Alain Badiou: Video of interview on Hardtalk

Alain Badiou, a French philosopher, is interviewed on BBC’s Hardtalk. He discusses capitalism during the current economic crisis. He touches on ideas of emancipation and the construction of an alternative society.

Philosophy lectures online

The European Graduate School’s media and communications program has an impressive and growing Youtube channel with over 600 video lectures on philosophy, film, politics, and art.
Lecturers include Jacques Derrida, Donna Haraway, Jean Beaudrillard, Slavoj Zizek, Peter Greenaway, Judith Butler, Manuel DeLanda, Alain Badiou, Atom Egoyan, Giorgi Agamben, Avital Ronell, Chantal Akerman, Michael Hardt, and many [...]

Differences within Islam

Ahmad Moussalli, a professor at the American University of Beirut has written a short essay to help the reader understand the differences between “opposing trends in modern Islamic thought that are normally and mistakenly lumped together as Islamism, fundamentalism, salafism, neo-salafism, Wahhabism, jihadism, political Islam, Islamic radicalism and others.”
Read his essay (PDF) online.
Also, Juan [...]

War for peace: Global order and war in Pakistan

The war in Afghanistan has become the war in Afghanistan and Pakistan, sometimes termed the Afpak war by the US administration. This expansion into Pakistan reveals much about the nature of the war in the region, is a response to the origin story of the Taliban, and reflects the practice of the rights of the [...]

Video Brief: Afghan Refugees, NATO Air Strikes, and Early Elections

This video covers the millions of Afghan refugees in Iran, with a focus on the children, then views British troops fighting in Afghanistan, followed by the Afghan citizens’ response to their president’s call for an early election.
The first part is from a short documentary by Iranian director Mohsen Makhmalbaf, entitled the [...]

Child Labour in Afghanistan: 37,000 in Kabul Alone

This report by Al Jazeera briefly reviews a rise in child labour in Afghanistan, many scavenging in garbage dumps or on the streets of the capital.

Theory of Nonhuman of Expressivity: DeLanda on Deleuze

Below are videos on DeLanda’s thoughts on Deleuze’s theory of nonhuman expressivity. DeLanda speaks on the migration from ‘finger prints’ in nature, to signatures such as animal markings of territory, to style. He goes on to mention that our environment, including architecture, affords us opportunities and risks that animals and humans perceive then act upon. [...]

DeLanda on Deleuze: Beyond the General and Particular in Philosophy

I’m again watching videos of the popular philosopher Manuel DeLanda speak on Deleuze’s break with the tradition of philosophy based on the logic of general and particular categories of thought. I’m especially curious about this in light of trying to better communicate meaning, to surpass semantic meaning and touch on the significance of things, as [...]

Animated War

This short video by Douleurs Sans Frontières elegantly captures the nature of the war experience in occupied Palestine.
The surge in French production of Western European animation has been impressive in the past few years. The animation is certainly taking a lot from the rich history of illustration present in Western European [...]

Academic Roundup: Zizek – Why Only Atheists Can Truly Believe

Below are links to audio and video from a lecture and discussion given by Slavoj Zizek during his visit to Sewanee. The lecture is titled Why Only Atheists Can Truly Believe.
Video Link Day 1
Video Link Day 2
Audio Link Day 1
Audio Link Day 2