John Fekete Distinguished Lecture
The annual John Fekete Distinguished Lecture series was established in November 2011 and inaugurated in November 2013 by the Cultural Studies PhD Program to honour John Fekete on his retirement from Trent in 2012. The idea of the lectureship is to invite distinguished visitors to the university to share their most recent or forthcoming publications that are influential and important in the field of cultural inquiry.
Cultural Theory, Mimesis, and the Algorithm Dispositif
Davide Panagia
Professor of Political Science Department, also serving as Chair, UCLA
Thursday, November 7th, 2024
7:30 pm
Bagnani Hall, Traill College
Reception to follow in the Scott House Senior Common Room
Lecture Abstract
Our contemporary theoretical and critical vocabularies in cultural theory are inadequate to the mediatic ontologies of the algorithm dispositif. The reason is quite straight forward: algorithms are not mimetic media whereas our aesthetic and political traditions of criticism are rooted in judgments of and about representations. This means that attempts to develop critiques of the algorithm dispositif are both misinformed and misguided if they assume that the dilemmas arising from algorithmic intermediality may be adequately managed with critical theories of judgment rooted in mimesis.
By unpacking the above thesis statement, this talk seeks to outline how and why this dilemma matters to our cultural thinking and to the teaching of, and about, algorithms in cultural studies. In doing so the talk elaborates the possibility of new forms of critical thinking that attend to the dispositional powers of the algorithm.
About Davide Panagia
Dr. Davide Panagia is a professor of Political Science at UCLA and a former co-editor of the journal Political Theory. Prior to joining UCLA, Dr. Panagia was Canada Research Chair in Cultural Studies at Trent University, Canada (2004-14).
He received a B.A. Honours from the University of Manitoba before attending Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar and completing a Masters degree in Politics. He earned his Ph.D. from the Department of Political Science at The Johns Hopkins University.
Dr. Panagia teaches courses in contemporary political theory, aesthetics and politics, affect theory, political theory and cinema, political theory and algorithmic cultures, and theories of textual interpretation. He was previously co-editor of the journal Theory & Event (2010-2015) and continues to serve as a coordinating editor.
For more information about the speaker, see https://polisci.ucla.edu/person/davide-panagia/
Generously sponsored by:
Cultural Studies PhD and MA programs, John Fekete Speakers Support Fund
Cultural Studies Undergraduate Department Centre for Theory, Culture, and Politics
Traill College, Media Studies Program
Bachelor of Arts and Science Program
Political Science Department