Dr Nina Power

Job Title: Senior Lecturer Qualifications: BA (Hons, 1st Class), MA (Dist.), PhD (Middlesex) Email Address: n.power@roehampton.ac.uk

Research Interests

Modern French philosophy; Modern German Philosophy; The History of European Philosophy; Philosophies and Politics of the Subject; Atomism; Marx and Marxism; Ludwig Feuerbach; Samuel Beckett; Philosophical Anthropology; Humanism and Antihumanism; Equality, Universality, the Generic.

Taught Courses

This semester (Spring 2010), I am teaching Continental Philosophy, The History and Philosophy of Human Rights (with Mahlet Zimeta) and Philosophy, Film & Literature (as a research option).

I have taught the following courses in previous years:

Ancient Philosophy; History and Philosophy of Human Rights; Modern Philosophy; Continental Philosophy; Philosophy, Film & Literature; Kant's First Critique; German Idealism; Eastern Philosophy; Introduction to Humanities; Aesthetics; Metaphysics, Mind & Meaning; Sartre's Being and Nothingness.

Publications

Books

- Alain Badiou, Political Writings, ed. and trans. Nina Power and Alberto Toscano (New York: Columbia University Press, forthcoming).
- Shelia Rowbotham presents Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Women, Revolutions Series (London: Verso, forthcoming March 2010) (chronology, references, further reading).
- One-Dimensional Woman, (Zero Books, 2009).
- Editor (with Alberto Toscano), Alain Badiou, On Beckett (Manchester: Clinamen Press, 2003).

Academic Articles, Chapters & Translations

- "On Feuerbach, Speculation and Atheism", After the Postsecular and the Postmodern: New Essays in Continental Philosophy of Religion, Cambridge Scholars Press (forthcoming, 2010).
- "Documenting the Real: Rancière, Godard, Marker", Jacques Rancière: Film, Philosophy and Politics (London: Continuum, forthcoming, 2010).
- "Europe's Death Drive", Countering Europe: Europeanizing Queer (forthcoming, 2010).
- "Ludwig Feuerbach: Atheism as Historical Destiny", Journal of Religious History (forthcoming, 2010).
- "Towards a Cybernetic Communism: The Technology of the Anti-Family", Collection on the work of Shulamith Firestone (forthcoming, Palgrave Macmillan, 2010).
- "Potentiality or Capacity? Agamben’s Missing Subjects", Theory and Event, (forthcoming, 2010). A version of this essay was published in Slovenian in Filozofski vestnik, Vol. XXX, No. 1, Ljubljana, 2009.
- "Non-Reproductive Futurism: Rancière's Rational Equality against Edelman's Body Apolitic", Borderlands, vol. 8, no. 2, 2009.
- "Which Anarchism? On the Advantages and Disadvantages of Infinity for (Political) Life: A Response to Simon Critchley’s Infinitely Demanding", Critical Horizons, Vol. 10 (2009), Issue 2 (available on MediaFire).
- "Which Equality? Badiou and Rancière in Light of Ludwig Feuerbach", Parallax (Volume 15, Issue 3 August 2009) (available on MediaFire).
- "The Philosophy of Restoration: Alain Badiou and the Enemies of May" (with Alberto Toscano), (abstract), boundary 2, 2009 36(1) (available on scribd).
- "The Collective Political Subject in Sartre and Badiou", Pli: The Warwick Journal of Philosophy, vol. 9, 2009.
- "Axiomatic Equality: Jacques Rancière and the Politics of Contemporary Education", Polygraph, 21 (2009).
- "Philosophy's Subjects", Parrhesia, Issue 3, 2007.
- "The Terror of Collectivity: Sartre's Theory of Political Groups", Prelom 8 (Belgrade), Fall 2006.
- "Towards an Anthropology of Infinitude: Badiou and the Political Subject", Cosmos and History, 'The Praxis of Alain Badiou', Issue 2, 2006.
- "Bachelard contra Bergson and Ancient Atomism", Angelaki, Volume 11, Issue 3 2006.
- "Badiou and Feuerbach: What is Generic Humanity?", Subject Matters: A Journal of Communication and the Self, Vol. 2, no. 1, 2005.
- Translation (with Alberto Toscano) of Alain Badiou's "Existence and Death", Discourse: Journal for Theoretical Studies in Media and Culture, 24.1 (2002).
- "On the Nature of Things: Nietzsche and Democritus", Pli: The Warwick Journal of Philosophy, 12 (2001).

