This first issue of j_spot collects articles originally presented between 1995 and 1998 at Strategies of Critique, the annual conference of the students in the Graduate Programme in Social and Political Thought at York University, Toronto, Canada. These pieces explore diverse connections and challenges arising out of the rise of the new right and the issue of political communities, the "end" of knowledge and/or the knowledge of ends, and the question of (in)justice and the subject. Future issues will periodically address a specific theme or topic, as well as include a variety of topical and innovative work.