"There is a Madonna at the bottom of the crystalline waters off the coast of Lampedusa, Italy, standing guard near a gap where two rocks curve in an unfinished embrace. Dead leaves and fish float above her like drifting feathers, shimmering in the swatch of sunlight that drapes across the mossy cement foundation where she rests. She is alone except for the child she holds, a hand protectively across his chest.

"Although the concept of “projection” is ubiquitous in psychology, political theory, anthropology, sociology, and, thanks to the popularization of psychoanalysis, in colloquial conversation, it is not an obvious choice for a historian of science like myself. Yet I hope to show that the concept of “projection” cannot be fully understood – neither its history nor its hold on modern thought – without recourse to the history of science. This claim has both a specific and a general aspect.

Law comprises a particularly important part of the social construction of territory and region. This function of the law is often obscured by an enduring emphasis on the study of legal systems that appear more or less coterminous with political jurisdictions. But legal practices crossed boundaries and helped to constitute legal cultures of unruly dimensions. In empire, law traveled with legal officials and also with merchants, sailors, soldiers, sojourners, and settlers.

Dear All,
Last seminar we had some productive discussions about potential ways of writing things and assemblies into the theses. In the coming seminar, Thursday-Friday 26-27th, we will follow up on the discussions we started around the texts by Latour and Heidegger. I am keen to return to Agamben's Dispositif as we had not too long to discuss it. So the first part of the day (starting 1030) will be a dedicated to the discussion of this text, in relation to Deleuze's conception of the dispositif.

dispositifs:
Agamben's is here: http://roundtable.kein.org/node/1137#attachments