INVITE | Book Launch and Discussion | DREAD by David Theo Goldberg | 29 Sept | 6pm (SA time)

Wednesday, 29 September, 2021 - 18:00

WiSER invites you to the launch of D R E A D Facing Futureless Futures

By David Theo Goldberg

Dread: Facing Futureless Futures is a sustained analysis of the affect of dread, and its prompting by a range of contemporary conditions, from algorithmically driven technologies and the surging institutionalization of tracking capitalism; the proliferation of the pandemic; to gathering climatic and environmental devastation. The book examines how the social conditions have been created that threaten our very wellbeing, if not existence. We face futureless futures and the survival not just of lifestyle but of life, of the world that could support life itself. As a result epistemological, psychic, political, and moral disorientation have become increasingly widespread. The authoritarianisms that seemed to be taking hold, the unhinged statements and expressions proliferating are symptomatic of something deeper, structurally more pervasive and difficult to address. The very technologies that are being promoted to address the interactive crises are undercutting the conditions of possibility for addressing their destructive effects. The increasingly likely outcomes of these forces are proliferating civil wars. The book responds by reflecting on the necessity of infrastructures of care and a relational sociality of mutual engagement.

David Goldberg will be in conversation with Wendy Chun (Simon Fraser University), Achille Mbembe (WiSER, Wits University) and Vanessa Thompson (Goethe University) The event will be moderated by Sarah Nuttall (WiSER, Wits University).

David Theo Goldberg is Director of the systemwide University of California Humanities Research Institute. He is a Distinguished Professor of Comparative Literature, Anthropology, and Criminology, Law and Society at UC Irvine. His numerous books include Are We All Postracial Yet? (Polity, 2015), and Dread: Facing Futureless Futures (Polity, July 2021). Earlier in his career, he produced independent films and music videos (some of which aired on MTV), and co-directed the award-winning short film on South Africa, "The Is/land".

Wednesday, 29th September 2021 6pm (SA time)

Please register for this Zoom event in advance of the meeting https://wits-za.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_0tb1fWeNTMy4dRzcDslgbA

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