Conference: Haiti and the Politics of the Universal

Conference: Haiti and the Politics of the Universal, University of Aberdeen, March 12-13, 2010

Since 1804, Haiti has named the founding, repressed, ‘legitimate’ violence of Western Modernity in its totality: both our spectral fantasies of slavery, revolutionary violence, and the ‘failed state,’ as well as the site of an eternally disavowed egalitarianism without compromise.

After two centuries of neglect and disavowal, the Haitian Revolution has suddenly become a fundamental reference point for global emancipatory politics, a touchstone for critical philosophers such as Alain Badiou, Slavoj Žižek, Susan Buck-Morss, Peter Hallward, and Hardt and Negri. This conference will address this contemporary theoretical turn in Haitian Studies, discussing Haiti’s place in Atlantic Modernity and its central role in political history and theory since 1791. Topics will range from the world-historical significance of the Haitian Revolution to the place of Haiti in the global political order since 2004. The conference will bring together a mix of academic and activist speakers to discuss the broad historical, philosophical, and political implications of Haiti since 1791.

Confirmed speakers include: Peter Hallward, Susan Buck-Morss, Bruno Bosteels, Alberto Moreiras, Kim Ives, Deborah Jenson, Patrick Elie, Chris Bongie, and Nick Nesbitt

For more information, please contact Nick Nesbitt (n.nesbitt@abdn.ac.uk)