We are very happy to announce our seminar series for Michaelmas 2020, which will be entirely virtual. Speakers are:听
Speaker: Professor Jes煤s Rodriguez Velasco, Yale University
Day: 14 October听
Time: 5pm
Title: 鈥淪cience of the Soul, Bodies of Law.鈥�
础产蝉迟谤补肠迟:听Examining legislations and legal theorizations from the Middle听 Ages, this seminar will explore the affinity between the Science of the Soul听 (of Aristotelian origin) and the legal disciplines, and examine why and how the听 legal disciplines appropriated some of the tenets and concepts of the听Science of the Soul.
Audio of the seminar
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Speaker: Professor Julio Ramos, Emeritus University of California, Berkeley
Day: 11 November
Time 5pm
Title: "Pharmacological Fictions鈥�
Registration link:
础产蝉迟谤补肠迟:听This seminar will offer a reflection on altered life in three contemporary fictions of the pharmacological regime: 听(Juan C谩rdenas麓s Ornamento, Pedro Cabiya麓s Malas听hierbas, and Cezanne Cardona麓s Datsun 1982.
Event Poster available here
Speaker: Professor Sebastiaan Faber, Oberlin College
Day: 2 December
Time: 5pm
Title: "Still Dead: The Debate over Franco鈥檚 Legacy鈥�
Registration is required and is available at:
Abstract: In October 2019, Franco鈥檚 remains were removed from the massive national monument in which they had been buried for forty-four years. For some, the exhumation confirmed that Spain has long been a modern, consolidated democracy. The reality is more complicated. In fact, the country is still deeply divided by the dictatorial legacies of Francoism鈥攚itness the recent controversy over the newly proposed Law of Democratic Memory.
In recent years, Spanish citizens鈥� levels of trust in the political system, the monarchy, the judiciary, the university, the press, and other central democratic institutions have sunk to new lows. Yet how to frame this discontent is itself a deeply political question. In both Spain and abroad, critics often point to the system鈥檚 dysfunctions and the resulting lack of legitimacy as symptoms of a structural problem whose origins lie in the country鈥檚 recent history. In this interpretation, Spain鈥檚 current problems are tell-tale signs of the fact that Spain鈥檚 transition to democracy, long upheld as an international example, is in fact still very much a work in progress鈥攊f it鈥檚 not a lost cause altogether, marred as it鈥檚 been by its institutional continuity with the Franco regime. This reading of the political present is widespread, and not only among the Left; the Basques and Catalans who favor independence from Spain鈥攁 position that straddles the left-right divide鈥攁lso like to portray the Spanish state as a Trojan horse of Francoist values.听
But why has it been so tempting for many to interpret Spain鈥檚 social and political challenges as proof of an unprocessed Francoist legacy? How useful is that narrative as an analytical or explanatory paradigm? If the goal is to improve the quality of Spanish democracy, how important is it that its deficiencies be identified as remnants from the dictatorship?听
Video of the seminar
About the Speakers
Professor Jes煤s R Velasco studies Medieval and Early Modern legal cultures across the Mediterranean Basin and Europe within and outside the legal professions, from the perspective of contemporary critical thought. He is the author of听Dead Voice: Law, Philosophy, and Fiction in the Iberian Middle Ages听(University of Pennsylvania Press),听Plebeyos M谩rgenes: Ficci贸n, Industria del Derecho y Ciencia Literaria听(SEMYR), or听Order and Chivalry: Knighthood and Citizenship in Late Medieval Castile听(University of Pennsylvania Press). He is currently finishing his project Microliteratures: The Margins of the Law.听 Prior to Yale, Jesus has taught at the 脡cole Normale Sup茅rieure, University of Salamanca, University of California, Berkeley, and Columbia University. He has held visiting positions at Emory, Roma Tre, 脡cole des Hautes 脡tudes en Sciences Sociales, among others.
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Professor Julio Ramos has written extensively about literary and visual culture in Latin America and the Caribbean. His books include the beautiful and ground breaking Desencuentros de la modernidad en Am茅rica Latina: Literatura y pol铆tica en el siglo IXX (translated as Divergent Modernities (Duke University Press), Paradojas de la letra (Lautaro) and Sujeto al l铆mite: ensayos de cultura liter谩ria y visual (Monte Avila). In 1990 Ramos edited and introduced Amor y anarquia: los escritos de Luisa Capetillo and co-edited (with Dylon Robbins) Guill茅n Landrian o el desconcieto f铆lmico (Almenara). More recently, in collaboration with Lizardo Herrera, Ramos edited and introduced Droga, cultura y farmacolonialidad: la alteraci贸n narcogr谩fica (Chile, 2018), an anthology of theoretical approaches to drugs in contemporary culture. Since retiring from University of California, Berkeley in 2010 he has continued to work as an independent researcher and scholar and has taught as a visiting professor at the Universida Andina Sim贸n Bol铆var (Quito), Universidad de Puerto Rico (Rio Piedras), Escuela Internacional de Cinema y TV (Cuba), Universidad de Buenos Aires, Universidade de S茫o Paulo, University of Pennsylvania and Fordham University. In 2018 he was Andr茅s Bello Chair at NYU."
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Professor Sebastiaan Faber is the author of听Exile and Cultural Hegemony: Spanish Intellectuals in Mexico, 1939-1975听(Vanderbilt University Press),听Anglo-American Hispanists and the Spanish Civil War: Hispanophilia, Commitment, and Discipline听(Palgrave), and听Memory Battles of the Spanish Civil War: History, Fiction, Photography听(Vanderbilt University Press). He is co-editor of听Contra el olvido.听El exilio espa帽ol en Estados Unidos听(U de Alcal谩, 2009) and听Transatlantic Studies: Latin America. Iberia, and Africa听(Liverpool UP, 2019). From 2010 until 2015, he served as the chair of the Board of Governors of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives (ALBA). He is co-editor of ALBA鈥檚 quarterly magazine The Volunteer and regularly contributes to Spanish and US media, including CTXT: Revista Contexto, La Marea, Frontera D, The Nation, Foreign Affairs, and Public Books.
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