I am always eager to share my ideas and meet new colleagues. Please do not hesitate to contact me at akotsko at gmail dot com if you would like to arrange a talk, seminar, or other event.
Invited Lectures and Presentations
“Democracy Between Populism and Neoliberalism.” Imtiaz Moosa Philosophy and Ethics Speaker Series, Department of Philosophy, University of Wisconsin–River Falls, April 2023.
Panelist for “Radical Futures.” Intellectual Community Series. North Central College (Naperville, Ill.), February 2023.
“Toward a Political Theology of Silence.” Keynote Address for Münster International Summer School (Topic: “Tacet ad Libitum! Towards a Poetics and Politics of Silence”), Graduate School Practices of Literature, University of Münster, July 2022.
“Racism and Original Sin.” School of Religion, Queen’s University (Kingston, Ont.), March 2022.
Seminar on “Modernity’s Original Sin.” Centre for Comparative Literature, University of Toronto, March 2022.
“Beyond Capitalist Freedom.” Scholarship in the Arts Lecture Series on Neoliberalism. Memorial University Newfoundland (virtual visit), March 2022.
“Beyond Capitalist Freedom.” Keynote Address for Colloquium on Milton Friedman’s Capitalism and Freedom, Wabash College (Crawfordsville, Ind.), February 2022.
“The Many Deaths of Neoliberalism.” World Social Science and Management Webinar Series, co-sponsored by the Department of History & Political Science of Jawaharlal Nehru College, the Center for Adivasi Research and Development, Central University of Odisha, and Indian Institute of Management Sambalpur (Odisha, India; virtual visit), July 2021.
“Race and Original Sin.” Philosophy and Religion Forum, University of Southern Mississippi (virtual visit), February 2021.
Seminar on Agamben’s Philosophical Trajectory. Agamben Working Group, University of Toronto (virtual visit), January 2021.
“Interpreting James Cone.” Northwestern University/Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary Theology Colloquium (Evanston, Ill.), October 2019.
“Neoliberalism’s Demons.” York University Communication Program and Ryerson University Faculty of Communication and Design (Toronto), April 2019.
“Neoliberalism’s Demons.” UD Scholar-Leader Honors Program and Charles C. Myers Library, University of Dubuque (Iowa), March 2019.
“Structure and Sequence in Agamben’s The Use of Bodies.” Faculty of Protestant Theology, Charles University (Prague), March 2019.
“Neoliberalism’s Demons.” Faculty of Protestant Theology and Political Science Student Organization of the Higher School of Economics, Charles University (Prague), March 2019.
“Neoliberalism’s Demons.” Open University of the Left (Chicago), December 2018. (video link)
“Neoliberalism’s Demons.” Afkar-e-Taza/ThinkFest Literary Festival (Karachi, Pakistan), December 2018.
“Agamben’s Theology: A Critical Reading of The Kingdom and the Glory.” Faculty of Humanities, University of Copenhagen, December 2018. (lecture excerpt link)
“Critical Methods in the Humanities” (PhD Workshop). Faculty of Humanities, University of Copenhagen, December 2018.
“Neoliberalism’s Demons: Author Meets Critics.” Faculty of Humanities, University of Copenhagen, December 2018.
“Neoliberalism’s Demons.” Center for Religion and Media, New York University, November 2018.
“Neoliberalism’s Demons.” Seminary Co-Op Bookstore, Chicago, Novemeber 2018. (video link)
“Neoliberalism’s Demons.” Inter-Chicago Circle for Experimental Critical Theory (InterCcect) and Humanities Center, University of Illinois at Chicago, October 2018.
“The Devil and Economics.” Department of Communications and Shimer Great Books School, North Central College, October 2018.
“On Trump and Neoliberalism.” TIP Talks Series, Department of Political Science, North Central College, March 2018. (video link)
“Animated Nihilism: BoJack Horseman, Rick and Morty, and the Strange Fate of the Adult Cartoon.” Center for the Advancement of the Humanities, Marquette University (Milwaukee, Wis.), February 2018. (video link)
“Plato as a Cultural Critic,” Shimer Great Books School, North Central College, November 2017. (lecture transcript)
“From Restricted to General Political Theology,” Political Theology Panel Series, Department of Theology, Loyola University Chicago, April 2017.
“The Prince of This World,” Chicago Theological Seminary, April 2017.
“The Political Theology of Late Capitalism: On Neoliberalism,” Department of Religion, Northwestern University, February 2017.
“The Prince of This World” (in conversation with Peter Coviello). Seminary Co-Op Bookstore, Chicago, January 2017.
Panelist for “The Biblical Humanities: The Temptation of Christ.” DePaul Humanities Center, Chicago, January 2017.
