International Walter Benjamin Society

The 4th biennial conference of the International Walter Benjamin Society will be held in Oxford at Worcester College and the Taylorian Institute on 25th-27th September 2017. To coincide with the conference, there will be a small exhibition at the Bodleian Library on the theme of “Benjamin’s Library: Kafka and Surrealism,” which will include Kafka manuscripts, and other Benjamin-related rarities.

International Walter Benjamin Society Conference 2017
‘Walter Benjamin and Method’
Worcester College, University of Oxford
24th-27th September 2017

Here’s the programme: IWBS 2017 Draft Programme5 and the abstracts booklet: Abstracts Programme

Here’s a flyer for the performance on Monday evening: The_Late_Walter_Benjamin_Eflyer

And a map of central Oxford with the main venues highlighted: IWBS Map

Last Booking Date for this Event
21st September 2017

Some practical details about your stay in Oxford:

The main conference venue is: Worcester College, Oxford OX1 2HB
It is situated 3 minutes walk from the main bus station (‘Gloucester Green’) and 12 minutes walk from the main train station.

If you’re coming from Heathrow or Gatwick, the ‘airline’ coach service is the best way to reach Oxford. It will take you directly to Gloucester Green.
If you’re coming from London, a train from Paddington will get you to Oxford Station. Alternatively you can take the cheaper but slightly longer coach journey from Victoria Coach Station to Gloucester Green.

You can you arrive at Worcester College at any time of day or night. The Porters’ Lodge is staffed 24/7. If you’ve booked accommodation in college, a porter will issue you with your room key, and give you a map of the college.
The conference registration desk (at Worcester College in the cloisters as you come into the college) will be open 4-6.30pm Sunday for you to pick up your conference pack. It will also be open each day of the conference in the mornings.

The conference seminar rooms are all equipped with a data projector and computer, so you can bring your power point presentation on a memory stick. If you want to use your own laptop, that will also be fine. If you are a Mac user, please bring your own adaptor.

Dinners
Informal dinner at Worcester College – Sunday 24 September
Dinner at Chinese Restaurant – Monday 25 September
Conference dinner – Tuesday 26 September
Post-conference dinner at Jamie’s Italian – Wedneday 27 September

 

 Complete Programme:

4^th Biennial Conference of the International Walter Benjamin Society

‘Walter Benjamin and Method: Re-Thinking the Legacy of the Frankfurt School’

Worcester College/Taylor Institute, University of Oxford

24^th-27^th September 2017

 

Sunday 24^th September

 

16.00-18.30     Registration (Worcester College cloisters)

 

18.30-19.00     Drinks (Worcester College cloisters)

 

19.00-20.00     Informal Dinner (Worcester College)

 

Monday 25^th September

 

8.30-9.00         Registration and Coffee (Worcester College cloisters)

 

9.00-9.30         Welcome: ‘Benjamin and Method’ (Taylor Institution Main Hall)

 

9.30-10.15       Round Table: Werner Hamacher in Memoriam (Taylor Institution Main Hall)

Prof Andrew Benjamin, Prof Peter Fenves (Chair), Dr Ilit Ferber, Dr Julia Ng, Dr Juliane Prade-Weiss, Dr Caroline Sauter,

 

10.30-12.00     Parallel Sessions 1 (Worcester College)

 

LINBURY ROOM: Benjamin and the Study of Images and Imaging (1): Bodily Presences and Absences

Coordinators: Prof. Andrew Webber and Dr. Caroline Sauter

 

1. Dr. Philipp Ekardt (Warburg Institute, The University of London)

‘Belle Époque Reruns (Fashion and the Dialectical Image: Temporal Structure, Content, Salience)’

 

2. Dr. Ernest Schonfield (University of Glasgow)

‘The Agonal Moment: Benjamin on Eduard Fuchs and Honoré Daumier’

 

 

NASH ROOM: Benjamin’s Writings: Methodology, Archive, Edition (1):

