Making sense of violence

Histories of Violence, a new multi-media project led by Brad Evans, launches in September to coincide with the tenth anniversary of the terrorist attacks in New York and the USA.

The inaugural event - a symposia called Ten Years of Terror - will be launched through the Guardian's 'Comment is Free' news site. It features filmed lectures by some of the world's most pre-eminent thinkers, including Noam Chomsky, Mary Kaldor, Simon Critchley, Michael Hardt, Saskia Sassen, and Zygmunt Bauman, reflecting on different aspects of violence and how the world has changed since the 9/11 and 7/7 terror attacks. Excerpts of the films have been edited together to form a public broadcast which will be screened at leading art galleries and institutions, including the Guggenheim Museum in New York, Leeds City Art Gallery, The Hague, Pace University in New York, and the University of Paris VIII.

"Histories of Violence is dedicated to exploring the theoretical, practical and aesthetic dimensions to violence, the age-old problem which afflicts humanity," says Evans. "It's a trans-disciplinary project that's open to everyone - academics, students and members of the public - and all the resources can be freely accessed via the website www.historiesofviolence.com. The aim is to encourage the widest possible dissemination, discussion and reflection about violence and the impact it has on our lives."

The website also features a Theory section, containing more footage of noted academics as they give lectures about key figures such as Nicollò Machiavelli, Michel Foucault, Slavoj Zizek, and Judith Butler. Each lecture is accompanied by a biography and reading list to help a non-specialist audience explore the subject further. Other website elements are dedicated to Art - which launches with a retrospective of the internationally acclaimed work of New York-based artist Robert Longo - Literature - which features an and reading with Tom McCarthy, in particular his latest novel C - Film and Theatre.

The idea for such a multi-media, multidisciplinary project came from Evans' research and teaching. "I was initially going to get people to contribute their thoughts about violence for a theoretical book, but I got the sense that there was a real possibility to multi-media learning in an innovative way," he says. "The more the idea developed, the more I realised that there was the potential to say something important about violence in all its various forms. Not least, how we understand the problematic of violence in the post 9/11 world. Most of the academics involved in the project are at the global forefront of critical thinking in their areas, so Leeds is at the hub of all this activity which is very positive for us. As the project grows, I'm hoping that there will be more opportunities for people from different backgrounds, as well as other faculties and schools across the University, to get involved."