CONFERENCE: THE ART OF THE IMPOSSIBLE: CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY AND DISSENT FROM
HAVEL TO THE PRESENT
UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON, 23-25 MAY 2013
A conference organized by the UCL School of Slavonic and East European
Studies, 23-25 May 2013, at the Christopher Ingold Lecture Theatre,
Christopher Ingold Chemistry Building, 20 Gordon Street, University College
London.
‘This, then, is Havel’s tragedy: his authentic ethical stance has become a
moralising idiom cynically appropriated by the knaves of capitalism. His
heroic insistence on doing the impossible has ended up serving those
who ‘realistically’ argue that any real change in today’s world is
impossible.’ Slavoj Žižek
This conference seeks to reassess critically the legacy of Václav Havel, to
identify more broadly the political, cultural, and philosophical questions
that underlie ‘East European dissidence’, and to consider their
implications for dissent today.
Opening remarks by HE Michal Žantovský, Czech Ambassador to the United
Kingdom.
Speakers: Tim Beasley-Murray (UCL), Jonathan Bolton (Harvard), Svetlana
Boym (Harvard), Paulina Bren (Vassar), Peter Bugge (Aarhus), Tamara Caraus
(Bucharest), Padraic Kenney (Indiana), Klara Kemp-Welch (Courtauld), James
Krapfl (McGill), Martin Palouš (Prague), Delia Popescu (LeMoyne), Martin
Putna (Prague), Mikołaj Rakusa-Suszczewski (Warsaw), Tom Rowley
(Cambridge), Jacques Rupnik (Paris), Charles Sabatos (Istanbul), Avi Tucker
(Texas), Veronika Tuckerova (Texas), Kieran Williams (Drake), Peter Zusi
(UCL).
Full programme available here:
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/european-institute/events/art_impossible
Registration: £50 general
£25 student (non-UCL)
Free for members of UCL community