the Question of Practical Reason”
16.20 - 17.00
Deborah Cook, University of Windsor, Canada “Through a
Glass Darkly: Adorno’s Inverse Theology”
17.00 - 17.30
Coffee Break
17.30 - 18.10 (Chair: Lucia Aiello)
Samir Gandesha, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver “Dialectic
and Difference: Two Conceptions of Reification”
18.10 - 18.50
Lars Rensmann, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor “Adorno
at Ground Zero: Towards a Critical Theory of Globalization”
Room 3
15.00 - 15.40 (Chair: David Miller)
Brendan Moran, University of Calgary “Politics of Creative
Indifference”
15.40 - 16.20
Frances Daly, Australian National University “Reified Life and
the Problem of Culture in Ernst Bloch and Walter Benjamin”
16.20 - 17.00
Alastair Morgan, University of Nottingham “Erlebnis and
Erfahrung: Critical Theory and the Destruction of
Experience”
17.00 - 17.30
Coffee Break
17.30 - 18.10 (Chair: Brunella Antomarini)
Andrea Cortés-Boussac, Sergio Arboleda University, Colombia
“Benjamin’s media theory and the world of networking
images”
18.10 - 18.50
Andrea Aureli, St. John’s University, Rome “Waiting for the second
Coming? The 1970s in Italy as a (non)lieux de mémoire”
Spartacus Room
15.00 - 15.40 (Chair: Vincent Rocchio)
Timo Jütten, University of Sussex “Honnet’s Teory of
Reification and the Challenge of Praxis”
15.40 - 16.20
Nicole Pepperell, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia
“Fetish and Reification: On Being, versus Appearing to Be,
an “Objective” Social Relation”
16.20 - 17.00
Italo Testa, Università di Parma “Adorno on Second Nature,
History and Reification”
17.00 - 17.30
Coffee Break
17.30 - 18.10 (Chair: Luca De Caprariis)
Vincent Rocchio, John Cabot University “Critical Theory,
Media, & Militarism: A Failure of Praxis”
18.10 - 18.50
Simon Susen, Goldsmiths College, University of London “The
Transformation of Culture in Modern Society: Towards a
Critical Theory of Symbolic Violence”
Thursday, May 22
Aula Magna
8.45 - 9.15
Coffee
9.15 - 10.00 (Chair: Brunella Antomarini)
Andrew Feenberg, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver
“Recovering Meaning in One-Dimensional Society”
10.00 - 10.45
Stefano Petrucciani, University of Rome, La Sapienza “Marcuse,
Politics and Critical Theory”
10.45 - 11.00
Coffee Break
11.00 - 11.45
Andrew Cutrofello, Loyola University Chicago “What is One-
Dimensional Philosophy”
11.45 - 12.30
Stefano Giacchetti Ludovisi, John Cabot University “Beyond
Domination: Adorno and Political Praxis”
Afternoon Sessions
Aula Magna
15.00 - 15.40 (Chair: Stefano Giacchetti Ludovisi)
Steven Vogel, Denison University, Ohio “What is Alienation
from Nature?”
15.40 - 16.20
Eric Sean Nelson, University of Massachusetts Lowell “Can
Nature be Reified? Animals, Environments, and the
Frankfurt School”
16.20 - 17.00
Johan Frederik Hartle, University of Rome, Roma Tre
“Reification and living labour. Reconsidering the Marxist
challenge”
17.00 - 17.30
Coffee Break
17.30 - 18.10 (Chair: Brunella Antomarini)
Brian O’Connor, University College Dublin “Immanent
Critique and its Norms”
18.10 - 18.50
Noel Boulting, Noboss “Can an advocate of Critical Theory
solve the Problem of Rationality in Marx’s Philosophy?”