Academic Reviews

- Review of Ernst Bloch's Atheism in Christianity, Radical Philosophy, Issue 158, Nov/Dec 2009.
- Review of Alain Badiou's Conditions, Notre Dame Philosophical Review, July 2009.
- Review of Axel Honneth's Reification and Disrespect, Radical Philosophy, 154, March/April 2009.
- "He's Not Beyond Good and Evil", review of Paolo Virno's Multitude: Between Innovation and Negation, Mute Magazine (9 October, 2008).
- Review of Autonomia: Post-Political Politics, Radical Philosophy, 151, Sept/Oct 2008.
- Review of Alain Badiou's Being and Event, Philosophy in Review, Volume XXVII, No. 4, August 2007.
- "Persian Empire", conference report on Antonio Negri's visit to Iran, Radical Philosophy, 130, March/April 2005.
- "First Base", review of Judith Butler's Precarious Life: The Powers of Mourning and Violence, Radical Philosophy, 128, November/December 2004.
- "Human", review of Louis Althusser's The Humanist Controversy and Other Writings and Martin Halliwell and Andy Mousley's Critical Humanisms: Humanist/Anti-Humanist Dialogues, Radical Philosophy, 124, March/April 2004.
- "Error Against Obstacles", review of Gaston Bachelard's The Formation of the Scientific Mind, Radical Philosophy, 119, May/June 2003.

Encyclopaedia Entries

- "Cultural Capital" entry, Blackwell Encyclopedia of Literary and Cultural Theory (Oxford: Blackwell, forthcoming, 2010).
- "Humanism" and "Subject" Entries, Encyclopedia of Political Theory (SAGE, forthcoming, 2010).
- "Sartre" and "Existentialism" entries, Continuum Companion to Continental Philosophy (London; New York: Continuum, 2009).

Interviews

- Interview with Chantal Mouffe, New Statesman, 19 November 2009.
- Interview with Sylvère Lotringer, frieze, Issue 125, Sept 2009.
- Interview with Judith Butler, New Statesman, 27 August 2009 (uncut version here).
- Interview with Alain Badiou, The Philosophers' Magazine, 46, May/June 2009 (uncut version here).
- Interview with Charlotte Roche, Salon, 4 April 2009. Reprinted in the US paperback edition of Roche's Wetlands (HarperCollins).
- Interview with Jacques Rancière, ephemera (forthcoming).

Magazine Articles & Book Chapters

- "Blood and Sugar: The Films of Dusan Makavejev", Film Quarterly (forthcoming).
- Piece on the Otolith Group, frieze (forthcoming).
- "Why Do Some Images Begin To Tremble? Cinema Revisits Militant Politics", Review of Chris Marker's Grin Without a Cat, The Baader-Menhof Complex and Terror's Advocate, Film Quarterly, Winter 2009-10, Vol. 63, No. 2.
- "Woman Machines: The Future of Female Noise", Noise & Capitalism, Kritika, 2009.
- (with Rob White, Editor of Film Quarterly), "Antichrist: A Discussion", Film Quartlerly, October 2009.
- (with Michael Sayeau) "Show Me the Money: How do we Visualize the Economic Crisis?", frieze, Issue 126, October 2009.
- "Bamboozle, baffle and blindside", on Newspeak for the 60th anniversary of George Orwell's 1984, New Statesman, 28 May 2009.
- "Sarah Palin: Castration as Plenitude", Sarah Palin and the Media, FlowTV, 15 October 2008.
- "The Artworld is not the World", Chapter in Gest/ Laboratory of Synthesis, (Bookworks, 2008) (available here).
- "Mannequins, Manners, and Mutilation", Cabinet, 30, 2008.
- "Malls and Mausoleum", New Humanist, Volume 123, Issue 2 (March/April 2008).
- "Thinker: Ludwig Andreas von Feuerbach", New Humanist, Vol.122, Issue 5 (September/October 2007).
- "Naughty but Nice", New Humanist, Volume 122, Issue 2 (March/April 2007). Reprinted in Australian Rationalist, 78, Jan 2008.
- "Mountain and Fog, Kant and the Nazi sublime", Cabinet, 27, 2007.
- "Fail Better", article on the centenary of Samuel Beckett, New Humanist, Vol. 121, No 2, March/April 2006.

