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Call for Papers Theme: Walls Subtitle: Thinking Through Insularity Type: 12th East/West Philosopher's Conference Institution: East-West Center (EWC) Department of Philosophy, University of Hawai'i at Mānoa Location: Honolulu, HI (USA) Date: 22.–29.5.2020 Deadline: 1.11.2019 __________________________________________________ The 12th East/West Philosopher’s Conference will be dedicated to the topic of walls. While walls can be physical, they can also be psychological, social, political, economic, and ontological. Understood metaphorically, walls are any real or virtual barrier to the uninhibited flow of people, products, affects, and ideas. In his poem, “Mending Walls,” the American poet Robert Frost famously opined: “Something there is that doesn’t love a wall, that wants it down.” And yet it might be said that we are living at a time in which many people are coming to believe that “good fences make good neighbors.” Ours is apparently an era in which differences of histories, cultures and identities are engaged as sources of insight, but also one of populist retrenchment — a period in which cultures, peoples, and nations have begun turning inward, shunning many of the promises that globalization made regarding the prospects of economic, political, and cultural exchange and interdependence. In recent years, we have witnessed the crumbling of international alliances, the emergence of trade wars, a reinvestment in notions of national sovereignty, an increasing number of disputes over borders, and many expressions of populist discontent regarding migration and changing demographics. Wall building for the purposes of protection and identity reinforcement are not new. The Great Wall of China, Hadrian’s Wall, and in modern times, the Berlin Wall, are all ideological-cultural artifacts intended to separate and consolidate. Yet, after decades of rhetoric about interdependence-generating globalization, what are the sources of current and often fervent desires to distinguish radically between what is “ours” and what is “theirs”? What are their root causes and their likely outcomes if put into action? Are there prospects for reversal and transformation? And most importantly, how should we understand, relate, and respond philosophically to this new “age of insularity?” We invite participants to reflect upon the significance of constructing, deconstructing, scaling, circumventing, penetrating and “tagging” walls. What does it mean to put up and take down walls — whether within the context of interpersonal relationships, among groups within national borders, or among members of the international human community? Which walls are the most pressing sites of struggle? How do the world’s various philosophical traditions dispose us to think about the notion of the wall? How should philosophy understand the processes, practices, and ideologies of insularity? And, what prospects do conversations among various world philosophies open for thinking through these walls? Of special interest are panels and papers that explore the constructed nature of the “walls” between nations and cultures, but also between the private and public spheres, between ethics and economics, between the human and the natural sciences, between disciplines, between classes, genders and generations, and between the academy and societies it serves. Keynote Presenters Jonardon Ganeri, New York University, Abu Dhabi “Bridges and Doors: The Importance of the Interjacent Intellectual Wendy Brown, University of California, Berkeley “What Kinds of Boundaries Sustain Democracy and the Earth? Thinking in the Inter-regnum Between the National and the Global” Paper and Panel Submissions We invite proposals for individual papers and panels. Please submit a 250-300 word abstract to the Conference organizers via: [email protected] Submission Timeline: November 1, 2019 Notifications of acceptance for abstracts and panel proposals received by the November 1 will be sent out by December 15, 2019. We have established an early submission timeline to facilitate faculty applying to their own institutions for travel funding. Abstracts received after November 1, 2019 will be vetted as received, taking into consideration the late submission. The absolute deadline for abstract submissions is March 15, 2020. After this, we will not be able to accommodate additional proposals. Final Papers Due: April 15, 2020 Conference Registration and Logistics Hosted in keeping with the Hawaiian Islands’ spirit of aloha, there is no registration fee for the Conference. Breakfast and lunch will be provided for all registered presenters, as well as an opening reception and final dinner. The Conference does not provide lodging or travel support, but economical lodgings of various kinds are readily available in Honolulu. Conference website: http://hawaii.edu/phil/call-for-proposals-12th-east-west-philosophers-conference/ __________________________________________________ InterPhil List Administration: https://interphil.polylog.org InterPhil List Archive: https://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ __________________________________________________
