Theoria

This summer I am participating in a reading group with some doctoral students in geography at the University of Toronto, most of whom are students of Sue Ruddick. We’re working on two things: (1) Spinoza’s Ethics and (2) some of the major texts in the resurgence of Spinozism (e.g., Balibar, Althusser, Negri, Virno, Montag, etc). Because I am not driving to Toronto every week, we’ve been having our discussions as video-conferences using some program called Skype. (Other than email and web, I don’t really use internet technologies – I don’t “IM,” for instance, nor do I use “social networking” sites – and I only use my cell phone to make phone calls and take the occasional picture when a better camera is not available.) There have been some kinks caused, we think, by the wireless network at the University of Toronto that has led to a few lost connections.

For this week’s meeting, we had our first guest: Warren Montag, who joined us (also via Skype) from Los Angeles. He kindly put up with our questions and comments for two hours and put up with a couple lost connections. The discussion was wide-ranging covering possible Spinozist currents in Foucault’s thought, the multitude versus the people, what Spinoza and Spinozism might offer animal studies, whether “critical theorists” should take up patristics and theology and recognize the importance of the Christian tradition, exclusion and inclusion in light of Spinoza’s comments on women, and some on Spinoza and his contemporaries. The session was recorded and a transcipt will be prepared. I’ll post a copy once I receive it.

While this technology is primitive at best, I think it presents a potentially fruitful avenue for collaboration.