Abstract
Petar Bojanić develops the concept of the ‘victorious mind’ as an essential product of European modernity.
According to Bojanić, ‘victory’ is not limited to the question of sovereignty or social struggle: it should be considered a ‘meta-institutional protocol’. At the ‘pre-institutional’ stage, antagonism is viewed as a transcendental principle of relations between subjects and objects. At the institutional and meta-institutional stages, antagonism is characterised as inherent in all possible relations between social actors.
The very modern idea of the social is based on various antagonisms that precede open and direct social or military conflicts. The victorious mind is considered the supra-institutional actor capable of transforming institutions and changing laws (in the sense of sovereignty), discriminating between ‘winners’ and ‘losers’, and controlling the project of absolute victory.
Bojanić suggests that, in the current institutional crisis, we need to overcome the ‘victorious mind’, which is seen as destructive and discriminatory.
Discussant: Evgeny Blinov
Abudjana H. E. Babiker, PhD
Waseda University (Tokyo)
Infrastructures of Victory
As the 15th century marked the start of the colonial empire era, it also brought the transformation of the mechanics of the notion of war and victory. Nonetheless, the conception of antagonism remained, arguably, to the modern day. The East India Companies (EICs) introduced themselves as a case of a semi-sovereign, autonomous, non-state entity that was capable of producing victory through antagonistic means, where (proxy)wars were rendered as transitory actions in obtaining victory. While the discourse of war and victory necessitates the presence of an enemy, the EICs marginalized it and adopted antagonism as an alternative and further constructed and institutionalized victory through infrastructures, as this presentation discusses. Babiker suggests that the colonial project and EICs model persist and transform under the current institutional crisis. Looking into this model from a spatial perspective, it institutionalizes territories and geospatiality, hard and soft infrastructure, and architecture as active agents, operating through an institutional immune logic that participates in the production of protracted victory. The work further present some case-studies of these infrastructures, in relation to Petar Bojanić's notion of ‘victorious mind,' arguing for the necessity for infrastructures of victory, which are utilized by state and non-state actors, and how function as critical instruments in sustaining ‘the project of absolute victory.’
Profile
Petar Bojanić studied philosophy in Belgrade and Paris under mentors including Miladin Životić and Jacques Derrida, earning his PhD from the University of Paris X (Nanterre) in 2003, defending his thesis to a committee that included Étienne Balibar, Jean-Luc Nancy, Jacques Derrida, and Gérard Bensussan.
He directed the Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory at the University of Belgrade from 2011–2019 and now leads IDESE, CELAP, and CAS SEE in Rijeka.
Bojanić has held visiting and research positions at major international universities and is currently a Visiting Researcher at Waseda Institute for Advanced Study and Professor of Philosophy at The European Graduate School.
Programme
Friday, 12 June 2026
16:15 – 16:20 Opening
16:20 – 16:50 Masumi Nagasaka
16:50 – 17:20 Abudjana H. E. Babiker
17:20 – 17:40 Break
17:40 – 18:10 Evgeny Blinov
18:10 – 18:40 Petar Bojanić
18:40 – 19:40 Discussion (Questions and Answers)
19:40 – 19:45 Closing
Main Speaker
Professor, University of Belgrade
Discussants
Evgeny Blinov / Abudjana H. E. Babiker / Masumi Nagasaka
Date & Time
Friday, 12 June 2026, 16:15 – 19:45
Venue
Building 26, Basement, Multi-purpose lecture room,
Waseda Campus, Waseda University
Prospective Audience
Students, Graduate students, Faculty members, Research members, General Participants
Language
English
Organiser
Waseda Institute for Advanced Study (WIAS)
Registration
Pre-registration required: https://forms.gle/9nwGoTnA7xSvaqLe8