This past summer several MA students (Georgia Cowan, Eric Whedbee, Rachel Webb and David Hanley) decided to get together and start a book club, with the intention of trying to keep up with academic reading over the break and gain exposure to a wider range of philosophical and theoretical writings. Here’s what Deleuzian junkie and croquet expert, Georgia Cowan, had to say about the group:

For our first effort, we chose to read Gilles Deleuze’s 1968 publication Difference & Repetition, a dense philosophical text that examines and critiques fundamental Western philosophical discourses concerning representation, metaphysics, identity and logic. We tackled the book one chapter at a time, meeting for discussion each week in various places including the houses of our group members, the park, cafes and restaurants. We often took advantage of our location, using each meeting as an opportunity to explore Montreal a bit more and to plan fun post-discussion activities (including croquet!). Despite the complexity of the book and our admitted occasional difficulty with the material, all of us attended the meetings consistently week-to-week, offering our ideas and interpretations and trying to relate Deleuze to a broader theoretical spectrum.