This year’s ASCA workshop takes place 5-7th June, on the timely topic of Resistance, Refusal, and Fugitivty. Questions of political power and its expression in social relations between different groups define the fundamental struggles of our moment. We invite you to participate in a riotously eclectic program that connects transnational scholars from different traditions and disciplines. ‘

Our keynote panellists are Layal Ftouni (University Utrecht), Nicholas Thoburn (University of Manchester), and Jia Tan (Chinese University of Hong Kong). There will also be space for less traditional conference activities, including film screenings, a skill share on carbon divestment at universities, and a room for reflection regarding Palestinian solidarity. Scholars at all levels are encouraged to join for robust but self-reflective presentations and discussions, and moments to socialise and meet thinkers from across the globe. The workshop is supported by ASCA and NICA.

Keynotes:

June 5, 9:30-10:45: Layal Ftouni  (Utrecht University) - Affirming Life in Colonial Death-Worlds in Palestine
June 6, 15:30-17:00: Nicholas Thoburn  (University of Manchester) - A Fugitive Book? Anti-Blackness, Anti-Books, and Uprising
June 7, 15:30-17:00: Jia Tan (The Chinese University of Hong Kong) - Reframing resistance: illiberalism, feminism, and queer activism

Film Screenings:

June 6, 17:30-19:00: Spectres Beyond the Past – With films by Timoteus Anggawan Kusno, Aylin Kuryel, and Bo Wang
June 7, The collectors – Organized by Documenting Audibilities (Emily Clark, Luc Marraffa, Layan Nijem, and Otto Stuparitz)

Exhibition:

La Visite Collective: Possible, Persistent, Common, Severe is the name of a multidisciplinary project exploring the (side) effects of hormonal contraceptives and the lived experiences around them.

Layal Ftouni  (Utrecht University) - June 5, 9:30-10:45

Keynote title: Affirming Life in Colonial Death-Worlds in Palestine

Layal Ftouni is an Assistant Professor of Gender Studies and Critical Theory at the Graduate Gender Programme, and a research affiliate at the Institute of Cultural Inquiry (ICON) at Utrecht University.  She is currently working on an NWO Veni  (2022-2025) funded research project entitled Ecologies of Violence: Affirmations of Life at the Frontiers of Survival. The research explores the politics of life and living at the boundaries with death (both human and environmental) in conditions of war and settler colonialism, focusing on Palestine.

Nicholas Thoburn  (University of Manchester) - June 6, 15:30-17:00

Keynote title: A Fugitive Book? Anti-Blackness, Anti-Books, and Uprising

Nicholas Thoburn is Professor of Sociology at the University of Manchester, where he conducts research on architecture and social housing, material cultures of publishing, and social and political theory. He is author of three books, Brutalism as Found: Housing, Form and Crisis at Robin Hood Gardens (2022), Anti-Book: On the Art and Politics of Radical Publishing (2016), and Deleuze, Marx and Politics (2003). He is currently collaborating on a project about ‘minor publishing’ and writing a book about Deleuze’s planned but unwritten final work, 'The Grandeur of Marx'.

Jia Tan (The Chinese University of Hong Kong) - June 7, 15:30-17:00

Keynote title: Reframing resistance: illiberalism, feminism, and queer activism

Jia TAN is Associate Professor of Cultural Studies in the Department of Cultural and Religious Studies at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. She is currently a Clare Hall Visiting Fellow at the University of Cambridge, and she was a Global Fellow at the University of St. Andrews and a Research Fellow at the University of Amsterdam in 2023. Jia Tan obtained her doctoral degree in Cinema and Media Studies from the University of Southern California. She is the author of Digital Masquerade: Feminist Rights and Queer Media in China (New York University Press, 2023). She is also interested in fantasy media and environmental humanities. Her research has been funded by Social Science Research Council, Hong Kong Research Grants Council, Harold Lloyd Foundation, and so on. She is on the editorial boards of Communication, Culture, and Critique as well as Journal of Chinese Cinemas. She is also one of the founding members of Hong Kong Scholars Alliance for Sexual and Gender Diversity.