Joseph Grim Feinberg

CV

Joseph Grim Feinberg, Ph.D.

Address: Jilská 1, Praha 1, 110 00

E–mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Telephone: +420 221 183 259, +420 792 523 274

 

1. Current Position

Research fellow, Department for the Study of Modern Czech Philosophy, Institute of Philosophy, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic

 

2. Areas of Specialization

Aesthetics and politics (incl. the intersection off folklore and the avant-garde); theories of political collectivity (e.g., “the people,” “civil society,” “the proletariat”); Czech Marxist humanism; dissident thought and analyses of Soviet-type society; nationalism and internationalism.

 

3. Education

2014 PhD in anthropology, University of Chicago

2006 MA in anthropology, University of Chicago

2002 BA in philosophy and anthropology, Grinnell College

 

4. Stipends, grants, stays abroad

Inter-COST (European Cooperation in Science & Technology), "Media of Cultural Opposition in Czechoslovakia," 2018–2021 (member of research team).

Czech Science Foundation research grant, "Unity and Multiplicity in Contemporary Thought," 2017–2019 (member of research team).

Slovak Research and Development Agency grant, "Democracy and Citizens in Slovakia: A half–Century of Change," 2013–2017 (member of research team)

 

5. Publications

 

5.1. Book–Length Work

Co-editor, with Sezgin Boynik: Karel Teige, The Marketplace of Art, Helsinki and Prague: Rab-Rab and Contradictions, 2022.

Co-editor, with Ivan Landa and Jan Mervart: Karel Kosík and the Dialectics of the Concrete. Leiden: Brill, 2022.

Co-author, with Jakub Ort and Michael Hauser: Politika jednoty ve světě proměn [The politics of unity in a world of change]. Prague: Filosofia, 2021.

Editor: Contradictions: A Journal for Critical Thought, vol. 3 (2019), nos. 1–2, special volume on the “critical reappraisal of civil society.”

The Paradox of Authenticity: Folklore Performance in Post–Communist Slovakia. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2018. Revised Slovak translation published as: Vrátiť folklór ľuďom. Dialektika autentickosti na súčasnom Slovensku, trans. Renáta Tížiková Nemcová Bratislava: AKAmedia, 2018.

Co–editor (with Pavel Siostrzonek): G. M. Tamás, K filosofii socialismu [Toward a philosophy of socialism]. Trans. Pavel Siostrzonek. Prague: Filosofia, 2016.

Editor and translator: Ivan Sviták, The Windmills of Humanity: On Culture and Surrealism in the Manipulated World. Chicago: Charles H. Kerr, 2014.

 

5.2. Scholarly Articles (selection)

“The Story of Dialectics and the Trickster of History.” Praktyka Teoretyczna 2022, no. 1 (43), pp. 131–153. 

“Post-Dissent and the New Right: Problems and Potential of Post-Communist Dissent in Slovakia and Beyond.” In The Political Economy of Eastern Europe 30 Years into the ‘Transition’: New Left Perspectives from the Region, ed. Ágnes Gagyi and Ondřej Slačálek. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2022, pp. 151–67.

“And the ‘Thing Itself’ Is Man: Radical Democracy and the Roots of Humanity.” In Karel Kosík and the Dialectics of the Concrete, ed. Joseph Grim Feinberg, Ivan Landa, and Jan Mervart. Leiden: Brill, 2022, pp. 187–204.

“Emancipation and Old Media: The Mediation of Immediacy between Oral and Networked Society.” Internationales Jahrbuch für Medienphilosophie Band. 7 (2021), pp. 179–97.

“De-staging the People: On the Role of the Social and Populism beyond Politics.” Thesis Eleven vol. 164, no. 1 (2021), pp. 104–19.

“1989: The Triumph of Truth and the Burial of Philosophy.” In Revolutions for the Future: May ’68 and the Prague Spring, ed. Jana Ndiaye Beránková, Michael Hauser, and Nick Nesbitt, Lyon: Suture, 2020, pp. 300–317.

“György Lukács’s Archimedean Socialism.” In Confronting Reification: Revitalizing Georg Lukács’s Thought in Late Capitalism, ed. Greggory R. Szmulewicz-Zucker, Leiden: Brill, 2020, pp. 186–202.

