Humanism and Its Prefixes Conference

Date/Time
Saturday - Sunday
3 Oct - 4 Oct 2015

Event Type
Conference

Karen Barad
Professor of Feminist Studies, Philosophy, and History of Consciousness at the University of California at Santa Cruz

James Porter
Chancellor’s Professor of Rhetoric at the University of California at Berkeley

Organized by the graduate students of UC Berkeley’s Department of Rhetoric

Anthony Hall, University of California, Berkeley

The debate about the human has long haunted the humanities. Humanism since antiquity has sought to define human nature’s essence while concomitantly situating the human being at the center of the universe as the “measure of all things.” This conference considers the fate of the human in the age of transhumanist intersubjectivity—signaled by the ongoing development of supplementary technologies designed to extend human capacities, such as AI and SynBio—attending to new political forms that challenge anthropocentrism and that emerge concurrently with anthropocentrism. Might inhuman conditions become the conditions of possibility for humanity? You can access the full program here.

This event is sponsored by: Rhetoric Department