ON THE BIRTH - AND POSSIBLE DEATH - OF FOSSIL CAPITAL

ON THE BIRTH - AND POSSIBLE DEATH - OF FOSSIL CAPITAL 

with Andreas Malm

5pm (5.15 start) - 6.45pm, Tuesday 1st March

Room 1, Mill Lane Lecture Theatres

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Fossil capital is the creation of profit by means of fossil energy. Or, as the CEO of ExxonMobil recently put it: “My philosophy is to make money. If I can drill and make money, then that’s what I want to do.” For two centuries, this credo has informed the actions of capitalists of all hues: if I can dig up fossil fuels or burn them and make money, than that’s what I want to do – and après moi, le deluge. As we are now experiencing the early phases of that deluge, we have reason to look back and ask: how did fossil capital seize hold of this planet? This talk will focus on the birth of the phenomenon in the country of Britain in the early nineteenth century. It will deal, more precisely, with the transition from water to steam in British industry: the key moment when a fossil fuel was first connected, via a prime mover for impelling machines, to the production of commodities. Why did manufacturers abandon water and pick up steam? While offering some answers to that question, this talk will pose some new questions on what could possibly be done today to achieve a complete shift to renewable energy and rid the earth of fossil capital.
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Andreas Malm teaches human ecology at Lund University, Sweden. His work has appeared in journals such as Environmental History, Historical Materialism, Antipode and Organization & Environment. He is the author, of Fossil Capital: The Rise of Steam Power and the Roots of Global Warming, and with Shora Esmailian, of Iran on the Brink: Rising Workers and Threats of War, and of half a dozen books in Swedish on political economy, the Middle East and climate change.
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This is the fifth of our Critical Theory and Practice seminars this year. The aim of these seminars is to integrate radical theory with political practice and activism. Each consists of a presentation followed by a Q&A session (and trip to the Anchor pub round the corner). We record each session, so if you can't make it, like our pages so you get updated once the video is uploaded. Organised with the help of Cambridge Defend Education (CDE) and Cambridgeshire Left.
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Upcoming talks for Lent 2016 (see our termcard for more)


Tuesday 8 March, Mill Lane Lecture Room 6
The theory and practice of decolonizing higher education, from South Africa to the UK

Arathi Sriprakash (Faculty of Education Cambridge)

Adam Branch (Politics, Cambridge)

Robbie Shilliam (Politics, Queen Mary)

Ruchi Chaturvedi (Sociology, Cape Town)

Suren Pillay (Humanities, Western Cape)

Activist From Rhodes Must Fall Oxford

For more on our upcoming events:
www.facebook.com/criticaltheorypractice
http://criticaltheoryseminar.blogspot.co.uk
http://talks.cam.ac.uk/show/index/

Frantz Fanon on Race, Recognition, and Revolution: A Re-examination

FRANTZ FANON ON RACE, RECOGNITION, AND REVOLUTION: A RE-EXAMINATION 

with Peter Hudis

5pm (5.15 start) - 6.45pm, Tue 16 Feb

Room 1, Mill Lane Lecture Theatres

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Frantz Fanon (1926-61) is widely considered one of the most important anti-colonial theorists of the twentieth century.  Today we are witnessing a resurgence of interest in his contributions to philosophy, psychology and revolutionary theory in light of such realities as persistent racial discrimination in the West, the rise of religious fundamentalism, and the social crises enveloping much of the developing world. This talk will re-examine Fanon’s contributions to ongoing debates over race, racism, and recognition in light of the intellectual sources that motivated much of his work—especially Marxist theory and Hegelian philosophy.
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Peter Hudis is author of Frantz Fanon: Philosopher of the Barricades (Pluto Press, 2015) and Marx’s Concept of the Alternative to Capitalism (Brill, 2012).  He has edited or co-edited numerous works, including The Power of Negativity: Selected Writings on the Dialectic of Hegel and Marx, by Raya Dunayevskaya (Lexington, 1992) and The Rosa Luxemburg Reader (Monthly Review Books, 2006). He is currently general editor of The Complete Works of Rosa Luxemburg, which will make all of her work available in 14 volumes (3 volumes have appeared so far). He is Professor of Philosophy and Humanities at Oakton Community College in the U.S.
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Upcoming talks for Lent 2016 (see our termcard for more)

Tue 23 Feb | 'Policing Neoliberalism in Egypt: The Rise of the "Securocratic" State' (Cancelled)
Keynes Hall, King's College

Tue 1 Mar | Andreas Malm, 'Fossil Capital'
Mill Lane Lecture Theatres Room 1

Tue 8 Mar | The theory and practice of decolonizing higher education, from South Africa to the UK
Arathi Sriprakash (Faculty of Education, Cambridge)
Adam Branch (Politics, Cambridge)
Robbie Shilliam (Politics, Queen Mary)
Ruchi Chaturvedi (Sociology, Cape Town & Rhodes Must Fall Oxford)
Suren Pillay (Humanities, Western Cape)
Activist from Rhodes Must Fall Oxford

For more on our upcoming events:
www.facebook.com/criticaltheorypractice

The Politics of Grieving: A Panel-led Discussion

THE POLITICS OF GRIEVING: AN    OPEN DIALOGUE

5pm (5.15 start) - 6.45pm, Tue 9 Feb

Room 3, Mill Lane Lecture Theatres

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Barzan Sadiq (President of the Cambridge Kurdish Society)
Philip Luther-Davies (Sociology)
Lola Olufemi (chair of FLY, the university women of colour network)
Others TBC
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The desire for this event was sparked in the wake of events in November 2015 which saw Paris elevated in the public mind and universally mourned. Discussions about the inequality of grief began almost immediately and this event hopes to ask more and take these questions somewhere. It will be a chaired and panel-led open discussion about grieving. The panelists will each give us some insight into grief - politically, psychologically, socially and individually and then the discussion will open up to all. We will consider why some lives are easier to grieve than others; what is political about grief; what it means to grieve and who dictates it. We look forward to seeing many of you there.
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This is the third of our Critical Theory and Practice seminars this year. The aim of these seminars is to integrate radical theory with political practice and activism. Each consists of a presentation followed by a Q&A session (and trip to the Anchor pub round the corner). We record each session, so if you can't make it, like our pages so you get updated once the video is uploaded. Organised with the help of Cambridge Defend Education (CDE) and Cambridgeshire Left.
----------------
Upcoming talks for Lent 2016 (see our termcard for more)

Tue 16 Feb | Peter Hudis, 'Frantz Fanon on Race, Recognition, and Revolution: A Re-examination'
Mill Lane Lecture Theatres Room 1

Tue 23 Feb | 'Policing Neoliberalism in Egypt: The Rise of the "Securocratic" State' (Cancelled)
Keynes Hall, King's College

Tue 1 Mar | Andreas Malm, 'Fossil Capital'
Mill Lane Lecture Theatres Room 1

Tue 8 Mar | The theory and practice of decolonizing higher education, from South Africa to the UK
Arathi Sriprakash (Faculty Education Cambridge)
Adam Branch (Politics, Cambridge)
Robbie Shilliam (Politics, Queen Mary)
Ruchi Chaturvedi (Sociology, Cape Town & Rhodes Must Fall Oxford)
Suren Pillay (Humanities, Western Cape)

For more on our upcoming events:
www.facebook.com/criticaltheorypractice