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

Lindsey Macdonald
The (Negative) Dialectics of Ori and the Blind Forest
This paper proposes to foreground Theodor Adorno’s negative dialectics and its potential applications to the
field of video game studies. More specifically, this paper will examine how, through immanent/transcendent
criticism of the various philosophical and political forms of social subjectivity and their antinomies, the
“riddle figures” in Adorno’s writings offer a kind of template for developing a critical-theoretical approach
that foregrounds the historically-specific social contradictions embedded in digital objects and forms. With a
view toward unpacking the basic operations and fundamental presuppositions of negative dialectics, this
paper will, by way of example, bring Adorno’s non-identity thinking to bear on Moon Studio’s single-player
adventure platformer, Ori and the Blind Forest (Microsoft Studios 2015). Situating this investigation in
conversation with John Bellamy Foster’s Marx’s Ecology: Materialism and Nature (2000) and Jason W.
Moore’s Capitalism in the Web of Life (2015), this paper proposes to demonstrate the continued relevance
of Adorno’s negative dialectics to cultural criticism today.
7X
Power and educational spaces (Chair, Megan Watkins)
Christina Ho
Tiger mothers, dragon children and race relations in elite schools: A Sydney case study
“Migrant parents push their kids too hard.” “Asian migrant students just cram their way to the top.” These
are the kind of sentiments increasingly seen in response to the academic success of Asian migrant students
in countries like Australia, the US and the UK. As Asian migrant students come to dominate the enrolments
of certain high achieving schools and prestigious university courses, there has also been an accompanying
public anxiety about the allegedly unhealthy education cultures associated with Asian migrant families,
embodied in the “tiger mother” popularised by Amy Chua’s 2011 book, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother.
Schooling in Sydney has become dramatically more competitive and hierarchical over the last two decades,
particularly because of the growing number of public academically-selective high schools, opportunity
classes, and gifted and talented programs, alongside substantial government support for private schools. The
influx of Asian migrants into Australia over the same period has led to a racialisation of discussions around
education, particularly at the elite end, where many Anglo-Australian parents resent the “pushy parenting”
of Asian migrants, which they allege has distorted the education “market”. This paper reports on interviews
conducted with parents and students in elite public schools, examining their perceptions of “tiger mothers”,
education cultures, and race relations within their school communities.
Clarissa Carden A Culture of Discipline and Blame: Perceived culpability in discourses relating to the “problem” of
school discipline
Discipline within the school is a provocative subject, one bound to stir up strong emotions in individuals
across the political spectrum. It relates to the future of a society and to the perceived efficacy of two
institutions, the school and the family, in ensuring that this future is positive. The proposed paper draws on
data from Queensland including government reports, parliamentary debates, newspaper articles, and policy
documents in order to demonstrate the potential for the discursive construction of school discipline to
facilitate the censure and blame of parents, particularly parents from marginalised groups. It highlights the
way in which alternate views relating to the state of school discipline and of the causes of indiscipline are
swept aside in favour of the simplistic construction of a “problem” caused by bad parents and bad children.
Nicole Matthews
Learning to listen: epistemic injustice and gothic film in dementia care education
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