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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black">Dear all,</span><span style="color:#212121"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="color:black">Last week I issued an invitation to join the upcoming Critical Antiquities Network Reading Group on
<b>“Transformative Action in the Face of Debt.” </b>Many thanks to those who indicated their preferred time to schedule the meetings. (If you missed the announcement, it is included at the end of this email.)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black">We can now inform you that the meetings will be held
<b>10am-12pm</b> on the respective dates (Tuesday, March 18; Tuesday, April 1; Tuesday, April 15; Tuesday, May 6).
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black">If you would like to attend these meetings either online or in person,
<b>please register</b> by visiting the relevant page of our new website: <a href="https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/a_32COMKzVT2X9OkYtEfgUG8u9g?domain=criticalantiquities.org">
https://criticalantiquities.org/reading-group/transformative-action-in-the-face-of-debt</a>
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black">These reading group meetings will culminate in the inaugural
<b>Can Assembly</b> on “Transformative Action in the Face of Debt” on Thursday, June 13 at the University of Wollongong. More details can be found on our website:
<a href="https://url.au.m.mimecastprotect.com/s/AMN-CP7LAXf5mr6ngH0hDUxOc63?domain=criticalantiquities.org">https://criticalantiquities.org/assembly/example-assembly-event-2</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black">If you would like to register for the Assembly, you may do so via the same form for reading group registration.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black">All best wishes,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black">Tristan<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="color:black">The original announcement: <o:p>
</o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black">The Critical Antiquities Network is happy to announce a series of four reading groups on the topic “Transformative Action in the Face of Debt.” Debt in our financialised times appears to be one of the great forces
working on the contemporary subject's actions and imagination, one that stands in the way of genuine social and economic transformation. In these reading groups, we want to approach the current system of debt and finance in our world by both familiarising
ourselves with the best contemporary work on it and then<span class="apple-converted-space"><i> </i></span><i>defamiliarising</i><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>it from the perspective of debt's configurations and uses in alternative worlds, including
but not limited to classical Greek and Roman worlds. We hope these sessions will allow participants to see the Critical Antiquities (CA) approach in action on a subject fundamental for understanding our present predicament and especially its possibilities.
CA is an approach that seeks to disclose alternative forms of life that are available and desirable in the present. </span><span style="color:#212121"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="color:black">The reading groups are open to anyone and everyone, in whatever<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>location, vocation, and life stage.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><b>Expertise in ancient worlds</b><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><b>is
not required</b>. Our desire is to</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color:#212121"> </span></span><span style="color:#212121">involve researchers who are further away from Classics and Ancient History, the discipline CA has predominantly
spoken to so far. We aim for a wider and deeper interdisciplinary reach because the CA agenda<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>needs</i><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>people who can develop a rigorous understanding of the present,
a necessary counterpart to using antiquities as standpoints for critique.</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color:black"> </span></span><span style="color:#212121">We hope that these reading groups will give participants greater literacy
and confidence in areas of CA with which they may be less familiar. For Classicists, this may be current scholarship on capitalistic debt; for political economists, ancient social and political forms of debt and their contexts.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="color:black">These meetings will be open forums for discussion and ask participants to read ~100 pages of material by way of preparation. Readings will include excerpts from David Graeber’s<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>Debt: The
First 5000 Years<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></i>and Adkins, Cooper, and Konings’<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>The Asset Economy</i>.<span class="apple-converted-space"><i> </i></span>We will also invite participants to contribute
to our crowd-sourced bibliography over the course of the meetings<i>.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></i></span><span style="color:#212121"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="color:black">Format will be<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><b>both online and in person</b>; the in-person workshops will circulate between the University of Sydney (<b>Tuesday, March 18</b>), the University of Wollongong (<b>Tuesday,
April 1</b>), the Australian National University (<b>Tuesday, April 15</b>), and the University of New South Wales (<b>Tuesday, May 6</b>).<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><span style="color:#212121"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="color:black"> </span><span style="color:#212121"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="color:black">…<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="color:black">The Critical Antiquities Network was founded in 2020 and has hosted many workshops for thinkers working at the intersection of ancient world study and critical theory. We are now developing the Network's activities in different directions,
including a studio for encouraging the work of PhD and early career scholars. We have nearly finished renovating<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><u>criticalantiquities.org</u><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>and the new site will detail
all of the changes.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><span style="color:#212121"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="color:black">All best,</span><span style="color:#212121"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="color:black">Tristan Bradshaw, Ben Brown, Tom Geue (CAN co-directors)</span><span style="color:#212121"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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