Has our reserve of practices and theories gone broke while the world is breaking up all around us? How do theories that invoke brokenness—"the time is out of joint" (Hamlet/Derrida), the multitude (Negri and Hardt), schizo analysis (Deleuze and Gauttari), to mention only a few—contribute to, or impede, an understanding of our contemporary world? Or, more importantly, how successfully do these theories lead to praxes that can engage our contemporary world? Has a new disillusionment called postmodern theory into question? Has postmodern melancholy (Lyotard) turned into an ideology of cynicism (Sloterdijk/Zizek)?

In the face of class conflict, globalization, poverty, disasters, imperialism and war what strategies can address these postmodern times without leading to disillusionment and cynicism? What are the theoretical and historical phenomena underpinning the transition out of the postmodern?

Strategies of Critique is an annual interdisciplinary graduate conference hosted by the Graduate Programme in Social & Political Thought at York University, Toronto, Canada.

We welcome a broad range of submissions including, but not limited to, the following: