NARRATIVES OF DEBT

APRIL 5-6, 2019

PEMBROKE HALL 305 | 172 MEETING STREET
COGUT INSTITUTE FOR THE HUMANITIES
BROWN UNIVERSITY

Friday, April 5
8:25am Assemble in hotel lobby; notify the front desk that you are awaiting the shuttle.

8:30am Hotel shuttle from Hampton Inn to Pembroke Hall

8:45 – 9:15am Morning coffee – Pembroke Hall 305

9:15 – 9:30am Welcome and Introduction

Moderator: Peter Szendy, Brown University

9:30 – 10:00am Narratives of Debt: An Introduction (On Credit)

Emmanuel Bouju, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle and Institut Universitaire de France

10:00 – 10:30am Bodies Economic: Disease, Decay, and the Discourse of Stagnation
Annie McClanahan, University of California at Irvine

10:30 – 11:00am Discussion

11:00 – 11:30am Coffee break – Pembroke Hall 305

Moderator: Suzanne Stewart-Steinberg, Brown University

11:30am – 12:00pm The Unreliable Debtor: Complexity and Shadows of the Narrative of Debt in the
Eighteenth-Century French “Romans de Parvenus”
Florence Magnot-Ogilvy, Université de Rennes 2

12:00 – 12:30pm Topologies of Debt

Frederik Tygstrup, University of Copenhagen

12:30 – 1:00pm Discussion

1:00 – 2:30pm Speakers’ lunch – Pembroke Hall 202

Moderator: Adi Ophir, Brown University

2:30 – 3:00pm Sovereign Debt, Private Wealth: Vultures, Thieves, and the Contingency of Legal
Strategy
Odette Lienau, Cornell University

3:00 – 3:30pm How Much is Your African Slave Worth? Wills, Debt, and the Enslaved Black Body as
“Property in Person”
Anthony Bogues, Brown University

3:30 – 4:00pm Discussion

4:00 – 4:30pm Afternoon break – Pembroke Hall 305

Moderator: Emmanuel Bouju, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle and Institut Universitaire de France

4:30 – 5:00pm The Utopia of Bankruptcy

Raphaëlle Guidée, Université de Poitiers

5:00 – 5:30pm Life After Debt

Arjun Appadurai, New York University

5:30 – 6:00pm Discussion

6:30 Walk to speakers’ dinner.

6:45 – 9:00pm Speakers’ dinner

Hemenway’s
121 South Main Street
Providence, RI
Saturday, April 6
8:40am Assemble in hotel lobby; notify the front desk that you are awaiting the shuttle.

8:45am Hotel shuttle from Hampton Inn to Pembroke Hall

9:00 – 9:30am Morning coffee – Pembroke Hall 305

Moderator: Michelle Clayton, Brown University

9:30 – 10:00am Emerson’s Debts: Quotation and Originality

Jennifer Baker, New York University

10:00 – 10:30am The Theatrical History of Debt: Preliminary Inquiries

Patricia Ybarra, Brown University

10:30 – 11:00am Discussion

11:00 – 11:30am Coffee break – Pembroke Hall 305

Moderator: Amanda Anderson, Brown University

11:30am – 12:00pm Is Man a “Sabbatical Animal?” Agamben, Rosenzweig, Heschel, Arendt

Bonnie Honig, Brown University

12:00 – 12:30pm A Critique of Mana-Theism

Eric Santner, University of Chicago

12:30 – 1:00pm Discussion

1:00 – 2:30pm Speakers’ lunch – Pembroke Hall 202

Moderator: Timothy Bewes, Brown University

2:30 – 3:00pm Earning to Give: the Debt of Effective Altruism

Catherine Malabou, Kingston University and University of California at Irvine

3:00 – 3:30pm Narration and Solvency

Peter Szendy, Brown University

3:30 – 4:00pm Discussion

4:00 – 4:30pm Afternoon break – Pembroke Hall 305

Moderators: Emmanuel Bouju and Peter Szendy

4:30 – 5:00pm Ascendancy of Finance: Toward a Concept of “Seigniorial” Power

Joseph Vogl, Humboldt Universität and Princeton University

5:00 – 5:30pm General Discussion

5:30 – 6:15pm Reception – Pembroke Hall 2nd floor

6:30pm Hotel shuttle + private cars to speakers’ dinner

6:45 – 8:45pm Speakers’ dinner

The Dorrance
60 Dorrance Street
Providence, RI

Cogut Institute Contact Information

Amanda Anderson, Director Damien Mahiet, Associate Director
401/863-6074 (office) 401/863-6119 (office)
401/369-6039 (cell) 607/342-4654 (cell)
amanda_anderson@brown.edu damien_mahiet@brown.edu

Kit Salisbury, Department Manager Traude Kastner, Event Coordinator

401/863-6120 (office) 401/863-6070 (office)
401/261-0684 (cell) traude@brown.edu
kit@brown.edu

This two-day conference organized by Emmanuel Bouju and Peter Szendy.

Co-sponsored by the Economies of Aesthetics Initiative, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle and Institut Universitaire de
France, Comparative Literature, Humanities Initiative Programming Fund, Modern Culture and Media, Philosophy,
Anthropology, German Studies, Department of English, French Studies, and the Cogut Institute for the Humanities.