Crossroads in Cultural Studies Conference 14-17th December 2016 Program Index

In the wake of the crisis of modern welfare societies and new global activisms political thinkers have
reasoned as to the actual pressure on democracy and the need of “democratizing democracy” to stand for
not only more of the same – representative – democracy, but for a different – “radical” – democracy which
is also a direct and emotional invested democracy (Agamben 2010; Rancière 2010, Mouffe 2013). These
thoughts are again perceived by cultural theorists and actioners wrestling with the idea of “radical” art and
the “radical” institution (Rogoff & Schneider 2008, Raunig 2009, Möntmann 2009, Rogoff 2012, Sternfeld
2013, Bishop 2013), respectively. They argue for a “radical” approach to claim equality on behalf of the ones
without access and agency and thereby ownership in relation to core democratic institutions and resources.
They further propose enhancing an embodied, affective and relational non- or more-than-representational
communicative modus, that is a critical but also anticipatory modus by which cultural institutions can be
opened onto knew forms of experience, knowledge, and forms of social interaction. In this paper, I take this
anticipatory criticality as an outset for a case study of the experiment The museum of Burning Questions”
(Bergen, 2016).
Dennis Bruining Cultural Studies and the Agential Realist Turn
This paper critically interrogates one of the most influential theories that has emerged in the last decade,
namely, Karen Barad’s “agential realism”. More specifically, the discussion in this paper analyzes the
significant theoretical purchase of agential realism in extant critical and cultural studies by examining its
rhetorical power. Focusing on Barad’s articulation of this theoretical framework, this paper thus aims to
highlight crucial textual and theoretical concerns. Narrative tactics and rhetorical strategies in Barad’s
formulation of agential realism are subjected to critical review and alternative readings that anaylze the
motives and implications of her claims are offered. Tensions in agential realism’s framing are further probed
by analyzing Barad’s (diffractive) reading of Butler and quantum physicist Niels Bohr to highlight a
remarkable similarity between the positions of these two scholars; a similarity that currently remains
obscured by agential realism’s framing and rhetoric.
Bob Hodge
Epigenetic models for cultural analysis
This paper introduces epigenetic models from biology as basis for a new framework for cultural analysis. It
outlines the main features of epigenetic models in biology by analysing their emergence in Mendel and Sir
William Bateson. It looks at parallel developments in quantum theory (Bohr) and psychoanalysis (Freud). It
explores later development of these ideas in cultural analysis, in the work of Bakhtin and Gregory Bateson. It
then illustrates epigenetic analysis in cultural studies by looking at an instance of cross cultural
communication in conditions of high complexity.
3V
Representing home and change (Chair, Ruth Tindaan)
Jessica Fuk Yin Kong
Music, affect, networked social movement: The myth of underlying social change
According to the constructionist approach, cognition and affect work jointly to formulate social practices,
including social movements. The affective side of protests, not merely leads to mobilization, but also
meaning creation and circulation. In this paper, I study the affective side of the Umbrella Movement, by
centering on the role of music. Located in the “cultural desert”, local protest song is not a popular genre. In
the Umbrella Movement, however, there were 23 songs produced. What kind(s) of emotions are produced
from the songs? How are musical meanings and affects being formulated and circulated in the networked
social movement, both online and offline? To answer these questions, this paper starts from mapping out
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