Coordinators: Prof. Carolin Duttlinger and Dr. Erdmut Wizisla

 

1. Prof. Dr. Peter König (Universität Heidelberg)

‘Benjamins “dialektische” Methode’

 

2. Caroline Adler (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin)

‘“[…] daß jede prinzipielle allgemeine Untersuchung sofort wieder einen ihr eigenen Gegenstand findet”: Literarische Methode in Walter Benjamins “Moskau”-Aufsatz’

 

3. Dr. Kyung-Ho Cha (Universität Bayreuth)

‘Die “Methode der Atomzertrümmerung”: Walter Benjamins Physik der Geschichte im Zeitalter der Atomforschung’

 

 

MEMORIAL ROOM: Benjamin Between Theology and Philosophy (1): Messianism

Coordinators: Prof. Andrew Benjamin and Dr. Ilit Ferber

 

1. Prof. Mauro Ponzi (Sapienza Università di Roma)

‘Messianism, materialism and nihilism in Benjamin’s Concept of History’

 

2. Dr. Maria João Cantinho (New University of Lisbon Philosophy Institute)

‘The Messianism or the History as Dissidence in the Work of Walter Benjamin’

 

3. Dr. Dr. Federico Dal Bo (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)

‘Waiting for the Messiah or enduring the Katechon?: On Agamben’s negotiation between Paul, Benjamin, and Schmitt’

 

12.00-12.45     Lunch (Worcester College)

 

13.30-15.00     Parallel Sessions 2 (Worcester College)

 

LINBURY ROOM: Benjamin and the Study of Images and Imaging (2): Composition with Found Objects

Coordinators: Prof. Andrew Webber and Dr. Caroline Sauter

 

1. Dr. Maria Teresa Costa (Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz, Max-Planck Institut)

‘Lesbarkeit als epistemologisches Paradigma für mentale und materielle Bilder’

 

2. Thomas Lindenberg (Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig)

‘Samsung Keystone2 GT-E1200 — The Readymade as a Work of Art at the Age of Technological Reproduction and the Struggle Within the Conditions of Production [in German]’

 

3. Irene Lehmann (Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg)

’Zeitkern, ästhetische und politische Erfahrung bei Benjamin und Nono’

 

 

LECTURE ROOM B: Benjamin and the Study of the Human (1):

Coordinators: Prof. Ben Morgan and Prof. Mike Jennings

 

1. Prof. emerit. Clemens-Carl Härle (Università degli studi di Siena)

‘Protomimesis’

 

2. Dr. Dennis Johannssen (Brown University)

‘The Highest Spheres of Language, Dissolving Human Nature: Benjamin’s “Outline of the Psychophysical Problem”’

 

3. Dr. María Mercedes Andrade (Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá)

‘Beyond the Individual in Benjamin’s Kindheitsbuch’

 

 

NASH ROOM: Benjamin’s Writings: Methodology, Archive, Edition (2):

Coordinators: Prof. Carolin Duttlinger and Dr. Erdmut Wizisla

 

1. Anja Nowak (University of British Columbia)

‘Walter Benjamins Rundfunkarbeiten: Medienspezifik und Kritische Edition’

 

2. Dr. Gregor Babelotzky (University of Cambridge)

‘Geistesgegenwart’: Zur ‘prompten’ Sprache der Einbahnstraße

 

3. Dr. Clara Masnatta (Institute for Cultural Inquiry, Berlin)

‘Walter Benjamin and Gisèle Freund’s Histories of Photography: The Reception Story of a Friendship’

 

 

MEMORIAL ROOM: Benjamin Between Theology and Philosophy (2): Remembrance and Prophecy

Coordinators: Prof. Andrew Benjamin and Dr. Ilit Ferber

 

1. Dr. Stefano Marchesoni (Independent Scholar)

‘Remembrance As A Virtual Threshold: On the origin of Walter Benjamin’s method’

 

2. Prof. James Martel (San Francisco State University)

‘What kind of prophet doesn’t believe in the future? Walter Benjamin on prophecy, teleology and fate’

