Sexuality and social transformation in the  writing of the self

Research Area 2: Norms & Transgressions

Contact: josef.sebek@ff.cuni.cz

Josef Šebek is an assistant professor at the Department of Czech and Comparative Literature, Faculty of Arts, Charles University. He specializes in cultural materialism, the sociology of Pierre Bourdieu and current French sociology of literature and works also on contemporary theory of discourse and rhetoric, media theory of literature, genres of life writing, and queer theory. He is the author of the book Literature and the Social: Bourdieu, Williams, and their Successors (Prague, FF UK, 2019), managing editor of the journal Slovo a smysl / Word & Sense and a member of the editorial team of Estetika: The European Journal of Aesthetics. 

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 Education 

 2016 Ph.D., Faculty of Arts, Charles University, history of literature and literary theory 

2010–2011 SSEES, University College London 

2008 MA, Faculty of Arts, Charles University, Czech language and literature, aesthetics 

 Positions 

 Since 2018 – managing editor of the journal Slovo a smysl (Charles University) 

Since 2017 – researcher (since 2017) and assistant professor (since 2019) at the Institute of Czech and Comparative Literature, Faculty of Arts, Charles University 

2016–2018 – Institute of Czech Literature, Czech Academy of Sciences, Department of theory 

Since 2008 – member of the editorial team of the journal Estetika: The Central European Journal of Aesthetics, since 2020 Estetika: The European Journal of Aesthetics (Charles University – University of Helsinki) 

Since 2005 – translator of scholarly books and articles 

 Selected Publications 

 Monographs 

•  Literatura a sociálno. Bourdieu, Williams a jejich pokračovatelé. Praha, Filozofická fakulta, Univerzita Karlova 2019.  

 Edited books 

•  Petr A. Bílek – Josef Šebek (eds.): Česká populární kultura. Transfery, transponování a další tranzitní procesy. Praha, Filozofická fakulta, Univerzita Karlova 2017. 
• Richard Müller – Josef Šebek (eds.): Texty v oběhu. Antologie z kulturně materialistického myšlení o literatuře. Praha, Academia 2014. 

 Articles and chapters  

•  ‘Sketch for a Self-Analysis’: Self-Reflexivity in Bourdieu’s Approach to Literature. In: Vojtěch Kolman, Tereza Matějčková (eds.): Perspectives on the Self: Reflexivity in the Humanities. De Gruyter, Berlin – New York 2022, pp. 209–227.  
• The Author in the Making: Ethos, Posture, and Self-Creation. In: Vojtěch Kolman, Tomáš Murár (eds.): Devouring One’s Own Tail: Autopoiesis in Perspective. Praha, Karolinum 2022, pp. 152–172. 
• ‘And Don’t Forget To Subscribe…’ Reality show RuPaul’s Drag Race mezi komplexní reprezentací queer identity a komodifikací individuality.“ In David Skalický, Jan Wiendl (eds.): Protřepat, nemíchat! Mezi literární vědou a kulturálními studii. K 60. narozeninám Petra A. Bílka. Praha, Univerzita Karlova, Filozofická fakulta 2022, pp. 229–245.  
• Social Space, Physical Space, Representation of Space: Spatiality and Bourdieu’s Theory of the Literary Field. Brünner Beiträge zur Germanistik und Nordistik 35, 2021, no. 2, pp. 7–21. 
• ‘Práce, o kterou se pokoušíte, se vám ani v nejmenším nedaří’: Reflexe psaní v povídkách Karla Miloty. Svět literatury 31, 2021, no. 63, pp. 41–58. 
• Komunikace, roztok a medialita. K paradoxnímu charakteru Williamsova myšlení o médiu. In Richard Müller, Tomáš Chudý a kol.: Za obrysy média. Literatura a medialita. Praha, Karolinum, 2020, pp. 393–418. 
• Richard Müller – Tomáš Chudý – Alice Jedličková – Josef Šebek – Stanislava Fedrová: Kroky k mediální teorii literatury. Závěrečná úvaha (polylog). In Richard Müller, Tomáš Chudý a kol.: Za obrysy média. Literatura a medialita. Praha, Karolinum, 2020, pp. 567–581. 
• Komunikace a roztok. K pojetí média u Raymonda Williamse. Česká literatura 67, 2019, no. 5, pp. 684–710. 
• Mezi sociální determinací a singularitou. Autorská postura podle Jérôma Meizoze. Slovo a smysl 16, 2019, no. 31, pp. 261–262.  
• Postmoderna. In Ondřej Sládek a kol.: Slovník literárněvědného strukturalismu. Brno, Host 2018, pp. 540–549. 
• Literární pole. In Jan Matonoha a kol.: Za (de)konstruktivismem. Kritické koncepty (post)poststrukturální literární a kulturní teorie. Praha, Academia 2017, pp. 318–332. 
• Výjimečný stav. Násilí a válka v prózách Ladislava Fukse. In Vít Schmarc (ed.): Obraz válek a konfliktů. V. kongres světové literárněvědné bohemistiky. Válka a konflikt v české literatuře. Praha, Akropolis 2015, pp. 315–323. 
• Motiv a intertextovost. Vztahy mezi texty v literárněvědných pracích Alexandra Sticha. Acta Universitatis Carolinae. Philologica. Slavica Pragensia 42, 2014, no. 3, pp. 211–221. 
• Literárněvědná metodologie Alexandra Sticha. Česká literatura 55, 2007, no. 4, pp. 479–516. 

Conference papers 

• Subversive ‘Realism’: Style, Latency, and Politics in the Novels of Ladislav Fuks, XXIII. Congress of the International Comparative Literature Association, Tbilisi, Georgia, 24.7.–29.7.2022. 
• Literatura a společnost: Návrat sociologického pohledu?, VI. kongres světové literárněvědné bohemistiky, The Institue of Czech Literature of the CAS, Prague, 27.6.–1.7.2022. 
• Le miroir impossible: Politique, sexualité et transformation sociale dans l’autobiographie de Ladislav Fuks. « Le Crépuscule des paradigmes ? » Les canons culturels en Europe centrale : transgressions et réhabilitations depuis la fin du XXe siècle, Faculté des Lettres, Sorbonne Université, Paris, 23.5.2022 – 25.5.2022. 
• Literatura a sociálno: Číst literaturu „sociologicky“, nebo „v sociálním kontextu“?, ČSS 2021: sociologické reflexe | sociological reflections: Výroční konference České sociologické společnosti, online, Masaryk University, Brno, 23.6.2021 – 25.6.2021. 
• „Moje zrcadlo“: Queer sebeprezentace Ladislava Fukse v nefikčních a fikčních textech, Teplé dějiny v českých zemích / Queering Czech History, Faculty of Arts, Charles University, Prague, 29.11.2019 – 30.11.2019. 
• “Sketch for a Self-Analysis”: Self-Reflexive Aspects of Contemporary Literary Theory, Narrativity and Self-Creating Forms: Autopoiesis in Perspective, Faculty of Arts, Charles University, Praha, 18.9.2019 – 21.9.2019. 
• Le « Je » chez Bourdieu : L’auteur littéraire et le sujet linguistique. Dire « je ». Atelier autour de la subjectivité linguistique, The Institue of Philosophy, CAS, Prague, 24.11.2017–24.11.2017. 
• The Blurred Space In-Between: Repetition in Fiction and Affectivity. XXI. Congress of the International Comparative Literature Association, Vienna, Austria, 21.7.2016–27.7.2016. 

Imaginary Ecologies: Futuristic Technological Dwellings, Persistent Residual Entanglements

Project TANDEM “Home Beyond Species”, with Chloé Mondémé and Petr Gibas.

Ange Pottin holds a PhD degree from the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Paris. His research focuses on philosophy of technology and Science and Technology Studies. It deals primarily with analyzing energy and chemical industries from the perspectives of their materiality and the imaginaries that they bear.

