Masterclass, with Ernst van Alphen | I wish to argue that the qualities that are commonly attributed to material archives and digital databases are not inherent to them. Those qualities rather depend on the concrete practices which make use of databases or archives. This implies that material archives should not be seen as outdated simply because they are associated with principles like control and stability (of meaning), which have become suspect and are considered less attractive then the labyrinthine qualities that are attributed to digital archival practices. In this Masterclass, we will explore the transgressive potential of variegated archival practices, not only in the use of digital databases, but also of material archives.

Masterclass with James Williams on Gilles Deleuze’s Difference and Repetition | What does a great work of philosophy do? It is a time-quake: a rupture in time, an event reverberating back and forward through history, disrupting former certainties and orders, altering futures, creating new ideas and making others redundant

Reading group & tutorial | Participants read three (relatively) recent books on sexuality and gender. Cover to cover.

Seminar | Now that post-, late, neocapital-, cyber- and global modernity have all entered and altered the urban experience, it is time for a reconsideration of the concept of modernity in relation to urban space, culture, and theory. How has our understanding of modernity been influenced by different thinkers, theories, and aesthetics of modernity? Are various modernities in conflict? How to rethink and reconfigure the notion of urban modernity, especially in the context of recent thinking about postcoloniality, globalization and new media? Keynote Speaker: Prof. Jennifer Robinson (Department of Geography, University College London)