 

3. Dr. Johannes Riedner (Independent Scholar)

‘Kritische Epistemologie und historische Methode’

 

 

15.00-15.30     Coffee (Worcester College Cloisters)

 

 

15.30-17.00     Parallel Sessions 3 (Worcester College)

 

NASH ROOM: Benjamin and Reading (1):

Coordinators: Prof. Hindy Najman and Prof. Daniel Weidner

 

1. Dr Deirdre Daly (Goldsmiths, University of London)

Benjamin’s Concept of the Criticism of Philosophy

 

2. Jeremy Arnott (University of Western Ontario)

‘The Correspondence(s) of Benjamin and Adorno’

 

3. Frank Voigt (Universität Potsdam)

‘Walter Benjamins und Leo Löwenthals Literatursoziologie’

 

 

LECTURE ROOM B: Benjamin and the Study of the Human (2):

Coordinators: Prof. Ben Morgan and Prof. Mike Jennings

 

1. Dr. Nélio Conceição (IFILNOVA/New University of Lisbon Philosophy Institute)

‘The art of practicing and the practice of philosophy’

 

2. Sophia Schalt (Technische Universität Berlin)

‘Moderne Biosphäre: Netz’

 

3. Dr. Daniel Mourenza-Urbina (Queen’s University, Belfast)

‘”Zu Micky-Maus”. Poverty of Experience and the Coming of the Unmensch’

 

 

LINBURY ROOM: Benjamin and Political Method (1):

Coordinators: Dr. Julia Ng and Prof. Yoav Rinon

 

1. Nikolaos Tzanakis Papadakis (Freie Universtität Berlin)

‘“Leviathan fehlt!”: Die Rezeption von Benjamins Trauerspielbuch durch Schmitt’

 

2. Dr. Hjalmar Falk (Göteborgs Universitet/University of Oxford)

‘Sovereign Symbolkraft: The politics of myth and allegory in Schmitt and Benjamin’

 

 

MEMORIAL ROOM: Benjamin Between Theology and Philosophy (3): Political Theology and the Image

Coordinators: Prof. Andrew Benjamin and Dr. Ilit Ferber

 

1. Dr. Yu-jin Chang (Emerson College, Boston)

‘Benjamin’s “Political Theology”’

 

2. Ido Ben Harush (Tel Aviv University)

‘The Concept of Gesture in Walter Benjamin- Between Political Criticism and Theology’

 

3. Dr. Ori Rotlevy (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem)

‘”The Enormous Freedom of the Breaking Wave: Tradition and Doctrine in Early Benjamin

 

 

 

17.15-18.30     Keynote Lecture (Taylor Institution Main Hall)

            Prof. Peter Fenves (Northwestern University): ‘Force and Messianicity’

 

18.45-20.15     Dinner at My Sichuan

 

20.30- 21.30    Performance “The Late Walter Benjamin” (Queen’s College, Shulman Auditorium)

 

 

 

 

Tuesday 26^th September

 

9.00-10.30       Parallel Sessions 4 (Worcester College)

 

LINBURY ROOM: Benjamin and the Study of Images and Imaging (3): Ideas of and in Time

Coordinators: Prof. Andrew Webber and Dr. Caroline Sauter

 

1. Prof. Dr. Christine Kirchhoff (International Psychoanalytic University Berlin)

‘Nachträglichkeit und Dialektik im Stillstand: Zeit und Bild bei Freud und Benjamin’

 

2. Moriz Stangl (Universität Tübingen)

‘Das Denkbild als Ideenverflechtung. Eine Kolektüre zweier Begriffe bei Platon und Benjamin’

 

3. Dr Juliane Prade-Weiss (Yale University)

‘Liquidation im Bild: Zur Artikulation von Geschichte’

 

 

 

NASH ROOM: Benjamin’s Writings: Methodology, Archive, Edition (3):

