Teaching and Research Area Theory of Politics, Humboldt University Berlin (Web)

Time: 08.-09.06.2023
Venue: Berlin
Abstracts by: 17.10.2022

The history of political thought is usually narrated as a sequence of canonical authors reflecting on a limited set of perennial problems, such as justice, freedom, domination, tyranny, and the just regime. However, feminist and decolonial approaches have long contested this narrative. By tracing diverse lineages in the history of political thought, they seek to rectify problematic omissions while elucidating contemporary issues.

In recent years, scholars working in the history of political thought have increasingly showed an interest in re-centering marginalized bodies of thought. This conference aims to set up a dialogue between these different approaches to shed light on the thematic, methodological, and political dimensions of rewriting the history of political thought. How can we place authors, traditions, and concepts center-stage that are typically relegated to the margins of the dominant historical narrative? Particular attention will be paid to marginalized concepts (slavery, foreignness, infidelity), non-Western and women political thinkers who have been excluded, and political events that have been dismissed as falling outside of the scope of political thought (for example the “woman question” or the Haitian revolution).

In this workshop, the organizers wish to contribute to the current discussion by addressing case studies, methodological questions, and strategies that aim to diffuse Western, male-centered history of political thought. Covering the period from the late Middle Ages to the present, the workshop follows three closely interwoven threads: Read more … (PDF)

• Confirmed speakers: Catarina Belo, Cairo  |  Sandrine Bergès, Ankara/Leeds |  Gurminder K. Bhambra, Sussex |  Barrymore Bogues, Providence |  Julia Costa Lopes, Groningen |  Marguerite Deslauriers, Montreal |  Sanjay Seth, London

Source: H-Soz-Kult

Ty Blakeney, William M. Burton, Ilana Eloit, Carolina Topini, and Agnès Vannouvong (Web)

Time: 17.-18.03.2023
Venue: University of California, Berkeley

Time: 19.-21.06.2023
Venue: Université de Genève

In 2023, we will mark the 20th anniversary of the passing of the lesbian activist, writer and philosopher Monique Wittig (1935-2003), as well as the 50th anniversary of the publication of her Corps lesbien, with a two-part international conference. Hosted by the Department of French at the Univ. of California – Berkeley and the Institut des Études Genre at the Univ. de Genève, this conference seeks to encourage new directions in scholarship on Wittig and to stimulate transatlantic and international exchange about her. The organizers are guided in this by the spirit of Wittig’s own life, split between Europe and North America, and the bilingual corpus she left with us.

The reception of Wittig’s work has been divided both temporally and linguistically. A first period, from the late 1960s to the mid-1990s, saw her influence spread throughout Europe and North America. She initially made her name as a novelist identified with the Nouveau Roman, then as an activist and theorist within the women’s liberation movement. These indissociable literary and political projects led her work to become one of the foundational building-blocks of postmodern feminism and queer theory in the US. There followed a relative decline in scholarly attention paid to her ideas. But in the past decade, a reinvigorated enthusiasm for Wittig on both sides of the Atlantic and elsewhere has emerged, opening a second moment of reception.

One goal of this conference is to connect these two periods, to historicise the waxing and waning of interest in Wittig’s work. Another is to assess the stakes of contemporary reception of that work both within and outwith academia. In the context of revitalised feminist and lesbian activism, this task is all the more compelling. Read more … (PDF)

Source: Female-l