From the first methods of synthetic chemistry in the 18th century to the present-day discourse on circular economy, modern industry has often represented itself as evolving into a system independent of natural resources with an optimal externality management. By doing so, it has paradoxically brought about new cycles of waste extraction and proliferation. The principal hypothesis of the research project is that such imaginary ecologies can be studied as a confrontation between two conflicting sets of representations and practices of our technical and ecological household: futuristic technological dwellings on the one side, residual entanglements on the other. More specifically, the aim is to analyze two fields of investigation: certain promises of circularity advanced by the oil and petrochemical industries, and the imaginary associated with the maintenance and dismantling of certain nuclear power plants.

More information here.

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Education

2022: PhD, Ecole Normale Supérieure de Paris, “Matière fertile. Le résidu radioactif, le capital fissile et l’écologie imaginaire de l’industrie nucléaire”.

2016: MA in History and Philosophy of Science, Université de Paris

2012-2018: Student at Ecole Normale Supérieure de Paris

Publications

French version: “Le pouvoir et les opérations : Simondon et les imaginaires de l’industrie nucléaire”, Revue d’anthropologie des connaissances, 15-2, 2021

English version: “Power and Operations: Simondon and the Imaginaries of the Nuclear Industry”, Trilogia, Ciencia Tecnologia Sociedad, 13-25.

Research area 3 – Objects, traces, mapping : evereyday experience of spaces

Joseph holds a PhD in political anthropology from Leiden University (2019). His research interests include the intersections of extraction, environment, climate change and governance in and around the Congo Rainforest and Basin. As the 2^nd largest tropical rainforest in the world, The Congo Basin is critical to global ecological systems and the longevity of human life on Earth, yet the Basin remains under threat. While six different states—Cameroon, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon—occupy the Congo Basin, all pursue extractive and conservationist policies to quite varying degrees.

How and why do these policies and attitudes evolve? How does the past inform the present, and hopefully the future? Last but not least, which ethnological, political anthropological, and political economic approaches can best help us understand the path to global resilience and sustainability?

Joseph is also working with CEFRES and Charles University to help build CUNI’s study of, and research capacities for, African Studies. Africa’s importance to world affairs has grown with trends in immigration, climate change, demographics, and renewed scrambles for African resources in the past decades, and CUNI is well placed to potentially become a leader in these fields. Please contact Joseph if you are interested in joining the Africa-Charles Project.

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Refereed Publications

“Rural Rentierism? The Rentier State Theory and Its Applicability to Local Spaces in Gabon.” In Oil-Age Africa, pp. 59-83. Brill, 2022.

“The Pitfalls of conservation in an African rentier state: The case of Gamba, Gabon (1960s-2015).” The Extractive Industries and Society 8, no. 4 (2021): 100995.

“Workshop Report: Tracing Legacies of Violence in French Equatorial Africa.” Africa Spectrum 54, no. 2 (2019): 162-172.

“Equatorial Guinea.” In Africa Yearbook Volumes 11-18. Brill, 2015-2022. (8 chapters)

“Equatorial Guinea Country Report.” Bertelsmann Transformation Index (2020,2022). https://bti-project.org/fileadmin/api/content/en/downloads/reports/country_report_2022_GNQ.pdf (2 reports)

Blog Posts

“Neoliberalism and the March of Impunity in Equatorial Guinea.” Africa is a Country, July 2019. https://africasacountry.com/2019/07/neoliberalism-and-the-march-of-impunity-in-equatorial-guinea

“Tropical Oppressors: State Violence in Equatorial Guinea.” ASCL Africanist Blog, 27 May 2019.  https://www.ascleiden.nl/content/ascl-blogs/tropical-oppressors-state-violence-equatorial-guinea

Professional Background

Liaison Officer, Project Rethink, Czech Business Council for Sustainable Development—Prague (2021-2022)

Guest Researcher, Leiden University (2019-present)

Country Expert, ViEWS, A Political Violence Early-Warning System, Uppsala

University (2019 – 2021, Remote)

Lecturer of Academic Writing, University of Regensburg (2018)

Lecturer of Business and Economics in Africa, Institut National Supérieur des Etudes Economiques et

Commerciales – Paris (2013-2016)

Lecturer of Legal English, Université de Panthéon-Assas Paris 2 (2013-2017)

Lecturer of Legal English, Université de Panthéon-Sorbonne Paris 1 (2013-2015)