Friday, April 24th, 12pm, 6206C Phelps Hall
Please join us for a Brown Bag talk by Prof. Silvia Mazzini (Institute for Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts) co-sponsored by the Comparative Literature Program and the Departments of French and Italian and the Graduate Center for Literary Research.
"The Force of Poverty: Eco-Political Resistance as the Creation of Alternatives"
From minimalist lifestyles to slow food, from household saving to digital fasting, many reduction practices are becoming trends in wealthy societies. In contrast, millions of people struggle against scarcity and deprivation every day. Why then choose poverty voluntarily? Along with historical figures such as Diogenes the Cynic and Francis of Assisi, we’ll examine how poverty has inspired radical forms of life close to nature (Foucault, Agamben) or, as Max Weber warned, turned into capital accumulation. Such a shift in perspectives discloses what I call powerty – the power of poverty: a creative, transformative force that arises to overcome the lack of means. By unraveling its paradoxes and ancestral legacies, we’ll explore alternative poor strategies that can be turned into eco-practices today. For if necessity is the mother of invention, what contributions can the force of poverty bring to an ecological turn? How can its alternative power operate today?
Silvia Mazzini is Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Art Theory at the Institute for Doctoral Studies in Visual Arts.