Professor Ian Buchanan is the Director of the Institute for Social Transformation Research at the University of Wollongong in Australia. Prior to taking up this appointment he was Professor of Critical Theory at Cardiff University in the UK. He is the author of numerous books including Michel de Certeau: Cultural Theorist (2000), Deleuzism: A Metacommentary (2000), Fredric Jameson: Live Theory (2006), Deleuze and Guattari’s Anti-Oedipus (2008), and, most recently, the Dictionary of Critical Theory published by Oxford University Press (2010). He is founding editor of the journal Deleuze Studies; editor of two book series, “Deleuze Connections” (Edinburgh University Press) and “Deleuze Encounters” (Continuum); and co-editor of two additional book series, “Critical Connections” and “Plateaus” (both from Edinburgh University Press). Professor Buchanan has given papers at conferences all over the world.

1 – Schizoanalysis and Method: An Incomplete Project
Schizoanalysis is the name Deleuze and Guattari give to the proposed new method of social and cultural analysis they construct over the course of the four books they wrote together beginning with Anti-Oedipus in 1972. This talk will treat schizoanalysis’ method as an incomplete project and offer some suggestions as to how it might be formulated in a way that would be effective for social research.

Date: Monday, 2 April 2012
Time: 12:30 to 2:00pm
Location: Seminar Room (Basement), Abdullah Al-Otaibi Building College of Arts, Kaifan, Kuwait University

2 – The World the Mall Made
The invention of the suburban shopping mall by Victor Gruen in the 1950s gave form to the entire post-WW2 landscape in the US and, eventually, everywhere else. One can literally say that today we live in the world the mall made. With the rise of the internet, however, the concept of the mall is under threat. This talk will critically examine the mall to understand its attractions and to see if it has the means to meet the challenge of online shopping.

Date: Tuesday, 3 April 2012
Time: 6:00 to 8:00pm
Location: Auditorium, Liberal Arts Building Salmiya, American University of Kuwait

3 – Jindabyne and National Allegory
Jindabyne (dir Ray Lawrence, 2006) begins with the murder of a young aboriginal woman, but its real focus is the way people respond to this murder. In doing so, it tells several interesting truths about race relations in Australia today. This talk will read the film as a national allegory (in Jameson’s sense) and consider how it maps the cultural and political tropes of the present moment in Australia’s history.

Date: Wednesday, 4 April 2012
Time: 5:00 to 7:00pm
Location: Auditorium West Mishref, Australian College of Kuwait

SPEAK (Standing for Psychological Education and Awareness in Kuwait) is a campaign that has been founded by Alaa Alhomaizi and Dalal Alhomaizi. We have been working on this project for two years now and thankfully we received a lot of support from the Kuwaiti community and our university in the US (Northeastern University). The SPEAK campaign seeks to promote equality and support for people with a mental illness or for anyone that chooses to seek psychological help. We also hope to promote psychology as an academic choice and a discipline. Fortunately, Kuwait is a country eager for this change and is ready for it.

We will be holding a SPEAK event at the Women Cultural & Social Society in Khaldiya on Monday January 9th. The event will be presented in the Kuwaiti language and the presentation will be bilingual. We will be discussing the importance of mental health. We will be covering all the basics and some interesting facts about the stigma of mental health. As always, remember “there is no health without mental health”.

Why should you come?
This is not an event just for people with a mental illness. Everyone is welcome. People with mental illnesses, their supporters, and anyone who believes in this cause and ending the stigma is welcome.

For information visit their Facebook page [Here]

The AUK Gulf Studies Center is launching its 2011-2012 lecture series on Monday, Oct. 17 at 6pm. The first lecture is by Dr. Sami Alfaraj, entitled “The Potential of a Nuclear Crisis in the Gulf: the Case of Bushehr,” and will be looking at the question of nuclear power in the region from an environmental perspective (probabilities of contamination, risk assessments, etc).

If you’d like to join the Center’s mailing list to receive invitations to upcoming events and updates of their activities, please write to gsc@auk.edu.kw with your name, organization, and Email address.