Jodi Dean Lecture and Graduate Seminar

DECEMBER 5, Lecture, 7pm – 8:30pm, Doors open at 6:30pm.

Innis Town Hall, 2 Sussex Ave

An Annual Lecture honouring the Toronto School contributions of University of Toronto’s Ursula Franklin, Harold Adams Innis, and Marshall McLuhan.

Co-sponsored and organized by the McLuhan Centre for Culture and Technology, KMDI, OISE, Innis College, Cinema Studies 

https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/the-franklin-lecture-with-jodi-dean-tickets-75883709217

The Franklin Lecture is held each year at Innis College’s Town Hall in honour of the enduring legacy of Ursula Franklin. Franklin, a former professor at the University of Toronto’s Department of Metallurgy and Materials Science, published prolifically on the structure and properties of metals and alloys as well the history and social impact of technology. In 1984 she became the first woman to be honoured with the title of “University Professor” by the University of Toronto. Dr. Franklin continues to be known for both her significant scientific achievements and her contributions to the humanities and community justice.

This lecture has been established in order to continue in the tradition of Franklin’s vital conversations between Science and Technology Studies and the Humanities. More specifically, the Franklin Lectures will feature invited scholars who bring the critical study of science, media, and politics to bear in their visions of new political futures.

The Franklin Lecture is a collaborative venture between Innis College’s Writing & Rhetoric Program, OISE Department of Social Justice Education, the McLuhan Centre for Culture and Technology, the Knowledge Media Design Institute, and the Centre for the Study of the United States.

‘COMMUNISM OR NEOFEUDALISM?’ TALK BRIEF:
On a rapidly warming planet, we see the super-rich seizing and hoarding ever more common resources and products of common labor. Is this capitalism on steroids or might this be something worse than capitalism? This talk presents “neofeudalism” as a name for tendencies in the present. It also draws out counter-tendencies that, when politically activated, could direct us to a better, communist, future. The talk will be conducted by Jodi Dean, Professor of Political Science at Hobart and William Smith Colleges. She is an influential political theorist and feminist media scholar whose monographs include Blog Theory (Polity, 2010), The Communist Horizon (Verso, 2012), and Comrade: An Essay on Political Belonging (Verso, 2019).