Coordinators: Prof. Carolin Duttlinger and Dr. Erdmut Wizisla

 

1. Ursula Marx (Walter-Benjamin-Archiv, Berlin)

‘“Goethes Wahlverwandtschaften” neu ediert: Ein Werkstattbericht’

 

2. Dr. Nadine Werner (Walter-Benjamin-Archiv, Berlin)

‘Strenge in der Konzeption, Beweglichkeit im Schreiben: Zur Edition der Berliner Chronik und Berliner Kindheit um neunzehnhundert’

 

3. Dr. Alexandra Richter (Université de Rouen/Walter-Benjamin-Archiv, Berlin)

‘Benjamins Kafka’

 

 

MEMORIAL ROOM: Benjamin and Reading (2):

Coordinators: Prof. Hindy Najman and Prof. Daniel Weidner

 

1. Dr. Damiano Roberi (Università di Torino)

‘Anything Benjaminian goes? Anarchic notes on method’

 

2. Ron Sadan (Princeton University)

‘Reading Creases: Benjamin’s Folded Manuscripts’

 

3. Sarah Stoll (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich)

‘Bühnenspiel der Schrift. Walter Benjamin als Leser des Gestischen’

 

 

10.30-11.00     Coffee (Worcester College Cloisters)

 

 

11.00-12.30     Parallel Sessions 5 (Worcester College)

 

LINBURY ROOM: Benjamin and the Study of Images and Imaging (4): Moving into and around Paintings

Coordinators: Prof. Andrew Webber and Dr. Caroline Sauter

 

1. Jan Cao (Northwestern University, Evanston)

‘Walter Benjamin’s Chinese Painter: A Portal’

 

2. Sha Li (Beijing Normal University)

‘Aura – Pure Seeing - Qiyun. Benjamin’s Aesthetics Encounters an Ancient Chinese Art Concept’

 

3. Vittoria Fallanca (University of Oxford)

‘Benjaminian Allegory in A Dance to the Music of Time’

 

 

NASH ROOM: Benjamin and the Study of the Human (3):

Coordinators: Prof. Ben Morgan and Prof. Mike Jennings

 

1. Prof. emerit. Freddie Rokem (Tel Aviv University)

‘Benjamin’s Clouds’

 

2. Dr. Monika Tokarzewska (Nicolaus Kopernicus University in Toruń)

‘Der Sternenhimmel und sein Verschwinden. Benjamins Historisierung der menschlichen Kondition im Wechselbezug zwischen Weltall und Technik’

 

3. Tom Vandeputte (Goldsmiths, University of London)

‘Deutung and Bedeutbarkeit: On Benjamin’s Early Theory of Reading’

 

 

MEMORIAL ROOM: Benjamin and Reading (3):

Coordinators: Prof. Hindy Najman and Prof. Daniel Weidner

 

1. Prof. Paulo Oneto (Universidade Federal Do Rio de Janeiro)

‘The Question of Literalness in Walter Benjamin’s The Task of the Translator’

 

2. Prof. Hyun Höchsmann (East China Normal University)

‘Walter Benjamin on Hölderlin’s “Poetic Cosmos”’

 

 

 

 

12.30-13.15     Lunch (Worcester College)

 

13.30-15.00     Parallel Sessions 6 (Worcester College)

 

LINBURY ROOM: Benjamin and the Study of Images and Imaging (5): Thought Experiments: Leibniz, Marx, Adorno

Coordinators: Prof. Andrew Webber and Dr. Caroline Sauter

 

1. Noa Levin (Kingston University London)

‘The Image as Abbreviation: Walter Benjamin on Mallarmé’s Poetic Monadology’

 

2. Dr. Paul Flaig (University of St Andrews)

‘The Screwball Letters: Adorno, Benjamin and the Marx(ist) Brothers’

 

3. Anat Messing Marcus (University of Cambridge)

‘The Thought-Image and its Medium: On Walter Benjamin’s “Der Mond“’

 

 