“Neoliberalism’s Demons.” Critical Theory Circle and Departments of Sociology and Theology, Auckland University (New Zealand), August 2016; Continental Philosophy Seminar Series, Canterbury University (Christchurch, New Zealand), August 2016; Melbourne School of Continental Philosophy, August 2016; Institute for Religion and Critical Inquiry, Australian Catholic University (Melbourne), August 2016; Center for Modernism Studies, University of New South Wales (Sydney), July 2016; Australian National University, July 2016. (lecture transcript)
“The Origin of the Devil.” Australian National University, July 2016.
“The Devil and Neoliberalism: A Discussion of Free Will.” Center for the Study of Social Justice, University of Tennesse at Knoxville, April 2016.
“Awkwardness as a Way of Life.” Architecture Lecture Series, University of Illinois at Chicago, January 2016. (video link)
“The Prince of This World: The Devil and Political Theology.” Humanities on the Edge Series, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, March 2015.
“Creepiness.” Seminary Co-op Bookstore, Chicago, March 2015.
“The Political Theology of the Devil.” Department of Religious Studies, Wayne State University (Detroit, Mich.), February 2015.
“The Specter of Creepiness.” DeRoy Lecture Series, Department of English, Wayne State University (Detroit, Mich.), February 2015.
“Žižek and Theology.” Portland Center for Public Humanities, Portland State University (Portland, Ore.), October 2014.
“Political Theology from Below.” The Actuality of the Theologico-Political Conference, Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities, University of London, May 2014.
Panelist for “Helping Students Cope with Pluralism and Criticism in the Classroom,” University of Chicago Divinity School, February 2014.
“Creepiness and Culture.” Cultural Studies Colloquium, Columbia College, Chicago, February 2014.
“Why Agamben Needs Psychoanalysis.” Psychoanalytic Practices Seminar, Mahindra Humanities Center, Harvard University, February 2014.
“A Brief History of the Devil.” Shimer College, October 2013.
“What St. Paul and the Franciscans Can Tell Us About Neoliberalism: On Agamben’s Highest Poverty.” Paul of Tarsus Interdisciplinary Working Group, Northwestern University, May 2013. (PDF link)
“Agamben on Liturgy and Politics.” Paul of Tarsus Interdisciplinary Working Group, Northwestern University, October 2012.
“Why We Love Sociopaths.” Inter-Chicago Circle for Experimental Critical Theory (InterCcect), 57th Street Books, Chicago, July 2012.
“Agamben, Paul, and the Oath.” Paul of Tarsus Interdisciplinary Working Group, Northwestern University, April 2011. (PDF link)
“Awkwardness.” Marion Dunsmore Lecture in Religion, Kalamazoo College, March 2010.
Conference Presentations
“Bruce Rosenstock’s Secular Paulinism.” Conference: “Transfinite Life: A Symposium in Honor of Bruce Rosenstock,” Department of Religion and Program in Jewish Culture and Society, University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign), October 2023.
Panelist for “Popular Science Fiction and Left Political Imaginations.” Socialism 2023 Conference, Chicago, September 2023.
“Enemies for Your Sake: The Figure of the Jew in Paul and the Qur’an.” Conference: “Figuring the Enemy: Socio-Scientific and Political Theological Approaches to Religious Enmity,” St. Andrews University, Scotland, June 2023.
“What is Star Trek About? Federation, Fan-Service, or Freedom.” American Comparative Literature Association (Seminar: “Franchise Cultures”), Chicago, March 2023.
“Our Democracy: American Political Theology and the Crisis of Legitimacy.” Australasian Society for Continental Philosophy Conference, Bond University (Gold Coast, Australia; virtual visit), December 2021.
“The Political Theology of Silvia Federici.” American Academy of Religion (Theology and Continental Philosophy), San Antonio, November 2021.
Panelist for “Capitalism, Dis-ease, and the Long Shadow of COVID-19.” American Academy of Religion (Religion and Economy), San Antonio, November 2021.
Panelist for “Author Meets Critics: Marika Rose, A Theology of Failure: Žižek against Christian Innocence (Fordham University Press, 2019).” American Academy of Religion (Theology and Religious Reflection), San Antonio, November 2021.
“The Threat to ‘Our Democracy’ and the Neoliberal Crisis of Legitimacy,” Yonsei Theological Forum International Conference (Theme: “Democracy and Theology in Global Contexts”), Yonsei University (Seoul, South Korea; virtual visit), October 2021.
“Bringing Horses to Water: Great Books as Gen Ed.” Association for Core Texts and Courses Annual Conference (Session: “Rethinking—Again—Universities, College, and Hutchins”), Virtual Conference, April 2021.
“Agamben’s Vegetative Theology.” American Comparative Literature Association (Seminar: “Agamben’s Later Works,” co-organized with Frances Restuccia), Virtual Conference, April 2021.
