The Centre for the Study of Culture and Politics regularly organizes events from focused seminars to large conferences. We also collaborate with others in organizing events internationally but unless indicated otherwise these events take place at Swansea.

Current Programme

2009

April 30th

Public Lecture: Bonnie Honig, Sarah Rebecca Roland Professor of Political Science at Northwestern University Illinois: ‘Antigone's laments, Creon's grief: Mourning, Membership and the Politics of Exception’.

May 5th

Symposium: ‘Persuasion: Rhetoric and Politics in Contemporary Democracy’. This event is organized by C-SCAP in collaboration with the Centre for the Study of Global Media and Democracy at Goldsmiths and to be held at Goldsmiths College. 

Persuasion is one of democracy’s central motifs and yet also its most ambiguous. Where is the line between persuasion and force? What standards of truth and consent make for a democratic form of persuasion? Which forms of rhetoric mark out a democratic polity from tyranny? How can we best understand and analyses the forms, modes and locations  of contemporary rhetorics as manifested in visual and media cultures? This symposium explores the modes of democratic persuasion, the methods for its explication and interpretation and the prospects for rhetoric both in the academy and in the contemporary multifaceted polis.

June 23-26, 2009

Shaping Europe in a Globalized World? Protest Movements and the Rise of a Transnational Civil Society, at the University of Zurich, and organized by Centre for the Study of Culture and Politics along with University of Zurich, University of Halle, University of Heidelberg.

Past Events

2008

May 6: 

Workshop: Violence and Democracy  Participants included Helmut Kuzmics a Sociologist at the University of Graz , Roger Bromley, Professor of Cultural Studies at Nottingham University and John Schwarzmantel, Professor of Politics at Leeds University.

16th October

Seminar: Justifying War: A Critical Examination of Blair’s Moral Case for Military Action against Iraq in 2003, Ms. Judi Atkins (Department of Politics and International Relations, Swansea)

23rd October

Seminar: Financialisation, Everyday Life and European legitimacy: The Case of France, Dr. Claes Belfrage, (Department of Politics and International Relations, Swansea)

30th October

Seminar: Memories of Terror: (re)producing history, community, and grievable lives, Dr. Lee Jarvis (Department of Politics and International Relations, Swansea)

6th November

Seminar: Theorizing Bruce Lee: Deconstruction, Postcoloniality and Political Subjectivization, Dr. Paul Bowman (Cardiff School of Media, Journalism and Cultural Studies)

11th December

Seminar: Shakespeare and the Political Way, Dr. Elizabeth Frazer, (Department of Politics, University of Oxford)

2007

February 22nd

Seminar: Sam Chambers (Johns Hopkins University) The Cultural Politics of Television

March 1st

Seminar: Nathan Roger (Research Student, Politics and International Relations): The War of Images

March 23rd 

Symposium: Continental Political Thought and International Relations with Nick Rengger (Professor of International Relations, St, Andrews), Patricia Owens (Oxford University), Martin Weber (University of Queensland), Torsten Michel (St. Andrews University) and others.

May 11th and 12th

Conference: Becoming Plural – The Political Theory of William E. Connolly  with William E. Connolly (Krieger-Eisenhower Professor, John’s Hopkins), Mike Shapiro (Professor, Hawaii), Stephen K. White (James Hart Professor of Politics, Virginia), Thomas Dumm (Professor of Political Science, Amherst) and others.

October 18th

Seminar: ‘After Such Knowledge, What Forgiveness? The TRC and Recent Cultural Forms in South Africa, 2003 to the Present’ Professor Roger Bromley (Department of Cultural Studies, Nottingham Trent University)

November 15th

Seminar: ‘Realism, Neo-conservatism, and the Iraq War: Culture, Power, and International Politics’, Professor Michael C. Williams (Department of International Politics, University of Wales Aberystwyth)

November 22nd

Seminar:  ‘“Strength in unity” & “Strength through fear” - the use of symbols in the pre-history of propaganda’ Trish Thomas (Graduate Student, Department of Politics and International Relations, Swansea University)

November 23rd- 25th

Conference: Justice and Global Responsibilities

Held at Gregynog, the University of Wales conference Centre speakers included Professor David Miller (Nuffield College Oxford), Professor Simon Tormey, of the University of Nottingham and its Centre for the Study of Social Justice and Dr. Peter Sutch of the Politics Department Cardiff University as well as Centre member Dr. Mark Evans.

December 6th 

Seminar: Encore une foi/s: The crux of political theology’, Professor Roland Axtmann (Department of Politics and International Relations, Swansea University).