Past Events

Memorie D’africa. Tracce Coloniali Nella Cultura Italiana 500 300 domonda

Memorie D’africa. Tracce Coloniali Nella Cultura Italiana

The Center for the Humanities and Social Change presents a symposium of “Memories of Africa. Colonial traces in Italian culture”.

Venice, 24/11/2017

From 3 pm to 7 pm at the Aula Magna of Ca‘ Dolfin (map [IT]) scholars, writers and a photographer discuss traces of colonial history in Italian culture.

Vittorio Longhi, Alessandra Di Maio, Shaul Bassi and Elena Cadamuro will give a general introduction, followed by writer and current post-doc reasearcher at the Center for the Humanities and Social Change Igiaba Scego presenting together with photographer Rino Bianchi their book Roma negata (ediesse 2014), „postocolonial itineraries within the city of Rome“. A slideshow of photographs from Rino Bianchi’s project on Eritreans in Rome will be projected.

At 5.30 pm Ethiopian writer Maaza Mengiste, currently in residence at the Waterlines project, will talk with the Italian writer Francesca Melandri (Sangue giusto, Rizzoli 2017).

At 8.30 pm the program continues in a different venue with the play Acqua di colonia [IT], by Daniele Timpano and Elvira Frosini, staged at the Teatro di Ca‘ Foscarri (map [IT]). The paly is in Italian, reservations must be made at:  biglietteria.teatrocafoscari@unive.it

The symposium is part of a wider focus on Africa that will be developed throughout 2018.

Conference: Fountainheads of Toleration 500 300 domonda

Conference: Fountainheads of Toleration

Conference: Fountainheads of Toleration – Forms of Pluralism in Empires, Republics, Democracies.

Venice, 07/06/2018 – 09/06/2018

Organized in Venice by Reset Dialogues on Civilizations, the Humanities & Social Change Center at Ca‘ Foscari University and the Giorgio Cini Foundation, this conference explores the sources of toleration in diverse cultural and religious traditions, in both the secular liberal as in a confessional context, in different historical regions of the world, Western and Eastern, in the Christian history of thought as well as in Hebraism, Islam, Buddhism, Confucianism and Hinduism. In the history of these different systems of thought what are the developments that have led on the one side to an exclusivist, extremist and fundamentalist perspective and, on the other side, to an inclusive, pluralist, tolerant view?

More information about the Venice Seminars on the official Website.

abstract painting; visual motif of the conference
Emancipation, International Conference 500 300 domonda

Emancipation, International Conference

50 years after the events of 1968, the question of emancipation is still of central importance.

Berlin, Emancipation 25-27 May 2018 in Berlin.

The international conference “Emancipation” will investigate from a social-philosophical perspective what emancipation is, what actors need to know in order to emancipate themselves and what practical-political conditions the collective capacity to act requires and its dynamics. In addition, at the conference the problem of emancipation will be examined in its connection with other important social-philosophical questions such as “power and domination”, “politics of forms of life” and “hope and utopia”. What will become apparent is that the concept of emancipation is a key concept in social philosophy which allows to connect various approaches from diverse traditions—from Critical Theory, poststructuralism and the recent analytical debates on social critique.

Speakers are: Seyla Benhabib, Didier Eribon, Nancy Fraser, Achille Mbembe, Hartmut Rosa and many others.

abstract painting; visual motif of the conference

The conference will be held in German and in English. Registration for the conference is not required. The conference will take place at HKW (25th of May) and at Technische Universität Berlin (26th and 27th of May). If you have further questions, please write an email to emanzipation2018.philo@hu-berlin.de.

The conference is organised by Prof Dr. Sabine Hark (Technical University Berlin), Prof. Dr. Rahel Jaeggi (Humboldt University Berlin), Dr. des. Kristina Lepold (Goethe University Frankfurt) and Dr. Thomas Seibert (medico international e.V.) with the assistance of Dr. Bastian Ronge, Carolin Botos and the team of the chair of practical philosophy and social philosophy at Humboldt University Berlin and in cooperation with medico international e.V.

