The Menon-Žižek Debate: “The Tale of the (Never-marked) (But secretly coded) Universal and the (Always marked) Particular . . .”

On occasion of his first lecture tour of India in 2010, Žižek sparked off a debate with Nivedita Menon, a leading postcolonial feminist scholar. The debate revolves around Menon\u27s contention that Žižek\u27s emphasis on European, Christian Universalism as the most proactive model for countering capitalism is ignorant of the heteroglossiac postcolonial histories of South Asia. Menon\u27s response (“The Two Žižeks”) suggests that what Žižek appears to be missing is knowledge of the fallibility of Eurocentric discourses in negotiating the colonial and postcolonial situations particular to the subcontinent. Though Žižek\u27s debates with Badiou and Butler are well known, few outside India are aware of the Menon-Žižek debate. This paper will occasion this little known debate to consider some of the major points raised by Menon against the applicability of Žižek\u27s theoretical arguments toward reading and understanding postcolonial politics and culture

“You Should Pray I Choose the Latter”: Rioting, Violence, & Jouissance

In the climactic scene from the film The Great Debaters (2007), James L. Framer Jr. (Denzel Whitaker), speaking for the motion “Resolved: Civil Disobedience is a Moral weapon in the fight for Justice,” rebuts the opponent team from Harvard University and clinches a win for his team, Wiley College, with the following words: St. Augustine said an unjust law is no law at all, which means I have a right, even a duty, to resist. With violence or civil disobedience. You should pray I choose the latter. (1:52:20 – 1:55:45) Farmer Jr.’s words receive a standing ovation from the predominantly white, upper class, urban and educated on-screen audience, and cues audiences watching the film to two things. First, and unsurprisingly, it references Wiley College’s historic win against Harvard that was announced moments later in the film. And, secondly, it reasserts what today has become a culture-cliché, namely, civil disobedience or nonviolent protests against social injustice are moral, even desired, compared to violent demonstrations that benefit no one. In so doing The Great Debaters becomes more than a partly fictionalized account of an historic event – Wiley College was the first historically Black college from Jim Crow South to win a regional debate championship (they defeated the University of Southern California depicted as Harvard in the film) –, it functions rather as an ideological tool teaching its viewers about not only what social changes to desire but also how to act upon realizing this desire for social change. Simply put, mass movements demanding social changes are necessary, even required, but these must always remain nonviolent. The choice given in Farmer Jr.’s last sentence – “You should pray I choose the latter” – is therefore not so much a choice as it is an affirmation of nonviolent civil disobedience as the only moral form of protest against unjust social laws

Guest Editors\u27 Introduction: Toward Decolonized and Student-Centered Teaching of Critical Theory

An Introduction to a Cluster on Teaching Theory in Global Context

Forward rapidity J/ψ production as a function of charged-particle multiplicity in pp collisions at s \sqrt{s} = 5.02 and 13 TeV

The production of J/ψ is measured as a function of charged-particle multiplicity at forward rapidity in proton-proton (pp) collisions at center-of-mass energies √s = 5.02 and 13 TeV. The J/ψ mesons are reconstructed via their decay into dimuons in the rapidity interval (2.5 < y < 4.0), whereas the charged-particle multiplicity density (dNch/dη) is measured at midrapidity (|η| < 1). The production rate as a function of multiplicity is reported as the ratio of the yield in a given multiplicity interval to the multiplicity-integrated one. This observable shows a linear increase with charged-particle multiplicity normalized to the corresponding average value for inelastic events (dNch/dη/〈dNch/dη〉), at both the colliding energies. Measurements are compared with available ALICE results at midrapidity and theoretical model calculations. First measurement of the mean transverse momentum (〈pT〉) of J/ψ in pp collisions exhibits an increasing trend as a function of dNch/dη/〈dNch/dη〉 showing a saturation towards high charged-particle multiplicities

Neutral to charged kaon yield fluctuations in Pb – Pb collisions at sNN=2.76 TeV

We present the first measurement of event-by-event fluctuations in the kaon sector in Pb – Pb collisions at √sNN = 2.76 TeV with the ALICE detector at the LHC. The robust fluctuation correlator νdyn is used to evaluate the magnitude of fluctuations of the relative yields of neutral and charged kaons, as well as the relative yields of charged kaons, as a function of collision centrality and selected kinematic ranges. While the correlator νdyn[K+, K− ] exhibits a scaling approximately in inverse proportion of the charged particle multiplicity, νdyn[K0 S , K± ] features a significant deviation from such scaling. Within uncertainties, the value of νdyn[K0S , K± ] is independent of the selected transverse momentum interval, while it exhibits a pseudorapidity dependence. The results are compared with HIJING, AMPT and EPOS–LHC predictions, and are further discussed in the context of the possible production of disoriented chiral condensates in central Pb – Pb collisions

Light (anti)nuclei production in Pb-Pb collisions at sNN=5.02 TeV

The measurement of the production of deuterons, tritons and 3 He and their antiparticles in Pb-Pb collisions at √s NN = 5.02 TeV is presented in this article. The measurements are carried out at midrapidity (|y| < 0.5) as a function of collision centrality using the ALICE detector. The pT -integrated yields, the coalescence parameters and the ratios to protons and antiprotons are reported and compared with nucleosynthesis models. The comparison of these results in different collision systems at different center-of-mass collision energies reveals a suppression of nucleus production in small systems. In the Statistical Hadronisation Model framework, this can be explained by a small correlation volume where the baryon number is conserved, as already shown in previous fluctuation analyses. However, a different size of the correlation volume is required to describe the proton yields in the same data sets. The coalescence model can describe this suppression by the fact that the wave functions of the nuclei are large and the fireball size starts to become comparable and even much smaller than the actual nucleus at low multiplicities