“Understanding Anti-Performance: The Performative Division of Experience and the Standpoint of the Non-Performer.” Performance Philosophy, vol. 5 (2020), no. 2, pp. 332–348

"Básník a lid. Bedřich Václavek mezi literaturou a folklorem” [The poet and the people: Bedřich Václavek between literature and folklore]. Česká literatura 65 (2017), no. 6, pp. 823–845.

“The Uncivilized Society of Czechoslovak Tramps: An Exploration in Proletarian Fantasy.” Studia Ethnologica Pragensia 3 (2017), no. 2, pp. 30–50.

“Človek alebo občan? Alebo, či v reformnom procese šlo vôbec o občiansku spoločnosť...” [Human being or citizen? Or, was the Czechoslovak reform process really about civil society?]. In Príliš ľudská tvár socialismu? Reforma zdola a okolnosti reformného procesu v Československu v roku 1968, ed. Miroslav Tížik and Norbert Kmeť, Bratislava: Institute for Sociology (2017).

“Ještě mladší Marx, antipolitik a antiobčan” [The even younger Marx, anti-political and anti-civic]. Filosofický časopis 63 (2015), no. 3, pp. 357–377.

“Returning Folklore to the People: On the Paradox of Publicizing Folklore in Post–Communist Slovakia.” Österreichische Zeitschrift für Volkskunde, vol. 116, no. 3+4 (2013), pp. 404–427.

“The Civic and the Proletarian.” Socialism & Democracy. vol. 27, no. 3 (November 2013), pp. 1–31.

“Who’s Afraid of the Big, Bad Folk?” Slovenský národopis, vol. 61 (2013), no. 5, pp. 548–560.

“The Unfinished Story of Central European Dissidence.” Telos 145, winter 2008, pp. 47–66; originally published in Slovo (Bratislava, Slovakia), Nos. 22, 24, 26–27, and 29, 2007. Greek translation published as Δημοκρατία χωρίς δήμο: Νεοφιλελευθερισμός εναντίον κοινωνίας, trans. Gerasimos Lykiardopoulos (Athens: Erasmos, 2012). Revised Czech translation in Dějiny – teorie – kritika 2014, no. 2, pp. 293–318.

 

5.3. Reviews and Notes (selection)

“Against Concepts. On Lea Ypi’s ‘Free.’” NLR Sidecar Jan. 27, 2022.

“Občanská společnost” [Civil society]. Contradictions, vol. 3 (2019), no. 1, pp. 311–320.

“Europas neue Rechte” [Europe’s new right]. Entry in Atlas der Globalisierung. Welt in Bewegung. Berlin: Le Monde diplomatique, 2019, pp. 158–161.

“Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.” Entry in: The Bloomsbury Companion to Marx, ed. Jeff Diamanti, Andrew Pendakis, and Imre Szeman (London: Bloomsbury, 2019), pp. 445–450.

Review of Reading Václav Havel, by David S. Danaher. In Slavic and East European Journal 61 (2017), no. 1, pp. 146–147.

“People, Multitude, Society.” Review of Radical Democracy and Collective Movements Today: The Biopolitics of the Multitude versus the Hegemony of the People, ed. Alexandros Kioupkiolis and Giorgos Katsambekis. Contradictions 1 (2017), no. 2, pp. 207–215. Czech translation: Contradictions/Kontradikce 2 (2018), no. 1, pp. 201–209.

Review of Songbook: How Lyrics Became Poetry in Medieval Europe by Marisa Galvez. Journal of Folklore Research Reviews, posted March 18, 2015.

Review of John Bolton, Worlds of Dissent. Dějiny – teorie – kritika 2013, no. 1, pp. 177–188.

Review of The Big Red Songbook, ed. Archie Green et al. Journal of American Folklore 123, no. 488 (spring 2010), pp. 233–5.

“Folklore has Always Been Modern: A Review of Recent Multilingual Publications from the Czech Republic.” Journal of Folklore Research Reviews, 13 April, 2009.

 

5.4. Literary and Theoretical Essays (selection)

“Stimmen des Volxs.” Regular column in Volksstimme (Vienna) since June 2019 (earlier in Malmoe, 2011–2013, and in Pravda, 2014–2019).

“Karel Teige a nová ľudová kultúra” [Karel Teige and the new folk culture]. Kapitál 2021, no. 6, p. 6.

“Postmarxismus. Marxismus bez konce” [Post-Marxism: Marxism without End]. Post..., ed. Marta Martinová, Matěj Metelec, and Lukáš Rychetský. Prague: A2, 2020.

