Slavoj Žižek
WINNIPEG, MB – A world-renowned philosopher who has been called “the Elvis of cultural theory” will speak at The University of Winnipeg this spring. Slavoj Žižek — a Top 100 Global Thinker known for his critical analysis of popular culture, capitalism, and political correctness — is the next Axworthy Distinguished Lecturer. Žižek will speak on Thursday, April 18, 2019 on campus in Riddell Hall. Doors open at 6:00 pm and the lecture starts at 7:00 pm.
Both humourous and controversial, Žižek has been nicknamed “the most dangerous philosopher in the West.” Since his groundbreaking first work The Sublime Object of Ideology (1989), he has published more than 50 books, which have been translated into more than 20 languages, Žižek is a professor at the European Graduate School; International Director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities, Birkbeck College, University of London; and a senior researcher at the Institute of Sociology, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia.
“Over the past 30 years, Žižek has amassed an enormous following and popularity due to his energetic style of public speaking, his use of humour, and his constant and seamless references to popular culture,” said Dr. Matthew Flisfeder, assistant professor of writing, rhetoric, and communications at UWinnipeg. Flisfeder is the author of The Symbolic, The Sublime, and Slavoj Žižek’s Theory of Film and is co-editor of Žižek and Media Studies: A Reader.
Žižek’s lecture also kicks off the Department of Religion and Culture Spring Institute “Thinking the Human” — a two-week (May 6 – 17) intensive course at UWinnipeg that features local scholars as guest lecturers.
“It’s very exciting UWinnipeg will be hosting a scholar of the caliber of Slavoj Žižek,” said Dr. Jane Barter, professor of religion and culture, who will be leading the Thinking the Human Spring Institute. “His work has managed to combine global politics, film, popular culture, psychoanalysis, and Marxism to help diagnose the ills of late capitalism. The audience is certain to be challenged and inspired by his lecture.”
Founded in 2015, The Axworthy Distinguished Lecture Series on Social Justice and the Public Good at UWinnipeg invites top-tier researchers, social commentators, and political leaders to deliver lectures that are open to the public. Lectures are made possible by the generosity of donors, faculty, staff, and alumni.