Back To Life In Iraq: Art, Destruction, Regeneration 500 300 domonda

Back To Life In Iraq: Art, Destruction, Regeneration

Art is a form of resistance to violence and a hope for a new life in Iraq.

Venice, 16/02/2018 – 07/04/2018

The reporter Emanuele Confortin met the Christian Syriac painter Matti al-Kanun while he was on assignment in Iraq. Upon returning to his city, recently liberated from Isis, al-Kanun reassembled his collection of paintings, including three works with a Christian theme, that had been defaced by the Jihadists, and decided to repair the gashes with plain strips of canvas, leaving the scars visible. This gesture has a dual symbolic value: the rejection of the violence that has plagued Iraq for years and divided its various resident groups; the hope to return soon to a normal existence. In Venice the conservation and restoration students complete the repair work, and al-Kanun’s paintings are displayed alongside with the superb photo reportage by Emanuele Confortin. Back to life in Iraq.

Fountainheads Of Toleration: Call For Students & Young Scholars 500 300 domonda

Fountainheads Of Toleration: Call For Students & Young Scholars

Discover the Summer School and Seminars on Fountainheads of Toleration – Forms of Pluralism in Empires, Republics, Democracies. Deadline for applications on March 15th, 2018

Venice, 04/06/2018 – 09/06/2018

Organized in Venice by Reset Dialogues on Civilizations, the Humanities & Social Change Center at Ca‘ Foscari University and the Giorgio Cini Foundation, the Summer School explores the sources of toleration in diverse cultural and religious traditions, in both the secular liberal as in a confessional context, in different historical regions of the world, Western and Eastern, in the Christian history of thought as well as in Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Confucianism and Hinduism. In the history of these different systems of thought what are the developments that have led on the one side to an exclusivist, extremist and fundamentalist perspective and, on the other side, to an inclusive, pluralist, tolerant view?

Find out more about the Summer School and on how to apply at  http://www.resetdoc.org/event/summer-school-application-2018/
More information about the Venice Seminars at  http://www.resetdoc.org/event/seminars-application-2018/

Interview with Ngugi Wa Thiong’o 500 300 domonda

Interview with Ngugi Wa Thiong’o

The work of Kenyan author Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o includes novels, plays, short stories, and essays, ranging from literary and social criticism to children’s literature.

Venice, 05/04/2018

The Center for the Humanities and Social Change at Ca‘ Foscari University of Venice co-sponsors a dedicated session at the Venice international literature fest Incroci di Civiltà (Crossroads of Civilizations) where world-renowned Kenyan author Ngugi wa Thiong’o, one of Africa’s leading voices, will be interviewed by the Center’s director, Shaul Bassi, and by one the Fellows, writer Igiaba Scego.

Details on the Festival can be found here.

5 April, 6 p.m., at Auditorium Santa Margherita, Dorsoduro 3689, Venice
Event in English, Italian translation available

International Summer School Critical Theory 2018: Re-Thinking Ideology 500 300 domonda

International Summer School Critical Theory 2018: Re-Thinking Ideology

Why do people often accept, and even embrace, social and political conditions that seem to run counter to their own interests? How is it possible that we sometimes support forms of domination with our ways of behaving and thinking without intending or even realizing it?

Berlin, 15-20 July 2018: Summer School Critical Theory.

One answer to these questions refers to the notion of ideology. Ideologies are more or less coherent systems of practices and beliefs that shape how individuals relate to their social reality in ways that distort their understanding of what is wrong with that reality and thereby contribute to its reproduction.