Other Reviews

- Review of Leif Elggren's Death Travels Backwards, Wire (forthcoming).
- Review of Tzvetan Todorov's Defence of the Enlightenment, The Philosophers' Magazine (forthcoming).
- Review of Martin Creed's Ballet (Work No. 1020), Wire 310, December 2009.
- "Worlds Collide in Venice", Review of the 53rd Venice Biennale, Dossier, 1st October, 2009.
- Review of Stephen Bayley's Woman as Design, Icon 078, December 2009.
- "The Lives of Others", Review of Judith Butler's Frames of War and Jeff McMahan's Killing in War, The Philosophers' Magazine, Issue 47, 4th Quarter 2009.
- "Think Again", Review of Verso's 'Radical Thinkers' Series 4 (Mouffe, Rose, Jameson, Baudrillard), New Humanist, Vol. 124, No. 5, Sept/Oct 2009. Reprinted in Eurozine, 22nd Sept 2009.
- Review of The Invisible Committee's The Coming Insurrection, frieze, Issue 125, Sept 2009.
- Review of James Hannam's God's Philosophers, New Humanist, Vol. 124, No 4, July/Aug 2009.
- Review of Slavoj Žižek and John Milbank's The Monstrosity of Christ: Paradox or Dialectic?, New Humanist, Vol. 124, Issue 3, May/June 2009.
- Review of Wendell Steavenson's The Weight of a Mustard Seed, New Humanist, Vol. 124, Issue 1, (Jan/Feb 2009).
- Review of Mark Rowlands' The Philosopher and the Wolf, New Humanist, Vol. 123, Issue 6 (Nov/Dec 2008).
- Review of Detlev Claussen's Theodor W. Adorno: The Last Genius, The Philosophers' Magazine, Issue 43, 4th Quarter, 2008.
- "Property Values", review of Clive Aslet's The English House, New Statesman, 15th September 2008.
- Review of Alain Badiou's Number and Numbers, The Philosophers' Magazine, Issue 42, 3rd Quarter, 2008.
- Review of Oliver James's Selfish Capitalist, Socialist Worker, 19 Feb 2008.
- Review of 'The Blacks' and article on Jean Genet, Socialist Worker, 23 October 2007.
- Review of John Marks' Fangland, New Humanist, Volume 122, Issue 3 (May/June 2007).
- Review of Paul Auster's Travels in the Scriptorium, New Humanist, Volume 121, Issue 5 (September/October 2006).
- "Hare Brained", review of Nicholas Fearn's Zeno and the Tortoise, New Humanist, Vol. 121, No. 1, January/February 2006.
- Review of Badiou's Metapolitics for The Philosophers' Magazine, Issue 33, 1st Quarter, 2006.
- "No Doubt", review of Timothy Chappell's The Inescapable Self: An Introduction to Western Philosophy, New Humanist, Vol. 120, No 6, November/December 2005.
- Review of Michael Ignatieff's Isaiah Berlin: A Life and The Future Now: Predicting the 21st Century,
The Guardian, 18 December 1999.

