27 October, 2025 (Monday), 16:30 – 17:30 JST
IDEC Small Conference Room (in-person only)
About the Lecture
Brute power and the status quo appear to be the only real grounds for the possession of nuclear weapons. There are no non-voluntary policies to govern or regulate the possession or use of nuclear weapons. The de facto policies shown in practice indicate racist worldviews, definitive of national identities, whether stated or unstated, are salient (perhaps most-salient) in these extreme existential situations. In pursuing this argument, I will analyze select pertinent international documents, including The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, and certain contemporary situations of war, from Ukraine to Palestine and Iran.
The talk will prepare the ground for further critical discussion, most immediately in the global webinar I will be hosting from Hiroshima for Act-for-Pal on the same theme.[1] The talk is also linked to a special issue of Janus Unbound: Journal of Critical Studies.[2]
[1] A network of scholars acting for Palestinian education: “Our mission is to build a grassroots academic movement grounded in steadfast principles of anti-colonialism and anti-racism. We work alongside Palestinian academics to promote their rights, amplify their voices and steadfastly defend their autonomy in shaping their narratives. We aim to create innovative educational solutions, particularly as a priority for Gaza, that leverage local resources and technologies. We support higher education institutes to overcome systemic barriers and foster a global network that works alongside Palestinian scholars to revolutionise higher education and place Palestinian voices at the centre of the movement.” (Act-for-Pal 2025)
[2] JU 5.2 CFP: Global Racism and Nuclear Warfare: “The nuclear specter continues to haunt many aspects of the global security paradigm. Decades of denuclearization advocacy have not managed to stave off a nuclear neocolonial order, agonies of which can be heard from time to time. From its brutal inauguration in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, nuclear weapons and policies have become a site of contestation in conflicts from Ukraine to India. As a multipolar world arises, new considerations are therefore in order, to ensure an equitable future devoid of mushroom clouds. We welcome all such voices on this topic, towards a critical examination of the past and present, and bold visions for the future.” Deadline for submissions February 15, 2026.
About the Speaker
Peter Trnka (PhD, University of Toronto, 1995) is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Memorial University. He has taught at Karlova University, Prague, as well as the University of Toronto, York University, and the University of Prince Edward Island. He has published scholarly, philosophical, and transdisciplinary articles in various international journals (on figures including Canguilhem, Deleuze, Derrida, Foucault, Gramsci, and Marx, and on topics including indigenous rights, communism, criticism, revolution, justice, and time). A recent publication is “Disjoint and Multiply: Deleuze and Negri on time” (in Deleuze and Time, edited Smith & Luzecky, 2023), He has also published creative works, poetry, and a cookbook. Since 2020, he has been Editor-in-Chief for Janus Unbound: Journal of Critical Studies. He considers his employment as a teaching assistant at a National Institutes of Mental Health institution for youth in Virgini, as well as his work as a grievance officer, financial officer, president, and chief negotiator (twice during two strikes) at the Canadian Union for Educational Workers Local 2 in Toronto, as formative of his intellectual habits. He has three children, Alexandra, Nicolas, and Lily; lives in Holyrood, Newfoundland; and manages a bar in St. John’s called Spirit.
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