Inclusive and multiplicity dependent production of electrons from heavy-flavour hadron decays in pp and p-Pb collisions

Measurements of the production of electrons from heavy-flavour hadron decays in pp collisions at root s = 13 TeV at midrapidity with the ALICE detector are presented down to a transverse momentum (p(T)) of 0.2 GeV/c and up to p(T) = 35 GeV/c, which is the largest momentum range probed for inclusive electron measurements in ALICE. In p-Pb collisions, the production cross section and the nuclear modification factor of electrons from heavy-flavour hadron decays are measured in the p(T) range 0.5 < p(T) < 26 GeV/c at root s(NN) = 8.16 TeV. The nuclear modification factor is found to be consistent with unity within the statistical and systematic uncertainties. In both collision systems, first measurements of the yields of electrons from heavy-flavour hadron decays in different multiplicity intervals normalised to the multiplicity-integrated yield (self-normalised yield) at midrapidity are reported as a function of the self-normalised charged-particle multiplicity estimated at midrapidity. The self-normalised yields in pp and p-Pb collisions grow faster than linear with the self-normalised multiplicity. A strong p(T) dependence is observed in pp collisions, where the yield of high-p(T) electrons increases faster as a function of multiplicity than the one of low-p(T) electrons. The measurement in p-Pb collisions shows no p(T) dependence within uncertainties. The self-normalised yields in pp and p-Pb collisions are compared with measurements of other heavy-flavour, light-flavour, and strange particles, and with Monte Carlo simulations

Coherent J/ψ and ψ photoproduction at midrapidity in ultra-peripheral Pb–Pb collisions at √sNN = 5.02 TeV

The coherent photoproduction of J/ψJ/ψ and ψ′ψ′ mesons was measured in ultra-peripheral Pb–Pb collisions at a center-of-mass energy sNN−−−√ = 5.02sNN = 5.02 TeV with the ALICE detector. Charmonia are detected in the central rapidity region for events where the hadronic interactions are strongly suppressed. The J/ψJ/ψ is reconstructed using the dilepton (l+l−l+l−) and proton–antiproton decay channels, while for the ψ′ψ′ the dilepton and the l+l−π+π−l+l−π+π− decay channels are studied. The analysis is based on an event sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 233 μb−1μb−1. The results are compared with theoretical models for coherent J/ψJ/ψ and ψ′ψ′ photoproduction. The coherent cross section is found to be in a good agreement with models incorporating moderate nuclear gluon shadowing of about 0.64 at a Bjorken-x of around 6×10−46×10−4, such as the EPS09 parametrization, however none of the models is able to fully describe the rapidity dependence of the coherent J/ψJ/ψ cross section including ALICE measurements at forward rapidity. The ratio of ψ′ψ′ to J/ψJ/ψ coherent photoproduction cross sections was also measured and found to be consistent with the one for photoproduction off protons.publishedVersio

Production of pions, kaons, and protons as a function of the relative transverse activity classifier in pp collisions at s \sqrt{s} = 13 TeV

Abstract: The production of π±, K±, and ( p )p is measured in pp collisions at √s = 13 TeV in different topological regions of the events. Particle transverse momentum (pT) spectra are measured in the “toward”, “transverse”, and “away” angular regions defined with respect to the direction of the leading particle in the event. While the toward and away regions contain the fragmentation products of the near-side and away-side jets, respectively, the transverse region is dominated by particles from the Underlying Event (UE). The relative transverse activity classifier, RT = NT/〈NT〉, is used to group events according to their UE activity, where NT is the measured charged-particle multiplicity per event in the transverse region and 〈NT〉 is the mean value over all the analysed events. The first measurements of identified particle pT spectra as a function of RT in the three topological regions are reported. It is found that the yield of high transverse momentum particles relative to the RT-integrated measurement decreases with increasing RT in both the toward and the away regions, indicating that the softer UE dominates particle production as RT increases and validating that RT can be used to control the magnitude of the UE. Conversely, the spectral shapes in the transverse region harden significantly with increasing RT. This hardening follows a mass ordering, being more significant for heavier particles. Finally, it is observed that the pT-differential particle ratios (p + p )/(π+ + π−) and (K+ + K−)/(π+ + π−) in the low UE limit (RT → 0) approach expectations from Monte Carlo generators such as PYTHIA 8 with Monash 2013 tune and EPOS LHC, where the jet-fragmentation models have been tuned to reproduce e+e− results

Measurement of the production of (anti)nuclei in p–Pb collisions at sNN=8.16TeV

Measurements of (anti)proton, (anti)deuteron, and (anti)3He production in the rapidity range -1 > y > 0 as a function of the transverse momentum and event multiplicity in p–Pb collisions at a center-of-mass energy per nucleon–nucleon pair sqrt(sNN) = 8.16 TeV are presented. The coalescence parameters B2 and B3, measured as a function of the transverse momentum per nucleon and of the mean charged-particle multiplicity density, confirm a smooth evolution from low to high multiplicity across different collision systems and energies. The ratios between (anti)deuteron and (anti)3He yields and those of (anti)protons are also reported as a function of the mean charged-particle multiplicity density. A comparison with the predictions of the statistical hadronization and coalescence models for different collision systems and center-of-mass energies favors the coalescence description for the deuteron-to-proton yield ratio with respect to the canonical statistical model