Why Marcuse today? Crises abound: the COVID-19 pandemic stands in the foreground against a backdrop of fomenting fascism in the United States and abroad, the earth is on fire, violence against women and people of color continues to be institutionalized and normalized, and prospects for young folks – even those in the richest nation in the history of the planet – are fading rapidly. This intersection of crises recalls the two conflicting observations with which Herbert Marcuse opened his One-Dimensional Man: first, that industrial society is capable of containing meaningful change for the foreseeable future, and second, that forces and tendencies exist that may break this containment and explode society.
In this spirit, The Marcusean Mind will serve as a focal point for teaching and thinking with and against Marcuse today; aimed at undergraduates, graduate students, junior researchers and practitioners, this volume will synthesize an accessible introduction to Marcusean thought with contemporary social movements, while at the same time providing critical insight into Marcuse’s intellectual ecosystem and relating his thought to contemporary theoretical questions.
The volume will be broken into five sections:
1) Contemporary movements, in which contributions will place Marcuse into contemporary movements or social activism (BLM, Extinction Rebellion, etc.).
2) Reason and Sensitivities, in which contributions will engage with the traditional, historical, and philosophical aspects of Marcuse’s intellectual contributions. For example, what might Marcuse’s critique of instrumental rationality look like today? Or his gestures toward a new sensibility?
3) Marcuse’s Intellectual Ecosystem, in which contributions will bring historical influence or genealogy into the orbit of Marcuse. How, for example, is Marcuse influenced by Marx or Hegel? Likewise, how might Marcuse influence someone like Angela Y. Davis?
4) Futures and Utopias, in which contributions will place Marcuse into conversation with possible futures. How does his work contribute to, or walk with other scholarship (feminism, queer, crip theory, etc.) that allows us to imagine the future otherwise?
5) Counterrevolutions, Neo-Liberalism, and Fascism, in which contributions will make clear the consequences of our current trajectories. What’s at stake when we don’t engage in praxis and critical theory? What happens to people and places when we don’t embrace counter-revolutions?
How to Submit:
Abstracts of 300-500 words and a CV will be collected until August 25, 2022 by email (themarcuseanmind@gmail.com).