The summer school will seek to clarify the meanings and theoretical roles of ideology, as the concept has been prominently developed from the writings of Marx via Critical Theory in the tradition of the Frankfurt School to more recent debates in feminism and analytic philosophy. Key contemporary protagonists of ideology critique like Sally Haslanger, Robert Gooding-Williams, Axel Honneth, Alice Crary, Karen Ng, Titus Stahl, Robin Celikates, Martin Saar and Rahel Jaeggi will be present at the summer school and facilitate debates both of key texts from canonical authors and of their own systematic positions.

Instructors: Robin Celikates (University of Amsterdam), Alice Crary (Oxford/New School), Robert Gooding-Williams (Columbia), Sally Haslanger (MIT), Axel Honneth (Columbia/IfS), Rahel Jaeggi (HU Berlin), Karen Ng (Vanderbilt), Martin Saar (Goethe University Frankfurt), Titus Stahl (Groningen).

Organizers: Rahel Jaeggi, Eva von Redecker, Isette Schuhmacher (Humboldt University Berlin), Robin Celikates (University of Amsterdam), Martin Saar (Goethe University, Frankfurt) in cooperation with the Frankfurt Institute for Social Research and the New School for Social Research.

The application deadline for participants has already closed, but there will be two panel-discussions on the evenings of Monday 16th and Thursday 19th which are open to the public.

International Workshop: Afropean Bridges. Identity, Representation, Opportunities 1024 576 domonda

International Workshop: Afropean Bridges. Identity, Representation, Opportunities

Afropean Bridges aims to open a discussion about the achievements of the Africa-EU partnership and to address social and cultural issues related to the post-colonial relationship between European and African countries.

Venice, 20/04/2018

The international workshop is organized by the Center for the Humanities and Social Change at Ca‘ Foscari University of Venice in partnership with the NGO Progressi.

Full program and more information here

A new edition of Afropean Bridges is in the making for March 2019. Stay tuned.


April 20th, 2018 – 10 a.m – 6 p.m.
Ca’ Foscari University of Venice
Aula Baratto (2nd Floor)
Dorsoduro 3246, Calle Larga Foscari

Alice Crary: Inside Ethics, Book Presentation (invitation only) 500 300 domonda

Alice Crary: Inside Ethics, Book Presentation (invitation only)

We have come to think of human beings and animals as elements of a morally indifferent reality that reveals itself only to neutral or science-based methods.

Berlin, 31/05/2018.

This little-commented-on trend, which shapes the work of moral philosophers and popular ethical writers alike, has pernicious effects, distorting our understanding of the difficulty of moral thinking. Inside Ethics traces the roots of existing views to tendencies in ethics, metaphysics, and philosophy of mind. Crary underlines the moral urgency of revisiting our approach in ethics so that, instead of assuming we confront a world that itself places no demands on moral imagination, we treat the exercise of moral imagination as necessary for arriving at an adequate world-guided understanding of human beings and animals. The result is a commanding case for a reorientation in ethics that illuminates central challenges of moral thought about human and animal lives, directing attention to important aspects of these lives that are otherwise hidden from view.

Organized by the chair for social philosophy (Rahel Jaeggi) and the social philosophy research Colloquium.

31st May 2018 6-9pm (Invitation Only) in Berlin

PROVOCATIONS | Session #1 | What do we owe to trolls and Nazis? 500 300 Nina Rismal

PROVOCATIONS | Session #1 | What do we owe to trolls and Nazis?

What do we owe to trolls and Nazis?

Community Discussion Group PROVOCATIONS | Session #1

March 16th, 2018, 6-8 p.m.

SBCAST @ 513 Garden St., Santa Barbara

 

How do democratic virtues change as our civic life increasingly moves online? Should we try to reason with Nazis? Must we show respect to trolls? Drawing on case studies and participants’ own experiences, this workshop will ask hard questions about democracy and citizenship in the digital age. We will listen to Lindy West’s story, “If you don’t have anything nice to say, SAY IT IN ALL CAPS,” and read excerpts from Angela Nagles’ Kill All Normies to consider what the evolution of online communi- ties and the “culture wars” might mean for American democracy.

The event will be followed by a reception.