The Posthumanities Hub Presents: A Critical Cartography of New Materialist Constellations & Interventions in Times of Terror(ism)

Abstract: This paper anticipates on my monograph project on critical new materialist theories and the idea of “theorizing from the ground up” during times of global crisis (such as the COVID-19 crisis we are currently experiencing; see Geerts 2020) and terror(ism) in particular.

Using (and commenting on) the new materialist methodologies of critical cartography and diffraction, this paper first of all wishes to reflect upon what it means to “theorize from the ground up” in a feminist philosophical manner by offering a situated critical cartography of contemporary new materialist thought. It is then argued that such a critical cartography is not only a novel but also much needed undertaking, as we, more than almost two decades after the Habermas-Derrida dialogues on terror(ism) (Borradori 2003), are in need of a Zeitgeist-adjusted conceptual framework that takes the more-than-human seriously. Such a “grounded”, critical new materialist framework could assist us with painting a more holistic picture of the complex ontological, epistemological, and eco-ethico-political entangled aspects of global crises, and, specifically, terrorist events, such as the Paris 2015 and Brussels 2016 attacks; the actual terror they produce; and the bio-/necropolitical repercussions they often engender.