 | Deconstructing the Death Penalty: Derrida''s Seminars and the New Abolitionism Subjects: Derrida Jacques; Capital punishment -- Philosophy; Capital punishment -- Moral and ethical aspects; Imprisonment -- Moral and ethical aspects; Power (Social sciences); This volume represents the first collection of essays devoted exclusively to Jacques Derrida's Death Penalty Seminars, conducted from 1999 to 2001. The volume includes essays from a range of scholars working in philosophy, law, Francophone studies, and comparative literature, including established Derridians, activist scholars, and emerging scholars. These essays attempt to elucidate and expand upon Derrida's deconstruction of the theologico-political logic of the death penalty in order to construct a new form of abolitionism, one not rooted in the problematic logics of sovereign power. These essays provide remarkable insight into Derrida's ethical and political projects; this volume will not only explore the implications of Derrida's thought on capital punishment and mass incarceration, but will also help to further elucidate the philosophical groundwork for his later deconstructions of sovereign power and the human/animal divide. Because Derrida is deconstructing the logic of the death penalty, rather than the death penalty itself, his seminars will prove useful to scholars and activists opposing all forms of state sanctioned killing. In compiling this volume, our goals were twofold: first, to make a case for Derrida's continuing importance in debates on capital punishment, mass incarceration, and police brutality, and second, to construct a new, versatile abolitionism, one capable of confronting all forms the death penalty might take. Oliver Kelly : Kelly Oliver is W. Alton Jones Professor of Philosophy at Vanderbilt University, where she also holds appointments in the departments of African-American Diaspora Studies, Film Studies, and Women's and Gender Studies. She is the author of more than one hundred articles, fifteen scholarly books, and three novels.Straub Stephanie : Stephanie Straub is completing a PhD in English at Vanderbilt University.Guenther Lisa : Lisa Guenther is associate professor of philosophy at Vanderbilt University and a member of REACH Coalition, an organization for reciprocal education based on Tennessee's death row. She is the author of Solitary Confinement: Social Death and its Afterlives (University of Minnesota Press, 2013).Kamuf Peggy : Peggy Kamuf is Professor Emerita of French and Comparative Literature at the University of Southern California. Her books include Book of Addresses , which won the René Wellek Prize, and, most recently, Literature and the Remains of the Death Penalty .Kuiken Kir : Kir Kuiken is Assistant Professor of English at the University at Albany, SUNY.Marder Elissa : Elissa Marder is Associate Professor of French and Comparative Literature at Emory University and Distinguished International Faculty Fellow at the London Graduate School. Her most recent book is Dead Time: Temporal Disorders in the Wake of Modernity (Baudelaire and Flaubert).Naas Michael : Michael Naas is Professor of Philosophy at DePaul University in Chicago. His books include The End of the World and Other Teachable Moments: Jacques Derrida's Final Seminar and Miracle and Machine: Jacques Derrida and the Two Sources of Religion, Science, and the Media (both Fordham).Oliver Kelly : Kelly Oliver is W. Alton Jones Professor of Philosophy at Vanderbilt University, where she also holds appointments in the departments of African-American Diaspora Studies, Film Studies, and Women's and Gender Studies. She is the author of more than one hundred articles, fifteen scholarly books, and three novels.Rottenberg Elizabeth : Elizabeth Rottenberg is Professor of Philosophy at DePaul University and a practicing psychoanalyst in Chicago. She is the author of Inheriting the Future: Legacies of Kant, Freud, and Flaubert (Stanford) and the editor and translator of many books by Maurice Blanchot, Jacques Derrida, and Jean-François Lyotard. Saghafi Kas :KAS SAGHAFI is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Memphis. Kelly Oliver (Edited By) |
