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Conference Announcement "The Idea of Cosmopolitanism" Interdisciplinary Dialogues Centre for the Humanities, Utrecht University Utrecht (Netherlands) 3-5 December 2009 __________________________________________________ Jointly organised with: Centre for the Humanities (Utrecht), Birkbeck College (London), Research for the Leverhulme Trust Research Network and NWO-British Council International Grant in the Humanities. As part of the Leverhulme funded three year project, "Between Cosmopolitanism and Empire: Europe, Human Rights, Sovereignty" (co-ordinated by BBK College, London) and NWO-British Council funded two-year project, "Cosmopolitanism, Identity and Media" (co-ordinated by Polis, LSE and CfH, UU), The Centre for the Humanities, Utrecht University, will host the three-day conference "The Idea of Cosmopolitanism: Interdisciplinary dialogues" on 3-5 December 2009. The conference is also the second instalment in the CfH’s Treaty of Utrecht visiting Professorship endowed by the Province of Utrecht. In the autumn of 2009 the chair is held by Professor Paul Gilroy. (Read more on the chair and its activities on the Centre for the Humanities’ website: http://www.hum.uu.nl/cfh/) The conference aims at presenting and debating a broad spectrum of issues involving cosmopolitanism in recent years. These range from a philosophical and legal perspective to radical contestations of equality and difference to media related interventions. Tying ideas of cosmopolitanism in with social theory and the processes of multidimensional globalisation demands a renewed and further understanding of cosmopolitanism itself. It also requires sharper and more grounded distinctions between globalization – as a process – and cosmopolitanism as a concept. This allows one to deal with the problematic side effects of globalisation. The growing use of film and documentary as a mode of creating a critical public sphere engaging and resisting a hegemonic mode of global capital and military intervention will be investigated during this conference. This means that the conference hopes to involve not only humanities and social sciences but also media studies and political theory in the debate on the idea of cosmopolitanism. As the conference is furthermore grounded in the upcoming 300th anniversary of the signing of the peace treaty between Spain, England, France and the Lower Countries in 1713 in the city of Utrecht, the focus on the Treaty of Utrecht will allow the participants to explore the very particular and localised issues of international law in a historical perspective and in terms of the Treaty’s impact on today. (Read more on the Treaty of Utrecht’ website: http://vredevanutrecht.com/portal/) PRELIMINARY PROGRAMME: Thursday 3 December 2009 Comparing Practices of Cosmopolitanism This first day of the conference commences with a panel discussion in which the position papers by delegates from the different institutes involved introduce and present their respective projects. How may cosmopolitanism be understood philosophically, legally and in terms of humanitarian interventions within the globalising process of today? The focus on the Treaty of Utrecht invites scholars on history of international law and humanitarian legal structures to speak to the anniversary of the Treaty, and issues of tolerance and citizenship in relation to cosmopolitanism are therefore foregrounded. This first session aims to enable a cross-reference and engagement between the disciplinary aspects and concepts employed in the idea of cosmopolitanism and to map out the shifting of meanings and usages. PLENARY: Morning session: 10-12:30 Location: Sweelinck Room (to be confirmed) Chair: Rosi Braidotti Panel Speakers: Costas Douzinas (for the Leverhume Trust), Lilie Chouliaraki (for the NWO/LSE), Paul Schnabel (for the Treaty of Utrecht) and Bald de Vries (for the Law Faculty/to be confirmed) PLENARY: Afternoon session: 17:15: Inaugural Lecture Treaty of Utrecht Professor Paul Gilroy Location: Aula, Academie Gebouw – Domplein – Utrecht Chair: Professor Wiljan van den Akker (Dean Faculty) Friday 4 December 2009 Cosmopolitanism, Postcolonialism and Human Rights The second day of the conference elaborates and adds depth to the discussions that were initiated in the first session’s position papers. It explores ways in which cosmopolitanism can be rethought from a postcolonial and human rights point of view. It seeks to challenge the traditional understanding of the concept of cosmopolitanism as a common, universal human morality by discussing the concept through postcolonial, feminist and other critical theories. The idea of cosmopolitanism as well as the concept of freedom are questioned in light of global injustices so as to suggest new ways of understanding concepts such as freedom and human rights in a globalised setting. The hope is to explore new cosmopolitanism as basis for solidarity. Furthermore the session aims to address questions relating to the impact of globalising forces on the idea of universal human rights. It suggests that a cosmopolitan perspective causes a demand for reflexivity on human rights, both as a political and legal concept. PLENARY: Morning session: 10-12:30 Location: to be announced Chair: to be announced Speakers: Costas Douzinas, Sneja Gunew PLENARY: Afternoon session: 14-17:00 Location: to be announced Chair: to be announced Speakers: Eugene Holland, Pheng Cheah Saturday 5 December 2009 Workshop on Cosmopolitanism, Identity, Media and Communication These panel discussions are funded by a NWO-British Council grant and are the first of three workshops on the issue of cosmopolitanism, identity and media. This section follows the previous two sections by relating the concept of cosmopolitanism as a common human morality or as relational solidarity and ethics to the technological and communicative advances of mass media, new media and film making. Arguably, mediated suffering call upon spectators to react or empathise with the sufferers on TV. It calls upon a common human morality to extend feelings of solidarity and pity to those who are not like the Western spectators. The media may also produce a pity-fatigue in the spectators. Moreover, journalistic practices enhanced through networked technology, citizen journalism and the internet shatter the idea of the media’s mediating role as gate keeper and controller of who spectators can emphasise with. ‘The other’ is brought into proximity, not through pictures and by evoking feelings of pity, but by bringing him or her communicatively closer. This section will therefore discuss the humanitarian level of cosmopolitan media. In addition this section discusses issues of the use of media as a resistance strategy and as a means of formulating a kind of cosmopolitan solidarity in terms of for instance indie media and the use of media by anti-globalisation social movements more generally and the relation to human rights activism. PANEL DISCUSSION I: Mass Media Morning session: 10-12 Location: to be announced Chair: Bolette Blaagaard Participants: Pheng Cheah (Berkeley), Natalie Fenton (Goldsmith) PANEL DISCUSSION II: New Media Afternoon session: 13:30-16:00 Location: to be announced Chair: Lilie Chouliaraki Participants: Charlie Beckett (LSE), Christina Slade (City), Mirca Madianou (LSE), Bolette Blaagaard (UU) PANEL DISCUSSION III: Migrant Cinema Evening session: 16:15-18:15 Location: to be announced Chair: Charlie Beckett Participants: Jackie Stacey (Birmingham), Sandra Ponzanesi (UU), Yosefa Loshitzky (UEL), Lilie Chouliaraki (LSE) Contact: Esther J.A. Rinkens Centre for the Humanities Utrecht University Achter de Dom 20 NL-3512 JP Utrecht Netherlands Tel: +31 30 2534725 Email: e.rink...@uu.nl Web: http://www.hum.uu.nl/cfh/ __________________________________________________ InterPhil List Administration: http://interphil.polylog.org Intercultural Philosophy Calendar: http://cal.polylog.org
