The Manifold Reading Groups are organised around a diverse range of critical texts currently influencing our development of biosocial, eco-sensory and digital media theory and methodology. We undertake close readings and analyses of books that challenge our understandings of life, the body, culture, art, education, science, and technology. 

 

All reading groups take place in the Manifold Lab (room 2.52 Brooks Building or online), unless otherwise posted. Please feel free to get in touch to register your interest in the reading groups, details of which will be posted regularly on this page. 

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Mathematical body, earth, cosmos reading group (Sept-Dec, 2020)

B. Sriraman (ed.) (2017), Humanizing mathematics and its philosophy. Springer.

Hersh, R. (ed.) (2006) 18 Unconventional essays on the nature of mathematics. Springer.

Lead: Liz de Freitas (l.de-freitas@mmu.ac.uk)

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Black Studies reading group: Édouard Glissant (March-August, 2020)

Glissant, E. (2019). Poetics of relation (Trans. B. Wing). University of Michigan Press.

Glissant, E. (1989). Caribbean discourse: Selected essays. University press of Virginia

Leads: Laura Trafi-Prats & Liz de Freitas (l.trafi-prats@mmu.ac.uk)

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Mathematics reading group: The continuous and discrete (January-Februrary, 2020)

Peirce, C.S. (2010). Philosophy of mathematics: Selections from the writings of Charles S. Peirce. Indiana University Press. 

Lead: Liz de Freitas (l.de-freitas@mmu.ac.uk)

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Biosocial reading group (Summer 2019, June 5,6,7)

Malabou, C. (2019). Morphing intelligence. (trans. Carolyn Shread). NY: Columbia University Press. (lead: Elizabeth de Freitas & Nathalie Sinclair)

Ruyer, R. (2018). Neofinalism.(Trans. Alyosha Edlebi). MN: University of Minnesota Press. (lead: David Rousell)

Meillassoux, Q. (2015). Science fiction and extro-science fiction. (Trans. Alyosha Edlebi). MN: University of Minnesota Press. (lead: Elizabeth de Freitas & Ricardo Nemirovsky)

Fisher, M. (2016). The weird and the eerie. London: Repeater Press. (lead: Sam Sellar)

Moten, F. (2018). The universal machine. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. (lead: Laura Trafi-Prats & David Shannon)

 Yusoff, K. (2018). A billion black anthropocenes, or none. University of Minnesota Press. (lead: Maggie Maclure)

 

Diagrammatic Thought reading group (collaboration with SenseLab starting May 13th, 2019)

Ongoing selection of texts TBC, including:

James, W. (1904). Does' consciousness' exist? The Journal of philosophy, psychology and scientific methods, 1(18), 477-491.

Deleuze, G. (1993). The Fold: Liebniz and the Baroque (Trans. T. Conley). MN: University of Minnesota Press (pp. 76-82, What is an Event?).

Whitehead, A.N. (1933/1967). Adventures of Ideas. NY: Free Press (pp. 175-220).

Ruyer, R. (2018). Neofinalism.(Trans. Alyosha Edlebi). MN: University of Minnesota Press (pp. 68-103).

Simondon, G. (1958/2017) On the mode of existence of technical objects. (Trans. Cécile Malaspina & John Rogove). Univocal Publishing: Minneapolis, US (pp. 168-222).

Guattari, F. (1995). Chaosmosis: An ethico-aesthetic paradigm. Power Publications: Sydney.

 

Animal Studies Reading Group (Autumn 2018/Winter 2019)

Lorimer, J. (2014). On Auks and Awkwardness. Environmental Humanities, vol. 4, 2014, pp. 195-205.

Rose, D. B. (2010). Flying fox: Kin, keystone, kontaminant. Manoa, 22(2), 175-190.

Tammi, T. (2019). What if schools were lively more-than-human agencements all along? Troubling environmental education with moldschools. Environmental Education Research, 1-16.

Ogden, L. A., Hall, B., & Tanita, K. (2013). Animals, plants, people, and things: A review of multispecies ethnography. Environment and Society, 4(1), 5-24.

Schrader, A. (2012). The time of slime: Anthropocentrism in harmful algal research. Environmental Philosophy, 9(1), 71-93.

                                      Organised by Riikka Hohti

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Gilbert Simondon Reading Group (Winter/Spring, 2018) 

Simondon, G. (1958/2017) On the mode of existence of technical objects. (Trans. Cécile Malaspina & John Rogove). Univocal Publishing: Minneapolis, US.

De Boever, A., Murray, A., Roffe, J., & Woodward, A. (Eds.). (2012). Gilbert Simondon: Being and technology. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Hui, Y. (2016). On the existence of digital objects. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. 

Meeting Dates: Jan. 11, 2:30-4:00/Jan. 18, 2:30-4:00/ Feb. 1, 2:30-4:00/ Feb. 15, 2:30-4:00/ Feb. 22, 2:30-4:00/ March. 1, 2:30-4:00

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Biosocial Reading Group (Autumn, 2017) 

Colebrook, C. (2014). Death of the PostHuman: Essays on extinction, vol. 1. Ann Arbor,

MI: Open Humanities Press. (led by Maggie MacLure )

Frost, S. (2016) Biocultural creatures: Towards a new theory of the human. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. (led by David Rousell)

Hansen, M.B. (2015). Feedforward: The future of twenty-first century media. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. (led by Liz de Freitas)

Kohn, E. (2015) How forests think: Towards an anthropology beyond the human. Berkeley: University of California Press. (led by Abi Hackett)

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Biosocial Reading Group (Spring, 2017) 

Delanda, M. (2011). Philosophy and simulation: The emergence of synthetic reason. London: Continuum. (led by Sam Sellar)

Haraway, D. (2016). Staying with the Trouble: Making kin in the Cthulucene. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. (led by David Rousell)

Manning, E. (2016). The minor gesture. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. (led by Gabrielle Ivinson)

Protevi, J. (2013). Life, War, Earth: Deleuze and the sciences. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. (led by Liz de Freitas and David Rousell)

Stevens, H. (2013). Life out of sequence: A data-driven history of bioinformatics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. (led by Liz de Freitas)

Wilson, E. (2015). Gut Feminism. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. (led by Maggie MacLure)

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