Rok Benčin, PhD | ZRC SAZU

My research interests revolve around the relations between aesthetics, ontology and politics in contemporary philosophy. I focus on contemporary French philosophy (Rancière, Badiou, Deleuze), Critical Theory (especially Adorno) and contemporary perspectives on modern philosophy (currently Leibniz’s metaphysics and Hegel’s aesthetics). In my work, I often explore modern literature (particularly Proust) and cinema. I have also worked on research ethics in humanities and social sciences.

Book

Okna brez monad: estetika od Heideggerja do Rancièra [Monadless Windows: Aesthetics from Heidegger to Rancière]. Ljubljana: ZRC Publishing House 2015. https://fi2.zrc-sazu.si/en/publikacije/okna-brez-monad-1

Edited Volume

Benčin, R., ed. (2021). The Concept of World in Contemporary Philosophy. Special issue, Filozofski vestnik 42.2. https://ojs.zrc-sazu.si/filozofski-vestnik/issue/view/849

Articles and chapters

Benčin, R. (2022). Verso un materialismo stilistico. In: Sulla soglia delle forme: genealogia, estetica, politica della materia, ed. Anna Montebugnoli, 91–106. Milano: Meltemi. https://www.meltemieditore.it/catalogo/sulla-soglia-delle-forme/

Benčin, R. (2021). Distant Immediacy: Badiou and Rancière on May ʼ68 and its Consequences. European Review, 29(6), 714–724. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1062798720000824.

Benčin, R. 2021. Worlds as transcendental and political fictions. Filozofski vestnik 42 (2): 221–243. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3986/fv.42.2.10

Benčin, R. (2020). Materializem v slogu: o estetski indiferenci. Problemi 58 (5-6): 71–101.

Benčin, R. (2019). Rethinking Representation in Ontology and Aesthetics via Badiou and Rancière. Theory, Culture & Society, 36(5), 95–112. https://doi.org/10.1177/0263276418806573

Benčin, R. (2019). L'affettività dell'apparenza estetica tra sofferenza e indifferenza. Psiche: rivista di cultura psicoanalitica, 6(1), 79–94. DOI: 10.7388/93686. http://www.rivisteweb.it/doi/10.7388/93686

Benčin, R. (2019). Form and Affect: Artistic Truth in Adorno and Badiou. In: Badiou and the German Tradition of Philosophy, ed. Jan Völker: 197–216. London and New York: Bloomsbury 2019. DOI: 10.5040/9781350069978.ch-011. https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/badiou-and-the-german-tradition-of-philosophy-9781350069954/

Benčin, R. (2019). Art Between Affect and Indifference in Hegel, Adorno, and Rancière. Filozofski vestnik 40(1): 155–172. https://ojs.zrc-sazu.si/filozofski-vestnik/article/view/8100

Benčin, R. (2017). Proustian Developments: The World and Object of Photography. Substance: a review of theory and literary criticism 46(3), 16–30. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26451325

Benčin, R. (2017).’Sans Cause’: Affect and Truth in Marcel Proust. Filozofski vestnik 38(3): 53–66. https://ojs.zrc-sazu.si/filozofski-vestnik/article/view/6693

Lectures and presentations

Fiction and the Conflict of Worlds. Presentation at XXIII Congress of the International Comparative Literature Association, Tbilisi, 27 July 2022.

Art between Fetishism and Melancholia in Adorno’s Aesthetic Theory. Lecture at Universität für angewandte Kunst, Vienna, 25 May 2022.

Adorno’s Monadology. Presentation at “Wer sagt, er sei glücklich, lügt” Kritische Theorie in Bruchstücken: 70 Jahre Minima Moralia, Centre Marc Bloch, Berlin, 12 November 2021.

Le livre sur rien: indifférence entre esthétique et ontologie. Invited lecture at Université Paris 8, 27 November 2019.

