Bavarian American Academy Online Conference – “Rethinking Solidarity”
Topic Bavarian American Academy Conference - "Rethinking Solidarity”
When: Thursday 8th July (1400-2000 CET) and Friday 9th July (1500-2030 CET)
There is no conference fee. The conference will be held online.
Please register for participation at info@amerika-akademie.de
Link to current info on the conference and conference program can found at:
https://www.amerikahaus.de/akademie/portfolio/jahreskonferenz/
Over the last decades, U.S. society has witnessed dramatic clashes between the claims of individualism and the values of community and citizenry. Despite social movements such as Occupy Wallstreet, Black Lives Matter, and Fridays for Future, the idea of solidarity – relying on republican ideals of social cohesion, religious traditions, and the notion of the public good – appears to have lost traction in the U.S. and beyond.
In light of these developments, the conference sets out to “rethink solidarity.” This entails interrogating the political, cultural, economic, and environmental dimensions of solidarity as well as addressing solidarity in the context of democracy, including current crisis scenarios and the recurrence of populist imaginaries. In a transnational context, it involves asking how far discourses of globalization undermine bonds of solidarity. Can there be a “global solidarity”? Finally, it implies re-examining the mechanisms and ideological operations that interpellate individuals into subject positions marked by solidarity attachments or obligations.
The conference expands the existing research on solidarity from theoretical vantage points such as affect studies and ecocriticism as it brings together scholars from the social sciences and from literary and cultural studies. It seeks to contribute to a nuanced theoretical understanding of solidarity and its genealogies and to discuss how solidarity can be imagined, conceptualized, and practiced within and beyond national settings.
Contact: Dr. Margaretha Schweiger-Wilhelm
The 20th International Academy Conference is organized by the Bavarian American Academy (BAA). The organizers wish to thank the following institution for its generous support: DFG - Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft