Deadline: 10 August 2020
Open to: activists, intellectuals, artists, academics, as well as all concerned individuals
Venue: 24-25 September 2020, Onilne

Description

In their current, much criticised shape, university departments that provide education in social sciences are often presented as demented and inertia-driven institutions that hopelessly lag behind the galloping real world with its rapidly transforming social relations heavily shaped by the emergence of new technologies. The students and faculty of the Department of International Relations at Central European University, take this critique seriously and would like to create a radical opening that could ensure an influx of new practices and ideas for the university of the future. They would like to scrutinize the current deficiencies of academic institutions and provide an online platform for new forms of expression and knowledge production. For the first event in the post-University project, we focus on topics native to International Relations. However, without imposing any predetermined parameters for valuable knowledge claims, we welcome activists, intellectuals, artists, academics, as well as all concerned individuals to send us their ideas that could shape the university of the future and define its ultimate meaning and goals. What and who is academia for? How should academics continue practicing their craft? How should we engage with the broader public? Contributors, please, feel free to raze us, academics, to the ground! This is partially what this event is for.

Eligibility

They welcome activists, intellectuals, artists, academics, as well as all concerned individuals.
They welcome submissions in various formats: audios, visuals, and texts will all be considered. All audio and visual submissions should be accompanied by a short 250-word contextualizing commentary. Overall, submissions should not only critique but offer suggestions on how to envision and construct an alternative knowledge environment within or outside academic institutions. To apply, please submit an approximately 300-word statement explaining your work and how it fits into the theme of the event.
We welcome submissions in English, Turkish, and Russian (due to administrative capabilities). These are also going to be the working languages of the event.

As every intellectual endeavour needs an ideational or empirical anchoring, we propose a list of topics that could be discussed most productively within CEU’s International Relations Department (due to the nature of its academic expertise). These topics should serve as an inspiration for your submissions and further critical interventions during this event:
– State’s role and responsibility with regards to ensuring, shaping, and protecting public life
– Militarization and securitization of everyday life
– Migrants, diaspora, expats, refugees, and stateless people in their relationship with the hosting states, the states of origin, and international law
– State of exception: its normalization, unmaking, limits, virtues, and vices
– Borders: exclusionary, secured, and re-possessed
– Future of history and history of the future
– (In)equalities: future of knowledge, money, labor, and land
– Mobilization: future of protest, cooperation, and resistance
– Alternative: academia, scholarly debate, knowledge production, voice, and power

Benefits

The opportunity to explore where and how to construct a space for thinking under the condition of criticism during the pandemic and the crisis of universities.