Respondant for “The Devil & the Demons: Neoliberal Theology in the Work of Adam Kotsko.” American Academy of Religion (Theology and Continental Philosophy), San Diego, November 2019.
Roundtable participant, “Here, Now: Doing and Teaching the Continental Philosophy of Religions in Chicago,” Chicago Graduate Conference in the Continental Philosophy of Religions, University of Chicago, October 2019.
“The Left Hand of God: The Apocalyptic Roots and Secular Legacy of the Trinitarian Economy.” Conference: Sovereignty, Religion, and Secularism: Interrogating the Foundations of Polity, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (Germany), July 2018.
Respondant for “The Prince of This World by Adam Kotsko: Author Meets Critics.” Western Political Science Association Conference, San Francisco, March 2018.
Respondant for “Garbaging the Neoliberal Fantasy: Trump, Trolls, Toxic Masculinity and MAGA.” Western Political Science Association Conference, San Francisco, March 2018.
Participant in Sovereignty Workshop, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (Germany), September 2017.
“Agamben and the Problem of Evil.” Continental Philosophy and Catholic International Heritage Interdisciplinary International Conference, Loyola University Chicago, April 2016. (PDF link)
Respondent for Thomas Altizer. Continental Philosophy and Catholic International Heritage Interdisciplinary International Conference, Loyola University Chicago, April 2016.
“‘These Fragments I Have Shored Against My Ruins’: The Waste Land, Modernism, and ‘The Western Tradition’.” Association for Core Texts and Courses Liberal Arts Institute Conference on “The Intersection of Religious and Secular Cores in Liberal Arts Education,” Rhodes College (Memphis, Tenn.), September 2014.
“What is to Be Done? The Endgame of the Homo Sacer Series.” American Comparative Literature Association (Seminar: “Agamben, Capital, and the Homo Sacer Series: Economy, Poverty, People, Work,” co-organized with Virgil Brower), New York University, March 2014.
Panelist for “Helping Students Cope with Pluralism and Criticism in the Classroom,” University of Chicago Divinity School, February 2014.
“The Prince of This World: Thinking the Devil in Light of Agamben’s The Kingdom and the Glory.” American Academy of Religion (Theology and Religious Reflection/Theology and Continental Philosophy), Chicago, November 2012. (link)
Panelist for “Review/Discussion of Antonio Negri’s The Labor of Job: The Biblical Text as a Parable of Human Labor (Duke University Press, 2009).” American Academy of Religion (Bible, Theology, and Postmodernism), San Francisco, November 2011. (HTML link)
Panelist for “The Body of Christ.” American Academy of Religion (Bible, Theology, and Postmodernism), Atlanta, November 2010. (Scribd link)
“Displacing the Devil: Anselm, the Patristic Heritage, and Political Theology.” International Medieval Congress, Kalamazoo, Michigan, May 2010. (PDF link)
“Patristic Perspectives on the Cross: A Reinterpretation.” American Academy of Religion (Bible, Theology, and Postmodernism), Montreal, November 2009. (HTML link)
“The Pre-History of Jean-Luc Nancy’s Deconstruction of Christianity.” American Academy of Religion (Philosophy of Religion), Chicago, November 2008. (PDF link)
Panelist for “Hegemony, Gospel, & Empty Signifier: Theological and Philosophical Responses to Populist Reason.” American Academy of Religion (additional meeting), Chicago, November 2008. (PDF link)
“Philosophical Reading Beyond Paul: Jean-Luc Nancy on the Epistle of James.” Society of Biblical Literature (Reading, Theory, and the Bible), San Diego, November 2007. (HTML link)
Panelist for “The Internet, Publishing, and the Future of Literature.” Association of Literary Scholars and Critics Annual Meeting, Chicago, October 2007. (published version link)
“Singular Plural Catholic Spirit: John Wesley with Jean-Luc Nancy.” Wesleyan Theological Society Annual Meeting, Bourbonnais, Ill., March 2007. (PDF link)
Panelist for “Critical Responses to Theology and the Political: The New Debate (Duke, 2005).” American Academy of Religion (wildcard session), Washington, D.C., November 2006. (published version PDF link)
“Politics and Perversion: Situating Žižek’s Paul.” Society of Biblical Literature (Reading, Theory, and the Bible), Washington, D.C., November 2006. (published version PDF link)
“Repeating Wesley.” Wesleyan Theological Society Annual Meeting, Seattle, March 2005. (PDF link)
“Slavoj Žižek’s Materialist Trinitarianism.” Annual Villanova Graduate Student Philosophy Conference on “Philosophy and Psychoanalysis,” Philadelphia, March 2003. (PDF link)
Adam Kotsko 