CALL FOR PROPOSALS: Politics of knowledge, between particularity and universalism

Nordic Summer University together with Department of History, Lund University

Winter Symposium: March 22 – March 24 2019, Lund university, Lund, Sweden

 

Invitation

We invite scholars, students and practitioners from all fields to take part in a workshop organized by the study circle Critique in the Age of Populism, a migratory non-hierarchical group of international researchers. Our circle is developed within the Nordic and Baltic framework of Nordic Summer University. Since its inception, the primary aim has been to provide a forum for experimentation and cross-disciplinary collaboration welcoming members both from within and outside of universities and other institutions. The study circle provides a space for theoretical experimentation and the cross-fertilization of methodologies. It aims to develop insights that could be used in further research.

 

Theme of the symposium:

Ever since the birth of the modern state, the production of knowledge has been closely entwined with politics. From the early inscription registers, through the sanatoriums to the peoples- and same sex schools, the production of knowledge has been defined by the needs of the nation-state and of citizenship. But education has also been discussed in terms of an individual’s inner and particular self-development, what is often referred to in terms of Bildung. While the well-fare state, in its various European forms, has seen education as a means of raising social awareness, enhancing citizen virtues and enabling equality, pedagogy since at least the 70ties has tended to focus on the individual development of each child as well as on the empowerment of particular social groups. In a parallel development issues such as climate change have created divisions between nations as well as political parties on the purpose and impact of science for legislation and spurred international movements of science deniers. We contend that knowledge is increasingly becoming politicized, from the way in which knowledge is produced, through formulations of the purpose of knowledge production, to the use of knowledge in politics. The processes of politicizing knowledge needs to be studied as a social process in the contemporary as well as in history.

We invite scholars from a broad range of fields, for example sociology, anthropology, media studies, history as well as philosophy to develop on the following themes:

• The relationship between knowledge production and identity politics.
• Knowledge and ignorance as political functions.
• The role of knowledge and ignorance in the construction of public spheres and systems of knowledge-production.
• Knowledge circulation as a public sphere.
• Historic cases of knowledge related to political change.
• Normative reflections on the relationship between knowledge and politics, discussing what role knowledge should play for the political.

 

Key notes:

Andreas Reckwitz, Associate professor of cultural sociology at the European University Viadrina in Frankfurt. Reckwitz has worked extensively with aesthetics and society, from contemporary as well as historic perspectives. His latest book is Die Gesellschaft der Singularitäten, Suhrkamp, 2017.

Kristoffer Kropp, Member at the Institute for Advanced Study, School of Social Science, Princeton, and researcher at the Department of Social Sciences and Business, Roskilde univeristy, Roskilde, Denmark. Kropp is currently working on the production of social scientific knowledge production in Europe and related to Europan integration.

A third key note still to be disclosed.

 

To submit a proposal please send via email to Karolina Enquist Källgren, karolina.enquist_kallgren@hist.lu.se

1. A written proposal (350 words) with a title and descriptive subtitle. This text should include your presentation proposal, its format its duration, facilities you need (I.e. technical equipment)
2. A short bio (200 words)

If you would like to attend the symposium without presenting, please email a short Bio.

 

The deadline to submit proposals is November 30, 2018.  The preliminary program will be announced on December 15, 2018 on http://www.nordic.university where you can also find more information about NSU and sign up for the newsletter.

 

Registration and fee

Students: 100 skr

Those associated with institutions: 350 skr

*Baltic residents: 100 skr

 

The registration fee must be paid by February 28, 2018, to Karolina Enquist Källgren

Swedish bank account: 8105-9 974 511 233-5

SWIFT: SWEDSESS

IBAN: SE50 8000 0810 5997 4511 2335

 

Arrival: March 22

Departure: March 24

 

The Nordic Summer University (NSU) is a Nordic network for research and interdisciplinary studies.

NSU is a nomadic, academic institution, which organises workshop-seminars across disciplinary and national borders. Since it was established in 1950, Nordic Summer University has organised forums for cultural and intellectual debate in the Nordic and Baltic region, involving students, academics, politicians, and intellectuals from this region and beyond.

Decisions about the content and the organisational form of the NSU lay with its participants. The backbone of the activities in the NSU consists of its thematic study circles. In the study circles researchers, students and professionals from different backgrounds collaborate in scholarly investigations distributed regularly in summer and winter symposia during a three-year period.

For more information www.nordic.university