Please see attached a call for papers for the workshop entitled ‘Occupying Politics in a Time of Alterity’ to be held at Manchester University on 11-12th November 2014.
It seems that the recent encounter with the language of crisis has imprisoned political discourse and robbed it of its imagination to think and act the politics of otherness and difference in ways beyond the existing bureaucratic processes or managerial policies whose focus is on curbing, and trying to minimise otherness in the name of ‘integration’ and ‘assimilation’ or on simply celebrating and defending alterity. This workshop devotes its attention to engaging with the impact of socio-political change on communities and on ideas of cultural difference as alterity; on how communities and individuals react as politically engaged creatures by protesting, rethinking, enacting and remembering otherness not just as an aberration or a triumphant moment of multiculturalism, but as part of everyday life and of identity more generally; and on the way in which alterity informs research approaches linked to ideas of becoming(s), multiplicity, acts, flows, intimacies, borders, irregularities, energies, and aesthetics.
We look for collaborators to expose, explore and experiment with ideas of alterity in the construction of ‘politics’ (broadly understood) and as potential sites of resistance. We strongly welcome submissions from people in disciplines across the humanities and the social sciences, including but not limited to: art, sociology, geography, politics, psychology, education, anthropology, language, development, philosophy, business studies, law, cultural studies and environmental studies.
Abstracts should be no longer than 300 words with a working title and 4 key words. Please submit these by 20th of September to Aoileann.nimhurchu@manchester.ac.uk. Any questions should be directed to the same address.
