In our introductory Winter Seminar, we hope to foster intellectual dialogue amongst a community of scholars interested in exploring the theoretical implications and transformative possibilities in thinking the category of “leisure” historically and in the contemporary moment.

The first half of the meeting, will be an open discussion about the interdisciplinary possibilities of “leisure” as a category of social critique and its intersections with our work. In the second half of the meeting, we intend to engage in a discussion of Paul Lafargue’s short piece The Right to be Lazy as a productive departure point for some of the directions listed above.

Some questions we hope to explore might include:

• What differentiates labor and leisure and how have theses categories been historically constructed through racialized, gendered, heteropatriarchal, class, and/or colonial hierarchies?
• What social and economic practices figure an activity as work, play, nonwork, or leisure?
• How does the formal category of “leisure” itself act to discipline desires?
• In what ways does the production and appropriation of excess enable cultural and political forms of participation and belonging?

Event Photos:

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