Organized by: Dr. Esther von der Osten, Peter Szondi Institute of Comparative Literature, Freie Universität Berlin, PD Dr. Susanne Lettow, Margherita von Brentano Center for Gender Studies, Freie Universität Berlin, Dr. Tuija Pulkkinen, Department of Cultures, Director doctoral program Gender, Culture and Society (SKY), University of Helsinki.

Input

Sanna Karhu (Helsinki University), Moya Lloyd (University of Essex), Hanna Meißner (Technical University Berlin)

Judith Butler is one of the most acclaimed and hotly debated authors of contemporary feminist thought. She has published prolific amounts during her career, and she continues to do so, introducing new thought continuously. Butler’s work has not only been an inspiration for extensive amount of academic work in many fields, but has also been studied extensively. More than a dozen of book-length volumes about her work have already appeared, and countless dissertations and articles all around the world have engaged in analysis of her work. Both detailed aspects of her work as well as her overall approach as a theorist, scholar and feminist are continuously under scrutiny. Judith Butler’s latest book, “What World is This. A Pandemic Phenomenology” was published in November 2022. In this roundtable three experts on Butler’s scholarship discuss this new volume in light of Butler’s previous work. What is new, what is the same, what is worth noting? What is important and what do we learn in this new volume? Each of the participants will draw on their own views to engage in discussion about the new volume, its ideas, and its place in Butler’s published thought.

The Roundtable discussants are:  

Moya Lloyd, professor of Politics at the University of Essex. She has analysed Judith Butler’s thought in numerous publications which include Judith Butler: From Norms to Politics (2007) and Butler and Ethics (2015).

Sanna Karhu, postdoctoral researcher in Gender Studies at the University of Helsinki. Her dissertation From Violence to Resistance: Judith Butler’s Critique of Norms  (2017), University of Helsinki, focuses on Judith Butler’s work.

Hanna Meissner, professor of Gender Studies at Technical University, Berlin. She has engaged with Judith Butler’s work extensively in her research, including her dissertation Jenseits des autonomen Subjekts. Zur gesellschaftlichen Konstitution von Handlungsfähigkeit im Anschluss an Butler, Foucault und Marx (2010) and Ethik, Sozialität und Unverfügbarkeit. Ein lebendiger Ort für das ›Ich‹ (2018).

Join Zoom-Meeting: https://helsinki.zoom.us/j/67754693410?pwd=REFEV2tqQzN0NmdvaGQ5NC9PeGxlZz09 
Meeting-ID: 677 5469 3410
Passcode: 639297