Welcome

On the occasion of the anniversary of his birth, the next issue of Disegno will be dedicated to the critical re-interpretation of the legacy of László Moholy-Nagy and the memory of Victor Margolin, a member of Disegno’s editorial board. The goal is to provide options for understanding the relevance of Moholy-Nagy’s ideas and activities as a designer, artist, and design educator within a contemporary design cultural context. However, this issue also aims to assess his legacy in the widest sense, welcoming papers on design culture that do not closely investigate his contribution but analyse processes, practices, discourses, products, services in the spirit of his philosophy.

The editors wish to emphasize the importance and relevance of Moholy-Nagy’s cinematic work and suggest a critical analysis of his films from at least three perspectives: the role of projection and the notion of Lichtraum within his art theory, the aesthetic value of his films in the context of experimental film and expanded cinema, and the political aspect of his filmmaking and his links to leftist film movements.

We suggest the following topics, but welcome submissions about any relevant theme:

– design: a tool for criticising capitalism then and now

– design history / intellectual history of the oeuvre of Moholy-Nagy

– critical assessment of Moholy-Nagy’s concepts and approaches

– what does “design for life” mean today?

– socially engaged design in relation to the legacy

– Moholy-Nagy as design educator – education in his vein today

– criticism of current trends of social design in the light of Moholy-Nagy’s thoughts

– Victor Margolin’s approach to Moholy-Nagy

The deadline for abstract submissions is 10 March 2021, an answer about acceptance will be provided in early spring, and final manuscripts are to be submitted in mid-May 2021.

For further information including the full submission details please see: http://disegno.mome.hu/?p=302

21–23 June 2021, Maimonides Centre for Advanced Studies (MCAS), Hamburg

The conference committee invites four early career researchers (PhD candidates and postdocs) to participate in a round-table discussion at the conference by giving a 20-minute lecture on one of the topics described below. All lectures should be based on current or future research projects.

Richard Popkin’s scholarly interest in Judaism appears relatively late in his academic career, following what he described as an “overpowering religious experience” that took place in 1956. His contributions to Jewish history are prevalently focused on the role of Marrano thinkers in early modern scepticism and in Christian messianism and millenarianism. Therefore, recent scholarship on Jewish scepticism has rightly stressed that Popkin’s multifarious oeuvre lacks any serious consideration of a specifically Jewish current within the sceptical tradition, which is independent from the converso encounter with classical philosophy and Christian theology.

However, in his correspondence and autobiographical writings, Popkin did acknowledge the importance of his Jewish identity in shaping his intellectual interests and directing his research on scepticism. In view of the forthcoming publication of Popkin’s correspondence with Judah Goldin, edited by Giuseppe Veltri, Jeremy Popkin, and Asher Salah, this conference aims to further our understanding of how Popkin’s strong commitment to Judaism affected his perception of Jewish history and Jewish philosophy.

PhD candidates or postdocs who wish to present papers are requested to submit a 200-word abstract and a CV to lilian.tuerk@uni-hamburg.de by 28 February 2021.

For more information, click here.

This conference will explore how thinkers throughout history have considered emergencies and their political implications. We invite submissions from graduate researchers in intellectual history or related disciplines, drawing from different periods and places. Proposals for panels and papers may wish to consider the following themes:

• Conceptual histories of emergency
• States of emergency and states of exception
• Historical narratives of emergency
• The temporality of emergency
• Environmental, climate, and health emergencies
• Historical perspectives on the Anthropocene
• Emergency as context in the history of ideas
• Emergency as a methodological consideration

To apply, please email a C.V. along with your proposal to historyofpoliticalthoughtnet@gmail.com. Abstracts should be no more than 500 words for papers of 20 minutes in length. Panel proposals should include the titles of individual papers and not exceed 1500 words in total. As this is a graduate conference, please note that we can only consider proposals from applicants who have not been awarded a doctorate.

The conference will most likely follow a hybrid format. While we hope to conduct some aspects in person, speakers will still be able to present virtually. Please let us know whether you would like to present in person, circumstances permitting, or online, and which timezone you are based in.

The call for papers will close on 26 March 2021 at 23:59 GMT. Successful applicants will be notified no later than 28 April 2021.

For the full Call for Papers, click here.