Center For Transcultural Studies

PROJECT DAN: DEMOCRATIC AGENDAS NETWORK THIS CTS GROUP IS PART OF A LARGER GROUP OF INTERNATIONAL SCHOLARS ASSEMBLED BY CRAIG CALHOUN (ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY), DILIP GAONKAR (NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY) AND CHARLES TAYLOR (MCGILL UNIVERSITY) FOR DEVELOPING A LONG- TERM PROJECT ENTITLED, DEMOCRATIC AGENDAS PROJECT (PROJECT DAN). RATIONALE AND MISSION OF THIS NETWORK IS AS FOLLOWS: WE CAN NO LONGER HARBOR THE ILLUSION THAT THERE IS A SINGLE TRUE AND TESTED PATH TO REACH, SECURE REFINE OR DEEPEN DEMOCRATIC SOCIETIES ACROSS NATIONAL AND CULTURAL DIFFERENCES SHAPED BY HISTORY AND CONTEMPORARY CONDITIONS. YET THIS NEED NOT MEAN ABANDONING DEMOCRACY. IT MEANS RENEWING AND INTEGRATING MANY DIFFERENT DEMOCRATIC AGENDAS ACTIVE TODAY. EACH OF THESE INVOLVES ATTEMPTS AT EXPLANATION AND DIAGNOSES OF DEMOCRACY'S CURRENT FAILURES AND PARTIAL ACHIEVEMENTS. THERE ARE MULTIPLE CULTURES OF DEMOCRACY AND MANY ROADS TO DEMOCRACY. THE OBJECTIVE OF THIS PROJECT IS TO INITIATE A SUSTAINED DIALOGUE AMONG PROPON

THE MOISHE POSTONE LEGACY PROJECT MOISHE POSTONE (1942-2018) WAS ONE OF THE LEADING INTERPRETERS OF MARX AND CRITICAL THEORY. HIS ANALYSES DROVE THE CRITIQUE OF POLITICAL ECONOMY BEYOND THE LIMITATIONS OF TRADITIONAL MARXISM AND DEMONSTRATED THE SIGNIFICANCE OF MARX'S THEORY FOR AN UNDERSTANDING OF GLOBAL CAPITALISM TODAY. POSTONE'S CONTRIBUTIONS TO A CRITICAL THEORY OF MODERN ANTISEMITISM, HIS INTERVENTIONS INTO THE GERMAN POLITICS OF MEMORY, AND HIS ANALYSES OF REDUCTIVE AND ULTIMATELY REACTIONARY CRITIQUES OF CAPITALIST MODERNITY ON THE LEFT AS WELL AS THE RIGHT HAD A PROFOUND AND LASTING IMPACT ON SCHOLARS AND POLITICAL ACTIVISTS IN THE GERMAN-SPEAKING WORLD AND INCREASINGLY IN OTHER NATIONAL CONTEXTS. IN COLLABORATION WITH THE CENTER FOR TRANSCULTURAL STUDIES, THE MPLP AIMS TO PRESERVE POSTONE'S WORK AND TO PROMOTE ENGAGEMENT WITH HIS IDEAS AND PEDAGOGY. IT IS IN THE PROCESS OF CREATING A DETAILED INDEX FOR HIS PAPERS, WHICH WILL BE DEPOSITED IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO'S SPECIAL

THEORY MEDIA GROUP IN RECENT YEARS, MEDIA THEORY HAS EMERGED AS A ROBUST AND MULTIDISCIPLINARY FIELD. BUT IT REMAINS TETHERED TO EURO- AMERICAN EXPERIENCE AND DOMINANT GEOGRAPHIES OF NOVELTY AND VALUE THAT FAIL TO ACCOUNT FOR THE SIGNIFICANCE OF MEDIA IN MUCH OF THE WORLD. THIS WORKING GROUP BEGINS FROM THE ASSUMPTION THAT A TRANSNATIONAL, GLOBAL OR MULTI-SITED MEDIA THEORY IS NECESSARY TO UNDERSTAND CONTEMPORARY CULTURAL, SOCIAL AND POLITICAL PHENOMENA - FROM POPULAR POLITICS TO PLATFORM ECONOMIES. HERE, WE UNDERSTAND TRANS- AND GLOBAL PROCESSES AS NEITHER UNIVERSALIST, ADDITIVE, NOR SIMPLY OUTSIDE THE CENTER, BUT RATHER AS RELATIONS OR ENFOLDINGS CONSTITUTED BY DISCRETE MEDIA, PLATFORMS, INFRASTRUCTURES, AND NETWORKS. ON THIS BASIS, THEY HELP US REFRAME MEDIA THEORY AS SUCH. OUR INITIAL RESEARCH AXIS IS WHAT WE TERM THEORY MEDIA TO FLIP THE SCRIPT ON FAMILIAR CONCEPTUAL PRIORITIES AND CALL ATTENTION TO THE WAYS THAT MEDIANTS AND MEDIATIONS THEORIZE THEMSELVES. WHEREAS MEDIA THEORY AP

SEMIOTIC WORKING GROUP THE SEMIOTICS WORKING GROUP WAS FOUNDED IN THE FALL OF 2020 AND MEETS MONTHLY. MOST OF THE PARTICIPANTS HAVE BEEN STUDENTS OR COLLEAGUES OF MICHAEL SILVERSTEIN, THE LATE PROFESSOR OF ANTHROPOLOGY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO. MICHAEL WAS AN ACTIVE MEMBER OF CTS IN 1980S AND 1990S, THE PERIOD IN WHICH HE CO-DIRECTED THE CENTER'S INFLUENTIAL LANGUAGE GROUP. COGNIZANT OF MICHAEL SILVERSTEIN'S ENDURING LEGACY, THE CURRENT SEMIOTICS GROUP BUILDS ON THE WORK OF THE CENTER'S LANGUAGE GROUP. HOWEVER, IT HAS A NEW MISSION AND AGENDA, THAT IS, EXPLORING THE POSSIBILITY OF A "CONTINUOUS-TIME SEMIOTICS." SOUND IS A CONTINUOUS-TIME PHENOMENON. LINGUISTICS FUNCTIONS BY SEGMENTING SOUND INTO UNDERSTANDABLE UNITS AND ORGANIZING THOSE UNITS INTO GRAMMAR. THIS PROCESS-DISCRETIZATION VIA GRAMMAR-IS CAPTURED IN STRUCTURAL LINGUISTICS BY THE FAMOUS SAUSSUREAN DISTINCTION BETWEEN PARADIGMATIC AND SYNTAGMATIC AXES AND IN COMPUTATIONAL LINGUISTICS BY THE CHOMSKY HIERARCHY OF GRAMMARS. B