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Concordia University Concordia celebrates 50 years!
Concordia University Concordia celebrates 50 years!

Centre for the Study of Learning and Performance (CSLP)

Centre for the Study of Learning and Performance (CSLP)

 

Vivek Venkatesh (Professor of inclusive practices in visual arts, chair of the Department of Art Education at Concordia University, UNESCO Chair in Prevention of Radicalisationand Violent Extremism) and Nelson Varas-Díaz (Professor of global and sociocultural studies at Florida International University) have contracted with Lexington Press to produce a new book series, Extremity in Society and Culture. If you have a proposal for academic works that fit the series, we want to hear from you.

This book series brings together scholars in sociology and cultural studies to reflect on the topic of extremity through an analysis of multi-regional social lives and cultural practices.

Defining “extremity” as the pushing of a social boundary that allows the unfathomable to come into existence, the series invites authors from the fields of sociology, cultural studies, pedagogy, religion, consumer culture, and beyond to look at the many ways in which our vacillating relationship with the extreme, which ranges from fascination to disgust, permeates our everyday lives.

Book cover for The Ethics of Extremity

The first book in the series, The Ethics of Extremity: On Hearing, Seeing & Feeling Each Other, will be released in late 2024. Inspired by Eduardo Galeano's vision of utopia, the book explores the hollowness beneath the facade of a narcissistic utopia and questions where solace can be found in a world marked by overwhelming extremes.

It contends that our relentless pursuit of progress blinds us to the unintended, harsh realities we create, resulting in a dichotomy of joy for some and unbearable hardships for others. 

Please consult our news coverage for more information.

 

We encourage explorations of the extreme, such as those that eke out its dystopic and even detrimental nature, for example, in sustained campaigns of war; the urgent and deleterious impacts of climate change; income and educational inequities which lead to severe forms of poverty and dispossession; as well as xenophobia in all its forms.

The extreme has also been leveraged as a frame to theorize escapist and liberatory strategies, for example, in the economic explosion of the entertainment, consumer culture, and tourist industries in the post-pandemic era; corporal modification and its related industries; public policy that promotes inclusion of marginalized populations; as well as contemporary art and its relationship to censorship. A home for the emerging area of “extremity studies,” five central questions guide the series:

1) How can extremity be defined in our times?

2) How can we account for the polysemic, polyfunctional, and polymorphic manifestations of extremity worldwide?

3) How is extremity mediated by the different social and cultural contexts throughout the globe?

4) How can extremity be researched from theoretical and methodological perspectives? and

5) How can understanding extremity help us address the social challenges faced by societies worldwide?

We are actively seeking proposals for academic works that fit the series. Inquiries can be made to:

 
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