CONTRADICTionary: An Almanac of Resistance - new open access (free) book
Monday, October 5, 2026 at 11:00AM Open Humanities Press is pleased to announce the publication of:
CONTRADICTionary: An Almanac of Resistance
edited by Bernd Herzogenrath and Nicol A. Barria-Asenjo
Like all Open Humanities Press books, CONTRADICTionary is available open access (= it can be downloaded for free):
https://www.openhumanitiespress.org/books/titles/contradictionary/
CONTRADICTionary: An Almanac of Resistance is a collective intervention into the politics of language at a time when words themselves are being policed, erased, and weaponized. Emerging from the suppression of terms like ‘diversity,’ ‘intersectionality,’ and ‘climate crisis,’ the project reclaims and expands this contested vocabulary through contributions from over 100 scholars, artists, and activists worldwide. Each entry interrogates how language shapes what can be known, said, and done, while offering new, situated meanings rooted in lived experience and critical inquiry. Neither dictionary nor manifesto alone, CONTRADICTionary operates as a living archive of dissent, embracing contradiction as method and multiplicity as strength. By transforming banned words into sites of analysis, imagination, and action, it challenges regimes of silence and invites readers to actively participate in redefining the terms that govern collective life.
Editor Bios
Nicol A. Barria-Asenjo is a Chilean researcher in Social Sciences and Humanities linked to the University of los Lagos in Chile. Her books include Global Manifestos for the Twenty-First Century: Rethinking Culture, Common Struggles and Future Change (2023), edited by Nicol A. Barria-Asenjo, Brian Willems and Slavoj Žižek; Political Jouissance (2024) edited by Nicol A. Barria-Asenjo and Slavoj Žižek, and José Luis Villacañas in Political Theory (2026).
Bernd Herzogenrath is a professor of American literature and culture at Goethe University of Frankfurt am Main, Germany. He is the author of An American Body|Politic: A Deleuzian Approach (2010), and of many academic essays and articles. He is the editor of various edited essay collections, including The Farthest Place: The Music of John Luther Adams, Deleuze|Guattari & Ecology, and media|matter: the materiality of media, matter as medium. His latest publications include the collections The Films of Bill Morrison: Aesthetics of the Archive (2017), Film as Philosophy (2017), sonic thinking (2017), Practical Aesthetics (2020), Spectral Futures (2026),and the multimedia international arts project (c)ovid’s metamorphoses (meakusma 2023).
Series
CONTRADICTionary: An Almanac of Resistance is published as part of the Seedbooks series, edited by Sigi Jöttkandt and Prudence Gibson:
https://www.openhumanitiespress.org/books/series/seedbooks/