Blog

On the 9th of November the TECHNE, ARC Doctoral Partnership will be hosting a one-day symposium on 'Contemporary Art, Philosophy and Politics After The Postconceptual Condition' at the University of Surrey. The symposium will examine notions of the contemporary and contemporaneity beyond concomitance, in visual and performing arts, philosophy, and politics, and will feature a keynote lecture from Peter Osborne. To mark the occasion, we revisit the title essay from his recent collection The Postconceptual Condition: Critical Essays, out now on Verso.  

Despite the democratic potential of the camera, powerful institutions have historically sought to separate the photographer and her subjects, thus devaluing the participation of the many and making photography subservient to the imperial project. In the final part of the series Unlearning Decisive Moments of Photography, Ariella Azoulay argues that photography can only challenge such imperial practices if photographers pursue their profession out of affectionate proximity to their own community, and not as members of the international media. 

An interview on NPR's Weekend Edition with journalist Anabel Hernandez about her new book, A Massacre in Mexico: The True Story Behind the Missing Forty-Three Students.

Verso author Leta Hong Fincher presents five essential texts on gender and feminism in China. Her new book, Betraying Big Brother, examines the struggles of feminists in China against the patriarchal authoritarianism of the Xi Jinping administration. 

In this excerpt from American Homo, Jeffrey Escoffier reflects on the impact of the 1960s and 70s on the generation that come of age, and came out, in conjunction with the social movements of that era.

Interview with Oliver Nachtwey about his new book, Germany's Hidden Crisis

How is sex taught in schools? How could it be taught? Isn’t there something rather odd about the whole idea? An excerpt from Come Together: The Years of Gay Liberation 1970-73 edited by Aubrey Walter

The Suite (212) podcast presented by Juliet Jacques and Tom Overton returns. This week, Gareth Evans joins Juliet to discuss the radical filmmaker and media theorist Peter Watkins, whose critique of the 'monoform' exposed the authoritarian tendencies of Mass Audio-Visual Media.  

Recent debates on the British and the German left have reopened the question of the relation between socialism, the global economy, and the nation state. In this essay, Christine Berry argues that we must develop a new politics, one that is open to people but closed to global capital, for a truly radical left politics, and one that can overcome the resurgent far right.

This Friday, the 19th October, the Government's consultation on a proposed reform of the Gender Recognition Act will close. The process has become a focal point for a heated and often toxic debate over what we as a society owe to trans people, and how the claims of the trans community relate to the characteristic commitments and concerns of feminism. In this article, Lorna Finlayson, Katharine Jenkins, and Rosie Worsdale make the feminist case for trans inclusivity.

An extract from Homosexuality: Power and Politics by The Gay Left Collective - an anthology combining the very best of their work from 1975 and 1980, exploring masculinity and workplace organising, counterculture and disco, the survivals of victorian morality and the onset of the HIV/AIDS crisis.

Recent events have conclusively proved that social media is not the neutral global community that it is often taken to be – not least the recent purge of Facebook profiles of those voices critical of US foreign policy. In this article, Lewis Bassett argues that we are beginning to witness the growth of a tech monopoly capitalism that backs up US imperialism, and asks how, in the face of this, can we build a new left media.