Room 3
15.00 - 15.40 (Chair: David Miller)
Jennifer Holt, Vanderbilt University “Nihilistic Praxis:
Benjamin and Adorno on Mutilated Thinking”
15.40 - 16.20
Patrick Ahern, Vanderbilt University “Decayed Bodies,
Redeemed Past: Adorno, Benjamin, and the Deformation of
Happiness”
16.20 - 17.00
Idit Dobbs-Weinstein, Vanderbilt University “A praxis oriented
by the debt to the past: Benjamin’s and Adorno’s critique of
teleology”
17.00 - 17.30
Coffee Break
17.30 - 18.10 (Chair: Luca De Caprariis)
James Sorrell, University of Nebraska Medical Center “Critical
theory and narratives of non-identity: engendering emancipation
in psychotherapy”
18.10 - 18.50
Radu Neculau, University of Windsor, Canada “Critical Theory
and the Challenge of Crowd Psychology”
Spartacus Room
15.00 - 15.40 (Chair: Vincent Rocchio)
Michael McGettigan, Loyola University Chicago “Philosophy as
Psychology of Weltanschauungen: Horkheimer and the
Revenge of Positivism”
15.40 - 16.20
Wojciech Malecki, University of Wroclaw, Poland “Everything
You Always Wanted to Know about Eclipse of Reason... But
Were Afraid to Ask Dewey”
16.20 - 17.00
Claudie Hemel, Centre Marc Bloch, Berlin “The fate of fear in
the Dialektik der Aufklärung”
17.00 - 17.30
Coffee Break
17.30 - 18.10
Gillian Howie, University of Liverpool “The Economy of the
Same: identity, exploitation and equivalence”
18.10 - 18.50
Rocio Zambrana, New School for Social Research, New York
“Speculative Dialectics as Critique: A Hegelian Alternative to
Normative Paradigms of Critique”
Friday, May 23
Aula Magna
8.45 - 9.15
Coffee
9.15 - 10.00 (Chair: Stefano Giacchetti Ludovisi)
Hugh Miller, Loyola University Chicago “The Matter of
Painting: On the Place of the Sensuous Concrete in Adorno’s
Aesthetic Theory”
10.00 - 10.45
Lucia Aiello, John Cabot University “Allegories of Praxis:
Adorno and Dickinson’s Poetics of Possibility”
10.45 - 11.00
Coffee Break
11.00 - 11.45
Francesco Saverio Trincia, University Of Rome, La Sapienza
“The Reification of Democracy. Politics and Critical Theory”
11.45 - 12.30
Martin Matustik, Purdue University “Radical Evil and the
Scarcity of Hope”
Afternoon Sessions
Aula Magna
15.00 - 15.40 (Chair: Brunella Antomarini)
Paul North, New York University “The Ideal of the Problem:
Walter Benjamin’s Art-Critical Theory”
15.40 - 16.20
Brian Elliott, University College Dublin “Benjamin, Surrealism
and the Situation of the Object”
16.20 - 17.00
Beppe Sebaste, Writer “An ethics of prose. Walter Benjamin’s
epistolary exchange”
17.00 - 17.30
Coffee Break
17.30 - 18.10 (Chair: Stefano Giacchetti Ludovisi)
Arianne Conty, John Cabot University “Profane Illuminations:
Walter Benjamin and the Practice of History”
18.10 - 18.50
Milan Jaros, Newcastle University “Benjaminian legacy for
developing novel practices of knowledge recognition and
acquisition in the post-mechanical age”
Room 3
15.00 - 15.40 (Chair: Luca De Caprariis)
Ian Angus, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver “The
Contemporaneity of Heideggerian Marxism: Reflections on
Marcuse’s Early Essays”
15.40 - 16.20
Duston Moore, Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne
“Marcuse’s Surreal Metaphysics: The Rehabilitation of
Plato’s Forms”
16.20 - 17.00
Valentina Martina, Università della Calabria “The concept of
labour in Herbert Marcuse”
17.00 - 17.30
Coffee Break
17.30 - 18.10 (Chair: Vincent Rocchio)
Iain Macdonald, University of Montreal “Cold, Cold, Warm:
Autonomy, Maturity and Intimacy in Adorno”
18.10 - 18.50 (Chair: Arianne Conty)
Wesley Phillips, Middlesex University, London “What is
Melancholy about the Melancholy Science?”
Spartacus Room
15.00 - 15.40 (Chair: Lucia Aiello)
Anders Johansson, University of Gothenburg, Sweden “The
Nature of Art: An Adornian Critique of Contemporary
Idealism”
15.40 - 16.20
Andy Hamilton, Durham University “Adorno and Political Art”
16.20 - 17.00
Benjamin Frymer, Sonoma State University “The challenge of
aesthetic education: estrangement and emancipation in late
capitalism”
17.00 - 17.30
Coffee Break
17.30 - 18.10 (Chair: Lucia Aiello)
C. McQuillan, L. Caryer, J. Miller, Emory University
“Philosophical Commitments: The Role of Philosophy in
Critical Theory”
18.10 - 18.50
Andrew Pierce, Loyola University Chicago “Aesthetic
Mediation and the Politics of Technology”
John Cabot University – Via della Lungara 233 – 00165 Rome, Italy
info: www.johncabot.edu or sgiacchetti@johncabot.edu (Registration is free of charge)