CALL FOR ABSTRACTS: (DIS)CONTINUOUS IDENTITIES: GLOBALIZATION, TRAUMA, AND RECONCILIATION

CALL FOR ABSTRACTS

Conference Presentation & Journal Contribution
(Dis)continuous Identities: Globalisation, Trauma, and Reconciliation

Deadline for Abstracts: September 15, 2017
Associated Institutions: BISLA, the Bratislava International
School of Liberal Arts
Contact: theliberalherald@bisla.sk
Website: tlherald.wordpress.com

EDITORS
Jakub Tlolka, MSc.
Mgr. Dagmar Kusá, PhD.
James Griffith, PhD.

From November 30 to December 1, 2017, The Liberal Herald, an interdisciplinary academic platform based at the Bratislava International School of Liberal Arts (BISLA), will hold its 4th academic conference for undergraduate students and faculty. The theme of this year’s event is (Dis)continuous Identities – Globalisation, Trauma, and Reconciliation.

Cultural identities, as we know them today, evolved in the era of nation-state formation. Forged within an international system of modern states, they have been cemented by domestic and international norms and institutions and ritualized in invented traditions, nationalized history accounts, archives, museums, rhetoric of political leaders and parties.

The Big History of international relations and domestic historical turning points reshape the discourses of cultural identities, at times fundamentally. Since 1989, there have been several such events that reverberated across the globe. The end of the Cold War resulted in a collapse of oppressive regimes followed by transitions to democracy in Central and Eastern Europe, South Africa, Latin America, and East Asia. The turbulence of these times led to massive conflicts and violence in the Balkans, central Africa and elsewhere. Much of this past is still being addressed in the processes of political transition, with greater or lesser emphasis. Is there an institutional recipe for success?

How is globalisation impacting these processes and cultural identities within the impacted societies? How are the economic crises, the refugee crisis, and the rise of identity politics on the right and the left reshaping the discourses of who belongs?
At The Liberal Herald’s 4th academic conference, we hope to explore these issues from a broad variety of perspectives, as their interconnections can be found within political science, international relations, cultural anthropology, political economics, philosophy, ethics, theology, or psychology. We therefore encourage contributors to adopt an interdisciplinary approach in addressing the problem.

GENERAL TOPIC SUGGESTIONS
1. Identity and cultural trauma
What role do political regimes play in the formation of collective identities?
How does historical trauma shape current political discourses?
Persistence and resolution of cultural trauma in societies
How is collective identity impacted by a dominant discourse of cultural trauma?
What other concepts can be used to address identity and culture (e.g., primary vulnerability)?

2. Institutional mechanisms for addressing the past
Acknowledgment, apology, forgiveness – which are legitimate goals of transition on a political level?
Truth, peace, and justice – institutional balancing of core principles of societal reconciliation.
Ethical and economic questions of reparations
Do societies have a duty to remember? Consequences of remembering and of forgetting on the quality of democracy.

3. Globalisation and its impact on identity politics
Winners and losers of the globalization process
Ontology of anxiety – populist responses to cultural identities in flux
Social insecurity and rise of identity politics

4. European Union and European identity
BREXIT, the refugee crisis, and European identity or identities
How are the latest crises influencing the discourse about European identity?

CRITERIA FOR ABSTRACTS
Contributors must submit abstracts which are
- pertinent to the subject matter
- scholarly
- in English
- max. 300 words long
Authors of selected abstracts will be informed by September 30, 2017. Authors will be required to submit their complete entries, revised and edited, by November 25, 2017. All papers should be submitted via online form(https://goo.gl/forms/wd91gaqvyfjLrHtp2).

COMPLETE PAPER CRITERIA
Selected papers will be published in 2018 in the special issue of the peer-reviewed journal of critical thinking Kritika & Kontext, affiliated with BISLA.
- 2000 – 3500 words long
- revised and edited
- in the APA format