Artwork: A Monad or a Possible World? The Dismantled Leibnizianism of Contemporary Aesthetics. Presentation at the 21st International Congress of Aesthetics, International Association for Aesthetics, Belgrade, 24 July 2019.

The World According to Contemporary Philosophy: Lost or Multiplied, Real or Fictional? Presentation at the international conference Truth, Fiction, Illusion: Worlds & Experience, Association for Philosophy and Literature, Alpen-Adria Universität, Klagenfurt, 1 June 2019.

The Redundant Realities of Realism. Invited lecture at the University of Applied Arts, Vienna, 14 June 2018.

The Wrecks of the Worlds: The Metaphysics of Affect in Proust, Benjamin and Lacan. Presentation at the international conference The End(s) of Political Theology, Lancaster University & ZRC SAZU, Ljubljana, 6 June 2018.

Between Suffering and Indifference: The Affect of Art in Adorno and Rancière. Presentation at the international conference Conflicts—Antagonisms, Agonies, Affects, Nordic Society of Aesthetics, Paris, 2 June 2018.

Violence of History and Rebuilding the World in the Cinema of Jia Zhangke. Presentation at the international conference Dissecting Violence, Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis, University of Amsterdam, 4 April 2018.

Tightrope Walking: French Philosophy, Film Criticism, and Jia Zhangkeʼs Still Life. Invited presentation at the International Symposium on Aesthetics in Contemporary Chinese Art Criticism at the College of Media and International Culture, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 31 July 2017.

From the Melancholy of Form to the Metaphysics of Happiness: Form and Feeling in Adorno and Badiou. Invited presentation at the conference Badiou and the Presence of Philosophy: Crossing the French-German Border, Berlin University of the Arts, 30 January 2016.

All publications (COBISS)

GRACE (mednarodni_raziskovalni • 01. january 2020 - 31. december 2021)
SATORI - Stakeholders Acting Together On the ethical impact assessment of Research and Innovation (okvirni_program • 01. january 2014 - 30. september 2017)
Structure and Genealogy of Perversion in Contemporary Philosophy, Politics, and Art (temeljni_raziskovalni • 01. september 2020 - 31. august 2023)
The problem of objectivity and fiction in contemporary philosophy (01. july 2018 - 30. june 2021)
Europe as a Philosophical Idea and Political Subject (temeljni_raziskovalni • 01. may 2017 - 30. april 2020)
The Philosophy of Crisis: Economy - Politics - Ecology (temeljni_raziskovalni • 01. august 2013 - 31. july 2016)
Conditions and Problems of Contemporary Philosophy IV (research programme • 01. january 2020 - 31. december 2025)
Conditions and Problems of Contemporary Philosophy III (research programme • 01. january 2015 - 31. december 2019)
Conditions and Problems of Contemporary Philosophy II (research programme • 01. january 2009 - 31. december 2014)

Education

2012: PhD in Philosophy, postgraduate programme Intercultural Studies – Comparative Studies of Ideas and Cultures: module The Transformation of Modern thought - Philosophy, Psychoanalysis, Culture at University of Nova Gorica; supervisor: Jelica Šumič-Riha; thesis title: “The Role of Aesthetics in Contemporary Ontology and Political Philosophy: Immanence, Representation, Truth”

2007: Diploma (equivalent of Master) in Philosophy at the University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Arts

2007: Diploma (equivalent of Master) in Comparative Literature and Literary Theory at the University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Arts

Employment and titles

2016-present: Research Fellow at ZRC SAZU, Institute of Philosophy

2008-2016: Research Assistant ZRC SAZU, Institute of Philosophy

Teaching

The Concept of World between Loss and Multiplication. Seminar at Universität für angewandte Kunst, Vienna, 7–10 November 2022.

Assistant Professor at the Postgraduate School ZRC SAZU, course “Contemporary Philosophy and Modern Literature”

November 2019: Visiting Professor at Université Paris 8, Département de philosophie, course “Les objets monadiques”

2018/2019: Guest Lecturer at the University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Arts: course “What is Enlightenment?”