Abstract

This conference provides a forum for discussion on the various ways in which academics might approach intellectual life through the lenses of performance and performativity. It aims to reveal the drama lying at the heart of intellectual life and provide innovative theoretical and methodological approaches to understanding it.

Adopting an interdisciplinary approach, and a broadly-conceived definition of ‘intellectuals’, it aims to show how the study of intellectual work, intellectual collaboration, intellectual dispute, and intellectual controversy, can all be augmented by drawing upon the rich resources provided to us by the traditions of performance and performativity in the human and social sciences. The conference will be relevant to sociologists, historians, literary critics, political scientists, and human geographers interested in original understandings of intellectuals and their practices within society.