Postgraduate "Work In Progress" Seminar
Postgraduate Work-In-Progress SeminarA weekly seminar for Philosophy postgraduates to present their in-progress work, followed by a well-spirited trip to the pub. OverviewThe WIP provides a risk-free and supportive space for postgraduates to present their work and receive feedback from other graduates and faculty.
Attendance optional but highly recommended. All postgraduates are welcome to present or attend -- whether MA, MPhil, PhD, Visitors, etc. Useful InfoThe WIP is a unique opportunity for graduates to develop their presenting and writing skills, take risks, test out ideas, and receive constructive feedback from peers.
Presentations need not be watertight or polished pieces at all. You are encouraged to present work at all stages of the writing process. Should you present?Are you a postgraduate? Then yes, you should present. |
NEXT TALKBen Long (PhD) Scepticism Thursday 04/06/2026 5pm - 6:15pm S1.50 ORGANISERS |
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CRPLA Seminar: Miguel Beistegui (ICREA/UPF), 'Tragedy, Crisis, and the State of Exception: On Carl Schmitt鈥檚 Hamlet or Hecuba'
This talk responds to our historical moment, one defined by a state of chronic crisis and the rise or return of constitutional dictatorships and authoritarian, if not fascistic regimes, for which the state of exception is becoming an increasingly normalised technique of government. This situation calls for a philosophy, and specifically a critique, of crisis. One of my claims will be that when philosophy tries to think its own present, it does so through the schema (if not always the concept) of crisis, which it inherits from ancient medicine and/or tragedy. I will turn to Hamlet as a case study, and to Carl Schmitt鈥檚 鈥渕odern鈥� and 鈥渟overeigntist鈥� reading of Shakespeare鈥檚 play. For Schmitt, Hamlet reveals the essence of the political understood as the decision regarding the state of exception. Drawing on the thoughts of W. Benjamin, E. Levinas, and J. Derrida, I will end my talk by trying to rescue an altogether different conception of the exception, rooted not in sovereignty, or the excess of the iustitium in relation to the ius commune, but in justice as the haunting presence of the oppressed.