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<P align=center><STRONG>'Wandering with Spinoza'</STRONG></P>
<P align=center><A
href="http://www.conferences.unimelb.edu.au/spinoza/">www.conferences.unimelb.edu.au/spinoza/</A></P>
<P align=center>The Conference will be held at the Victorian College of the
Arts, Melbourne, Australia from 13 – 15 September 2006.</P>
<P align=center>The conference aims to bring together philosophers, theorists
and visual and performing artists to celebrate this most influential of
philosophers.</P>
<P align=center>Keynote Speakers include Alain Badiou, Mieke Bal, Thomas
Hirschhorn, Genevieve Lloyd, and Christopher Norris </P>
<P>There are at least two senses in which “wandering” can be taken as a
productive category to approach Spinoza’s thought. First, it could
designate Spinoza’s image of the human as the “little worm in the blood” which
wanders around the cosmic circulation system. To follow this “worm” is to
follow Spinoza’s thought, from the impassioned geometrical writings to the
personal epistolary exchanges. But, like the “worm” that the human is,
one’s thought will not be allowed to rest at one particular point, instead one
wanders on with Spinoza. The second meaning of the “wandering” could refer
to the divergent routes and detours that the explications of Spinoza’s work has
taken. From materialist to rationalist, from political philosopher to
metaphysician, from heretic to theologian – the import of Spinoza’s thinking
also eludes a single trajectory.</P>
<P>At the same time, if both of the above senses are retained, then a third one
will also come into light. Namely, that as one confronts Spinoza’s thought and
its reception, then that confrontation itself will become nomadic, passing on
and through various spheres. A wandering that goes from the purity and
eternality of philosophical thinking to the particularity and heterogeneity of
art and politics – and then back again. Thus, Spinoza raises a challenge
to the disciplines that approach questions of what it means to be human.</P>
<P>The conference “Wandering with Spinoza” will respond to those movements, not
by remaining faithful to Spinoza himself. Rather, the conference calls on
the responsibility to “wander with” as an enterprise which can be reduced
neither to an individual, nor to determinate boundaries. This call for
papers is extended to everyone who likes to take on this responsibility.</P>
<P>The CFP has been extended to <STRONG>June 30</STRONG>.</P>
<P>Abstracts of around 100 words should be sent to <A
href="mailto:Dimitrios.Vardoulakis@arts.monash.edu.au">Dimitrios.Vardoulakis@arts.monash.edu.au</A></P>
<P>_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ </P>
<P>Dimitris Vardoulakis<BR>Centre for Comparative Literature and Cultural
Studies<BR>Building 11<BR>Monash University<BR>Clayton, Vic
3800<BR>Australia</P>
<P>tel: +61 3 9905 9009<BR>fax: +61 3 9905 5593<BR>email: <A
href="mailto:Dimitrios.Vardoulakis@arts.monash.edu.au">Dimitrios.Vardoulakis@arts.monash.edu.au</A><BR></P></BODY></HTML>