Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 31(4):  628 – 644 

The interruption: investigating subjectivation and  affect
Leila Dawney

Abstract. This paper contributes to current debates concerning affect
  and the nonrepresentational subject by introducing the concept of the
  interruption as a means of exploring the politics both of experience and of the
  feeling body. By thinking about the way in which affect is theorised in
  Spinoza’s Ethics alongside a critique of the subject that draws on Foucault, I
  position the interruption as an event that elicits a mode of critique that
  enables an interrogation of both the sociality of affect and the somatisation
of  politics. This paper explores three events that I describe as interruptions,
and  demonstrates the utility and scope of such a concept.
Keywords:
  Foucault, Spinoza, affect, experience, subjectivity, nonrepresentational
theory,  embodiment

We have been awarded a grant from the AHRC to continue our activities over the coming two years. We will hold two symposia and two retreats as a part of the project - one of each will be in Brazil. We are enormously excited to have this contiuned support for our work and are really looking forward to expanding the network and developing our transatlantic connections. Over the coming two years we aim to interrogate our own methods and work out what is really distinctive and valuble about our 'authority studies' approach. We will also be sharing our experiences and techniques of collaboration with current PhD students and hope to pass on the joy of retreats! Leila Dawney (PI) and Claire Blencowe (coI) are coordinating this project from the UK, with Aecio Amaral coordinating activities in Brazil.

Authority Research Network: creative/performative
approaches to democracy and authority research - AHRC funded, 2014-2016.