Adam Kotsko

As I may have mentioned, my new book Neoliberalism’s Demons: On the Political Theology of Late Capital is coming out this September. I am available to do public lectures, seminar discussions, and other events related to the book — or to any other area of my research (see my research statement and publication links for details). I could do something in October, or any time in the spring starting in February, and I’d also be happy to get to work scheduling anything for the 2019 academic year if more advance planning were needed. Feel free to contact me with any possibilities via email: akotsko at gmail dot com.

(Though my midwestern instincts rebel, past experience tells me this is indeed something people do.)

Hopefully we all have enough distance from the end of the term to talk about grading strategies.

You can now see the (incredible) cover for Neoliberalism’s Demons on the Stanford University Press site. I feel very fortunate to have two such striking covers in a row.

All production work on my end — copy edits, proof corrections, and indexing — is complete, and the release date is set for September.

n+1 has published a web piece of mine entitled “The Prequel Boom,” where I explore the question of why studios keep making prequels when fans tend to hate them so much.

Video of my talk is now available! My colleagues’ talks from the same event, as well as an archive of the entire series, are available here.

I have been invited to participate in North Central’s TIP (Topics in Politics) Talks, where faculty members provide brief, TED Talk-style presentations on contemporary politics. I will be presenting on March 6 at 6:30pm, discussing the relationship between Trump and neoliberalism.

In the meantime, you can review the full video archive of all previous TIP Talks.

This week, I’m hosting Dr. Florian Klug, Assistant Professor of Catholic Theology at the University of Würzberg, who is here on an institutional grant. It is reportedly a pretty common thing in European univeresities to get funding to go visit foreign scholars, and I am honored that he chose to come hang out with me. Part of the grant provides for translation, and I am also very excited that he will be translating The Prince of This World into German.

The Shimer Great Books School is hosting a talk by Florian this afternoon at 5 (reception at 4), at the Koten Chapel on the North Central College campus, with a response by Shelley Birdsong, and tomorrow Florian and I will be joining Colby Dickinson and Stephanie Frank for a roundtable discussion of the future of political theology at Loyola University Chicago at 6.

The Journal of Cultural and Religious Theory has published a very substantial review of Agamben’s Philosophical Lineage, which I co-edited with Carlo Salzani.

On February 15, I will be speaking at Marquette University on the urgent topic of nihilistic cartoon shows; details here. UPDATE 2/28: Streaming video is now available.

The next week, I will be hosting Florian Klug, Assistant Professor of Dogmatic Theology at the University of Würzburg, Germany, for two events. The first will take place at North Central College in the Koten Chapel on Wednesday, February 21 (4pm reception, 5pm talk), where Dr. Klug will give a lecture on “The Iconic Being of the Bible,” with a response from NCC’s own biblical scholar, Shelley Birdsong. The second will take place on Thursday, February 22, at 6pm at Loyola University Chicago, where Colby Dickinson (Loyola), Stephanie Frank (Columbia College), and I will join Dr. Klug for a roundtable discussion of the future of political theology.