The QMUL Centre for the History of the Emotions and The QMUL City Centre are jointly convening a seminar series in 2020-1 to explore crowds, emotions and urban space.<\/p>\n
Covid-19 has caused widespread disruption to the pleasures and possibilities of gathering in cities, bringing new forms of anxiety to urban encounters and witnessing crowd scenes, whether lockdown protests or the jubilant celebrations after the US election. As we make do in this time of social distancing, it seems a prime opportunity to assemble (online) and reflect on the intensities, emotions and experiences of urban crowds.<\/p>\n
The seminar series aims to be interdisciplinary and international in scope, focused on 35 minute presentations with time for questions and discussion to follow. Anyone interested is welcome to join.<\/p>\n
Register your interest by contacting emotions@qmul.ac.uk<\/a><\/span>\u00a0and we\u2019ll send you the Zoom link.<\/p>\n Convenors: Tiffany Watt Smith, Regan Koch, and Pen Woods<\/p>\n For more information, please contact<\/p>\n Tiffany t.k.watt-smith@qmul.ac.uk<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Regan r.koch@qmul.ac.uk<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Pen p.woods@qmul.ac.uk<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Wednesday 2nd<\/sup> December 1-2pm<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n Dr Illan Wall (Law, Warwick University)<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n \u00a0The State of Unrest: Crowds, Protests, Atmospheres<\/p>\n In late 1935, Georges Bataille could feel it. He addressed the Contre-Attaque <\/i>group as Paris was consumed by protest and counter-protest: \u2018What drives the crowds into the street is the emotion directly aroused by striking events in the atmosphere of a storm, it is the contagious emotion that, from house to house, from suburb to suburb, suddenly turns a hesitating man into a frenzied being\u2019. The city had become the bearer of new affects. The atmosphere of the storm gathered over it. The clouds were dark with threat, anxiety and excitement. As the protests, riots, marches and strikes continued, this crisis of feeling spread. It thickened. It began to stick to bodies, condensing in every little interaction. The affects of the disorder spread through the city, through the country. France was gripped by a state of unrest. <\/i>In this paper I will develop the core analysis of my forthcoming book Law and Disorder <\/i>(Routledge, 2021), I will explore the ways in which atmospheres of crowded protest can seep out from protests or occupations. How the streets around a crowded event can fill with different feelings, and how those feelings can very quickly spread out around a city, a country, a region and at times even around the world. It is about how these affects can be felt <\/i>among the populace as the opening of new (exciting and\/or terrifying) political, social and legal possibilities. In short, I will suggest that in the state of unrest what is socially and politically possible can be radically redefined.<\/p>\n