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Conference Announcement Theme: The Sacred in a Global Age Type: International Conference Institution: Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (CRASSH), University of Cambridge Location: Cambridge (United Kingdom) Date: 4.–5.9.2014 __________________________________________________ The aim of this two-day conference is to engage with selected manifestations of the sacred in the contemporary world. On the one hand, humanitarian politics has followed a bias towards protecting victims and saving strangers. On the other hand, the sacred is inexorably linked to sacrifice. The ‘war on terrorism’ has abundantly illustrated the power of performance and mediatised images of suicide bombing, torture, or the sacrifice of innocent live abundantly. The interpretive line of this conference is not whether the sacred has ‘returned’ or always been there. Rather, it is to understand conditions of political fluidity that make quests for sacrality emerge. The structure of this conference will be thematical: it will deal with a genealogy of humanitarian politics, with the changing political forms of the sacred, including secular political utopias, cults of remembrance, but also the rise of sacred violence in the name of religious fundamentalism, torture, and sectarian violence. Programme Thursday 4 September 9.00-9.20 Registration 9.20-9.30 Introduction 9.30-11.15 SESSION 1 - Antonio Cerella (University of Central Lancashire): Homo Sacer Revisited: Sacrality and Immanence in Global Politics - Roberto Farneti (University of Bozen/Bolzano): On the Persistence of Sacrifice 11.15-11.30 Coffee break 11.30-13.15 SESSION 2 - Elisabetta Brighi (POLIS, Cambridge University): On the Globalisation of Resentment: Notes on Fifth-Wave Terrorism - Roger Griffin (Oxford Brookes University): The Terrorist Mission as the Sacralisation of Anomic Time and Space 13.15-14.15 Lunch 14.15-16.00 SESSION 3 - Jodok Troy (University of Innsbruck): Diplomatic Service of the Holy See in International Society - Francois Foret (Université Libre de Bruxelles): Sacred at home, sacred abroad: two divergent paths? How the European Union relates to religion in domestic and foreign politics 16.00-16.15 Coffee break 16.15-18.00 SESSION 4 - Sara Silvestri (City University, London): Exploring the Concept of Faith among Muslim Women in Eurpe - Joe Webster (Queen's University, Belfast): The Sacred Power of the Parade: Orange Domination, for a Moment or Two Friday 5 September 9.00-10.45 SESSION 5 - Karin Fierke (University of St Andrews): The Sacred Performance: Self Sacrifice as a Political Act of Speech - Irene Herrmann (University of Geneva): Playing with/on the Sacred: the International Humanitarian Law 10.45-11.00 Coffee break 11.00-11.50 SESSION 6 - Harald Wydra (POLIS/St Catharine’s College, Cambridge University): The Sacred Sources of Humanity 11.50-13.00 FINAL DISCUSSION 13.00-14.00 Lunch Conveners Harald Wydra (University of Cambridge) Irene Herrmann (University of Geneva) Contact: Dr Harald Wydra St Catharine's College University of Cambridge Cambridge, CB2 1RL United Kingdom Tel: +44 1223 337856 Email: [email protected] Web: http://www.crassh.cam.ac.uk/events/25042 __________________________________________________ InterPhil List Administration: http://interphil.polylog.org Intercultural Philosophy Calendar: http://cal.polylog.org __________________________________________________