Other Projects

- Text for "Rembrandt's Jan Six", video-art project with Chris Evans, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (June-July 2006).

Papers Given

- "One-Dimensional Woman: Women, Work and the Illusion of Emancipation", Social and Political Thought Seminar, University of Sussex, 3 Feb 2010.
- "One-Dimensional Woman", Wimbledon College of Art, 20 Jan 2010.
- "Feuerbach for the 21st Century" and "One-Dimensional Woman", Historical Materialism, New York, Jan 15 2010.
- "One-Dimensional Woman: A Critique of Contemporary Consumer Feminism", Marxism In Culture Lecture, Institute for Historical Research, London, 18 December 2009.
- "Stony Ground but not entirely: Beckett and the Humanities", The Humanities and Arts Research Centre at Royal Holloway University of London, 2 December 2009 (mp3).
- "Badiou and the Political Subject", roundtable at 'Subject and Appearance: On Alain Badiou's Theory of the Subject & Logics of Worlds, Bolivar Hall, Venezuelan Embassy, 20th Nov 2009.
- "Theory Now", roundtable at London Theatre Seminar, Senate House, 19th Nov 2009.
- "One-Dimensional Woman" at Rethinking Marxism, UMass Amherst, 7th Nov 2009.
- Response to Dominic Fox at the launch of his Cold World, Goldsmiths, 1st October 2009.
- Workshop on Alain Badiou and contingency, Goldsmiths College, July 2009.
- "Rancière meets the Real World", Philosophy Faculty (occupied), Zagreb, May 2009.
- Presentation on Badiou's Being and Event, Photographers' Gallery, London, 9 April 2009.
- Presentation on Humanism and Cognitive Capitalism, Mute launch, London, 25 March 2009.
- Response to J. Allan Hobson, the William James Lectures on "Dream Consciousness", Roehampton University, 20 March 2009.
- "The Artworld is not the World", Existential Territories panel discussion organised by Bookworks, 10th December 2008.
- "One-Dimensional Woman: A Critique of Contemporary Consumer Feminism", Historical Materialism Annual Conference, 9th November 2008.
- "Sartre in '68: on the Critique of Dialectical Reason as a precursor of '68 themes, and on Sartre's place in the '68 movement", May 68: Toward the Naming of the Event, One-Day Conference at University of Salford, 31st October 2008.
- "Who (or What) is the Political Subject?", Politics & Thought Conference (mp3), Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht (September, 2008)
- "The Subterranean Current of Contemporary Feuerbachianism", The Substance of Thought: Critical and Pre-Critical, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York (April 2008).
- "The Philosophy of the Restoration: Badiou on Revisionists, Reactionaries and Renegades", University of California, Santa Cruz (April 2008).
- "The Confidence to be No One: Class, Culture and Education (with some help from Rancière and Badiou)", Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, USA (March 2008).
- "Nu-Language: Language as Ideology without Opposition", Workers and Punks University, Slovenia (January 2008).
- "Polymorphous Perversity: The Origins of Cinematic Pornography and the Absence of Contemporary Pleasure", King's College, London (November 2007).
- "Feuerbach and Political Subjectivity", 4th Annual Historical Materialism Conference (November 2007).
- "A Dead God and an Unfinished Atheism: A comparison of 'generic atheism' with 'elitist atheism'", 'Imagining Europe – cultural, political and social' event at University of Salford (October 2007).
- "'The Confidence to be No One: Class, Culture and Education", London Metropolitan University (October 2007).
- "French Marxism and the Problem of Agency", Radical Philosophy Annual Conference, Clore Centre, Birkbeck College, London (May 2007).
- "Marx, Feuerbach & Non-Philosophy", Marx and Philosophy Society, Royal Holloway, London (February 2007).
- "Rethinking Philosophical Anthropology: Some Kantian Themes", Manchester Metropolitan University Human Sciences Seminar Series (October, 2006).
- "Science Fiction and Philosophy in Kant, Sartre and Philip K. Dick: What Does the Extra-terrestrial Think We Are?", Cultural Fictions II, Goldsmiths College (June 2006).
- Official respondent to John Mullarkey at workshop on Badiou’s Being and Event, Middlesex University (June 2006).
- Panel Discussion for "Beckett Post War", Beckett Centenary Festival, Barbican, London (March 2006).
- Seminar on Badiou's Le siècle, Etablissement d'en Face projects, Brussels, Belgium (June 2005).
- "Kicking Against the Pricks: Badiou and Beckett", Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht (March 2005).
- "The Terror of Collectivity: Sartre's Theory of Political Groups", Centre for Cultural Decontamination, Belgrade, Serbia (December 2004).
- "Kant and Political Philosophy", Royal Institute of Philosophy Lecture Series, Roehampton University (October 2004).
- "Why everyone should read Sartre’s Critique of Dialectical Reason", Research Seminar, Middlesex University (May 2004).
- Response to Professor Alex Düttman’s "A New Way of Living, not a New Belief" at Ending up with Religion Again? Christianity in Contemporary Political and Psychoanalytical Theory, Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht (May 2004).
- "Badiou and Feuerbach: What is Generic Humanity?", Badiou’s Ethics and Subjectivity conference, London Metropolitan University (December 2003).
- "The Concept of Reading in Sartre and Althusser", SEP conference, University of Essex (September 2003).
- "Bachelard contra Bergson and Ancient Atomism", Ancient & Continental One-day Workshop, University of Warwick (February 2003).
- "Methodical Ascesis and Larval Humanity: Badiou and Beckett", SEP conference, University of Cork (September 2002).
- "On the Nature of Things: Nietzsche and the Atomists", Annual Conference of the Friedrich Nietzsche Society: Nietzsche and Science, Emmanuel College, Cambridge University (September 2001).
- "Nietzsche, Marx, Bergson and the Atomists", Nietzsche para o Século XXI, University of Lisbon (May 2001).

