Walter Benjamin and the Aesthetics of Change

Participation is invited for a conference on Walter Benjamin and the Aesthetics of Change: An Interdisciplinary Approach, February 22-23, 2008, at the University of Birmingham, UK. Given the increasing interest in the work of Walter Benjamin, across a number of different disciplines, such as international relations, political theory, sociology, urban studies, literature and more, this conference seeks to bring together a critical mass of scholars from across these different disciplines in order to share their approaches to Benjamin's work as well as to consider the impact that it has had and continues to have on the study of social change. Panel submissions as well as individual papers are welcomed. Proposals could address questions related to the use of Benjamin's work in different disciplines, his historical relevance, his impact on the study of history and social change, his contribution to the larger concept of aesthetics, elaborations on his concept of aura, shock, history, materialism, space, flaneur/flaneurship, his impact on other writers and schools of thought as well as his continued relevance today. Anyone interested in the work of Walter Benjamin or those he has inspired is invited to attend.

Invited key speakers include: Esther Leslie - Birckbeck University of London, Renate Holub – University of California Berkeley, Beatriz Jaguaribe - Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rolando Vasquez - Gothenberg University, and G.M. Tamas – Central European University.

Please submit your abstracts by December 15 to Anca Pusca: puscaa@bham.ac.uk.