M.S. Suárez Lafuente (University of Oviedo)
In Search of Emotions: A Desire for Love
Love is an emotion so firmly ingrained in our culture that it permeates every aspect of our life. And this is so, in spite of Love having been defined as a fake affect by thinkers throughout history. Love is a reflection of our own desire for affection. With the last great world revolution, that of internet and the new technologies, Love still flows along the same emotional channels than before. And this flow has us subjected to a culturally learned emotional slavery that hinders our development as subjects. Only awareness to its construction can free us and allow us to move on in history.
Alexandra Halkias (Panteion University)
Affects of Feminism: talking about feelings
This talk sketches different pathways for addressing what is needed to further sharpen feminist action in the present historical moment, whether in the context of formal teaching or within other facets of social life. I explore the connections and ruptures between studies of affect and talking about feelings. The paper then focuses on the latter and attempts to tease out its shortcomings for feminist practice. I argue that part of what the mandate for attention to feelings achieves is an obfuscation of the affects feminism itself has acquired and of the ways that these can intervene in the potential for more critical relationalities.