Radio Appearances

- Interview about "One-Dimensional Woman" with Elanor McInerney for Women On the Line (Australia), 5 Feb 2010.
- Panel discussion on George Orwell's "Politics and the English Language", Word of Mouth, BBC Radio 4, 15th December 2009.
- Interview on BBC Ulster's Sunday Sequence on Lars von Trier's Antichrist, 9th August 2009.
- Interview on BBC World Service to mark the 60th anniversary of the publication of Orwell's 1984, 8th June 2009.

Other Research Interests

I also have a strong interest in the following topics: Class and Confidence; Radical Pedagogy; The History of Pornography; Feminism; Queer Theory; Cinema and Politics; The Politics of Language; New Media (especially blogs).

I am the reviews editor for The Philosophers' Magazine, and corresponding editor for Historical Materialism. I am on the organising committee for Marxism in Culture, for which I also run the website.

I am writer-at-large for Film Quarterly.

I am currently the external examiner for Philosophy at London Metropolitan University and have externally examined at Goldsmiths. I am also often on the jury at crits for the Architectural Association dip14, Unit 13 and AAIS programmes.

I have refereed articles and proposals for Theory and Event, Australian Feminist Law Journal, Subjectivity, Pli, Women: A Cultural Review, Pluto and Edinburgh University Press.

I write regularly for New Humanist and several other magazines. I'm always pleased to write reviews or articles for both academic and non-academic publications.

I am available to supervise PhD work, and happy to answer any questions relating to the topics I teach or research.

I run an occasional London film club with Owen Hatherley called Kino Fist, for which I edit a magazine (past themes include: Riefenstahl, Brecht, Genet, Chris Marker, Constructivism, Fashion, Boredom, Work, SexPol, Apocalypse, Red Space and Salvage Punk).

I am also a keen photographer. Pictures of mine have appeared in Radical Philosophy, Bec Zmiana's "Notebook" (Poland), Wikipedia, frieze and Icon.