“Zem! Zem!” [Land! Land!]. Kapitál 2020, no. 6 (9. June), pp. 4–5.

“Internacionalizmus a reč proletárov” [Internationalism and the language of the proletariat]. Kapitál 2019, no. 3, pp. 32–33.

“Nebezpečný Marx a zrkadlo liberalizmu” [Dangerous Marx and the mirror of liberalism]. Denník N, 28. 12. 2018

“Brief aus Bratislava” [Letter from Bratislava]. Le Monde diplomatique, Deutsche Ausgabe, December 2018, p. 2.

“Proč chci rozbít homogennost národa” [Why I want to undermine the homogeneity of the nation]. Argument, 19 Sept., 2018.

“Mechanismus iluze” [The mechanism of illusion]. A2, 2017, no. 9, pp. 18–19.

“Goodbye, Internationalism! On the Anti–Multicultural Left in East–Central Europe.” Political Critique, 8. 6. 2017 (also in Czech: “Sbohem internacionalizme!”, A2, 2017, no. 7, pp. 18–19; and online at Pole blog).

“An Austere Place of Refuge.” LeftEast, Feb. 15, 2016 (in German translation in Le monde diplomatique, Deutsche Ausgabe, April 2016, pp. 6–7; in Czech in A2 8/2016, pp. 18–19; in Greek on Elaliberta.gr, March 18, 2016).

“Kritérium neolyrického věku” [Criterion of the neo–lyrical age]. Tvar no. 9, 2014 pp. 10–11.

“Why I Emigrated from America.” The Montréal Review, December 2012.

“We Are the Dialectic: An Essay for Positive Politics.” Socialism & Democracy, vol. 23, no. 1 (March 2009), pp. 124–8.

 

5.5. Popularization and Public Appearances (selection)

“Pracovní písně jsou stále aktuální.” [Work songs are still relevant]. On radio program ArtCafé (host Anna Kolářová), April 28, 2021: https://vltava.rozhlas.cz/pracovni-pisne-jsou-stale-aktualni-clovek-ma-potrebu-se-vcitit-i-do-svetu-ktere-8478861.

On television show Babylon, Česká televize, Nov. 28, 2020: https://www.ceskatelevize.cz/porady/1131721572-babylon/420236100152027/video/804507.

“Myšlení v chodu” [Thinking on your feet]. Radio program Reflexe: Historie / Filosofie! Rádio Vltava, Dec. 14, 2019: https://vltava.rozhlas.cz/mysleni-v-chodu-o-chuzi-za-chuze-se-ctyrmi-filozofy-rozmlouva-petr-sourek-8123747.

“Tříměsíční čekání na loď mi přineslo pohádky lidí ze Šalamounových ostrovů” [Three months waiting for a ship brought mi tales from the Solomon Islands]. Radio program Vizitka, Rádio Vltava, Aug. 1, 2019: https://vltava.rozhlas.cz/joe-grim-feinberg-trimesicni-cekani-na-lod-mi-prineslo-pohadky-lidi-ze-8028865%20.

“Paradoxy autenticity” [Paradoxes of authenticity]. On radio program Reflexe: Historie / Filosofie! Rádio Vltava, Mar. 30, 2019: https://vltava.rozhlas.cz/paradoxy-autenticity-7805301.

“Odložený konec dějin” [The end of history deferred]. On radio program Reflexe: Historie / Filosofie! Rádio Vltava, Feb. 19, 2019: https://vltava.rozhlas.cz/odlozeny-konec-dejin-7762020.

“Kdo se bojí Sorose?” [Who’s afraid of Soros?”]. On radio program, Rádio Vltava, Sept. 15, 2018: https://vltava.rozhlas.cz/kdo-se-boji-sorose-7611148.

“Karl Marx a středoevropský marxismus jako folklor” [Marx and Central European Marxism as Folklore]. On radio program, Rádio Vltava, Aug. 18, 2018: https://vltava.rozhlas.cz/karl-marx-a-stredoevropsky-marxismus-jako-folklor-7201004.

On television program Večera s Havranom, RTVS channel 2, Nov. 8, 2016: https://www.rtvs.sk/televizia/archiv/14084/110566.

 

6. Editorial Work

Editor: Contradictions: A Journal for Critical Thought/ Kontradikce. Časopis pro kritické myšlení (since 2017).

Co–editor of book series “Emancipace a kritika” (“Emancipation and Critique”), Filosofia publishing house, Prague.