[spectre] Posting of CFP for Graduate Conference

[Erlanger Ethik-Konferenz]

C A L L  F O R  P A P E R S             
 
 
New submission deadline: October 1, 2007
 
 
8th Interdisciplinary, International Graduate Conference 2007
23 - 25 November, University of Erlangen/Nuremberg
 
Ethics and/or justice after postmodernism:
Revisioning media, politics, and the arts in the 21st century
 
 
Hosted by the Departments of German Studies, Philosophy, English and American Studies, Media Sciences, 
Political Sciences and Social Sciences of the University of Erlangen/Nuremberg, Germany 
 
 
Keynote address: 
Simon Critchley (NYU): Ethics of commitment, politics of resistance
 
Plenaries:
Antje Kley (Erlangen): Ethics - Media - Representation. Aesthetic Experience and Identity Formation in Richard Powers' Novel "Plowing the Dark"(2000)
 
Joachim Renn (Erlangen): Second Order Ethics
 
Poetry Reading by the Austrian-Jewish writer Robert Schindel (Vienna)
and ensuing discussion with Klaus Holz (Dortmund)
 
 
 
Young scholars (postgraduates and assistant professors) are invited to present papers at our conference. 
 
Possible topics include, but are not limited to:
 
- Ethics of deconstruction/deconstruction of ethics
 
- Ethics and narration
 
- Intercultural ethics and hermeneutics
 
- Ethics and (cultural) translation
 
- Language and normative pragmatics
 
- Ethics in contemporary art and film 
 
- Media theory and media ethics
 
- Technologies of the self
 
- Boundaries of the human
 
- Governmentality and biopolitics
 
- Construction of (national, gender) identities
 
- New antisemitism
 
- Religiousness and fanatism
 
- Post-marxist politics
 
- Limits to postmodern liberalism
 
- Global society - global ethics
 
- Concepts of love, hospitality and friendship
 
 
Please register using our online submission form at http://www.gradnet.de 
The deadline for paper proposals (max. 250 words) is now extended to October 1, 2007). 
For scholars who wish to attend the conference without giving a paper the deadline for registration is Friday, 16 November 2007.
 
 
 
The reformulation of ethical narratives may be seen as one of the most prominent signatures of the current political debate, 
of mass-media communication, and of present literary and artistic productions. 
The conference will focus on this recent 'ethical turn', observable in these various and heterogeneous fields. 
However, does the focus on ethical questions (as centering on the individual) exclude claims for political, social, 
gender or ethnical justice, or are they mutually dependent?
 
The conference will ask whether the increase in subjects concentrating on ethical issues indicates a return to traditional and normative positions, 
marking the end of postmodern relativity and indifference. 
In this context, the present hostility to theory could be just as significant as the notable process of re-essentializing reality 
constructions previously put into question by theories of difference. 
Or, on the contrary, is the recent ethically based debate to be seen as a continuation of postmodern theories, 
insofar as the implicit question of justice in poststructuralist thought has now turned into an explicitly ethical-political discourse, 
facing the conflicts and challenges of a global and post-capitalist world?
 
Taking this into account, how can politically just and ethical actions be constituted and 
legitimized without the (religious, metaphysical, anthropologic) grands récits that have traditionally served as their foundation? 
How can theorists ground their arguments if they continue to pursue poststructuralist ideas, 
when they have been employed to deconstruct the basic assumptions that have anchored western identity?
 
With our interdisciplinary and international conference we would like to discuss 
what space justice and ethics occupy in contemporary everyday life and in the present academic discourse. 
In what ways do issues concerning ethics and/or justice appear
 
- in the media and in the arts (as return to narration, as new forms of a littérature engagée, as remembrance culture)?
- in politics (as forms of inclusion and exclusion; as justice of recognition and redistribution)?
- in disciplines such as philosophy and the social sciences, which theoretically and practically analyse forms of acting ethically and/or justly?
 
 
Panels with three to five speakers will last two to two and a half hours. 
The time allocated for each paper is about 15 minutes to permit ample time for discussion. 
The official languages are English and German.
 
You will be notified whether your proposal has been accepted by October 4,2007. 
In the case of scholars travelling from outside Germany, 
we shall endeavour to reach decisions earlier in order to facilitate travel arrangements. 
Before the conference, contributions should be posted on our web page in order to facilitate discussion. 
The deadline for the submission of these short contributions is October 21, 2007.
 
Selected papers will be published in the conference proceedings. 
The conference fee is 20 EUR.
 
The University of Erlangen-Nürnberg is proud to be able to offer three Bursaries 
for scholars who come from nations whose scholars cannot normally afford to attend conferences in Western Europe. 
Applications for bursaries, including a curriculum vitae, should reach us by Friday, 23 September 2007.
 
For additional information and for registration go to our webpage: 
"http://www.gradnet.de".
 
If you have further inquiries, please do not hesitate to contact us at:
"info.ethik07 at gradnet.de".
 
Academic organizers: 
Alexandra Boehm, M.A. (Comparative Literature), Mark Schoenleben, M.A. (Philosophy)
Universität Erlangen, Institut für Philosophie, Bismarckstr. 1, 91054 Erlangen, Germany