NASH ROOM: Benjamin’s Writings: Methodology, Archive, Edition (4):

Coordinators: Prof. Carolin Duttlinger and Dr. Erdmut Wizisla

 

1. Dr. Jaime Cuenca (University of Deusto, Bilbao)

‘The Mystery of the Undelivered Talk: “The Author as Producer” and its Writing Process’

 

2. Dr. Thomas Regehly (Jüdische Volkshochschule Frankfurt a.M./Internationales Jacob-Böhme-Institut Görlitz)

‘Madness and Method: A Case study on Walter Benjamin’s “Pathological Library”’

 

3. Dr. Dora Osborne (University of St Andrews)

‘Benjaminian Graphology: Between Klages and Benjamin in Per Leo’s Flut und Boden (2014)’

 

 

MEMORIAL ROOM: Benjamin and Reading (4):

Coordinators: Prof. Hindy Najman and Prof. Daniel Weidner

 

1. Dr. Jacob Bittner (Independent Scholar)

‘Benjamin and the Signaturlehre’

 

2. Dr. Lucie Mercier (Kingston University London)

‘The Point of Indifference: Benjamin, Leibniz and (Anti-)Method’

 

 

15.00-15.30     Coffee (Worcester College Cloisters)

 

 

15.30-17.00     Parallel Sessions 7 (Worcester College)

 

 

 

 

NASH ROOM: Benjamin and the Study of the Human (4):

Coordinators: Prof. Ben Morgan and Prof. Mike Jennings

 

1. Prof. Brian Britt (Virginia Tech)

‘Walter Benjamin’s Humanities’

 

2. Prof. Anthony Phelan (University of Oxford)

‘Benjamin’s recursive reading: modernism and eingreifendes Denken’

 

3. Prof. Max Pensky (Binghamton University, SUNY)

‘Walter Benjamin’s Case Studies’

 

 

MEMORIAL ROOM: Benjamin Between Theology and Philosophy (4): Art and Transcendence

Coordinators: Prof. Andrew Benjamin and Dr. Ilit Ferber

 

1. Dr. Alice Barale (Università di Firenze)

‘Freedom to the spirits: Benjamin reads the Tempest (and The Master of Ballantrae)’

 

2. Dr. Lucy Steeds (University of the Arts London)

‘Art and Theological Exhibitability over Religious Aura’

 

 

LINBURY ROOM: Benjamin and Political Method (2):

Coordinators: Dr. Julia Ng and Prof. Yoav Rinon

 

1. Prof. Michael Newman (Goldsmiths, University of London)

‘Odradek and the rethinking of political method in the work of art’

 

2. Irem Tascioglu (Goldsmiths, University of London)

‘From Force of Law to Politics of Friendship: Derrida’s Reading of Benjamin’s Critique of Violence as a Challenge to Schmitt’s Topology of Exception’

 

3. Dr. Antonio Roselli (Universität Paderborn)

‘“Subjektivität ohne Subjekt” – Das “Menschenrecht auf Armut” als Alternative zum Besitzdenken in der politischen Anthropologie Walter Benjamins’

 

 

17.15-18.30     Keynote Lecture (Taylor Institution Main Hall)

                        Prof. Hindy Najman (University of Oxford): ‘Reading After Hope’

 

19.00-19.30     Drinks (Worcester College cloisters)

 

19.30-21.00     Conference Dinner (Worcester College)

 

Wednesday 27^th September

 

9.00-10.00       Round Table (Taylor Institution Main Hall)

Rang’s ‘Deutsche Bauhütte’ Chair: Prof Uwe Steiner

 

10.00-10.30     Coffee (Worcester College Cloisters)

 

 

10.30-12.00     Parallel Sessions 8 (Worcester College)

 

LINBURY ROOM: Benjamin and Political Method (3):

Coordinators: Dr. Julia Ng and Prof. Yoav Rinon

 

1. Gregor Schäfer (Universität Basel)

‘Die Rettung dessen, was möglich gewesen sein wird. Zu Benjamins Methode der Idee in politischer Absicht’

 

2. Dr. Tamara Tagliacozzo (Università di Roma Tre)

‘Die “Konstellation” des Kapitalismus zwischen Walter Benjamin und Max Weber / The “constellation” of capitalism. Benjamin with Weber.’

 

 

MEMORIAL ROOM: Benjamin Between Theology and Philosophy (5): Theology and Secularisation

Coordinators: Prof. Andrew Benjamin and Dr. Ilit Ferber

 

1. Prof. Agata Bielik-Robson (University of Nottingham / Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw)

‘Liquid Theology: Benjamin’s Unders’

 

2. Dr. Francisco Naishtat (CONICET/Universidad de Buenos Aires)

‘Theology as an Invisible Organon. The Use of Theology as a Grammar of Benjaminian Time’

 

3. Prof. Kazushi Misaki (Jikei University, Tokyo)

‘Walter Benjamins Versuch der Säkularisierung der Theologie’

 

 

 

NASH ROOM: Benjamin and Reading (5):

Coordinators: Prof. Hindy Najman and Prof. Daniel Weidner

 

1. Dr. Christoph Schmitt-Maaß (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich)

‘Genese der Genealogie: Walter Benjamin, Michel Foucault und die Entzauberung der Geschichtswissenschaft’

 

2. Prof. Erik Granly Jensen (University of Southern Denmark)

‘The Gesture of Inseparability. Walter Benjamin’s “Robert Walser” (1929)’

 

3. Christopher Law (Goldsmiths, University of London)

‘Sexuality, Demonism and Ambiguity in Benjamin’s “Goethe’s Elective Affinities”’

 

 

12.00-12.45     Lunch (Worcester College)

 

13.00-14.00     IWBS AGM (Taylor Institution Main Hall)

 

14.00-15.00     Exhibition Visit ‘Benjamin’s Library’ (Bodleian Library)

 

15.15-16.45     Parallel Sessions 9 (Worcester College)

 

MEMORIAL ROOM: Benjamin and the Study of the Human (5):

Coordinators: Prof. Ben Morgan and Prof. Mike Jennings

 

1. Daniel Kashi (Princeton University)

‘Zur Kritik der reinen Mitteln: Agambens Entdifferenzierung von Benjamins Begriffen’

 

2. Dr. Benjamin Lewis Robinson (Institute for Cultural Inquiry, Berlin)

‘Notbremse: The Emergency is the Emergency’

 

3. Manuela Sampaio de Mattos (Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul)

‘Walter Benjamin and Jacques Lacan – an approximation through the concepts of threshold and transference’

 

 

LINBURY ROOM: Benjamin and the Study of Images and Imaging (6): Intermedial Imaging

Coordinators: Prof. Andrew Webber and Dr. Caroline Sauter

 

1. Caroline Lillian Schopp (University of Chicago / Freie Universität Berlin)

‘Kandinskys Bilder – Benjamin on Painting and Graphics’

 

2. Kester Richardson (Queen Mary, University of London)

‘“Is it not a crazy idea to talk about a painter on the radio?”: Walter Benjamin’s Sound-images’

 

3. Piotr Paszyński (University of Warsaw)

‘Tactile Character of Film – Walter Benjamin and Alois Riegl’

 

 

NASH ROOM: Benjamin’s Writings: Methodology, Archive, Edition (5):

Coordinators: Prof. Carolin Duttlinger and Dr. Erdmut Wizisla

 

1. Prof. Noëleen Murray (University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg /Wits City Institute)

‘Reading Africa’s Arcade’

 

2. Pauline Selbig (Cornell University)

‘Die Textgenese von Walter Benjamins Ursprung des deutschen Trauerspiels’

 

 

 

 

 

16.45-17.15     Coffee (Worcester College Cloisters)

 

17.15-18.00     Closing Remarks (Worcester College – Linbury Room)

 

19.00-20.30     Dinner at Jamie’s Italian