Benjamin - Agamben: Symposium über das Politische im 21. Jahrhundert
24 november 2005
Kunstsammlung NRW, Grabbeplatz 5, Düsseldorf
In samenwerking met de International Walter Benjamin Association en de Universiteit Düsseldorf.
Seminarie Jiddisch III: J. L. Peretz en het Chassidisme
Woensdag 23 en 30 november en 7 december 2005
Universiteit Antwerpen, Rodestraat 14 (lokaal Annex), 2000 Antwerpen
De Jiddische leesgroep van het Instituut voor Joodse Studies organiseert in het eerste semester van dit academiejaar drie seminarienamiddagen onder leiding van Professor Yitskhok Niborski (Maison de la Culture Yiddish - Bibliothèque Medem - Universiteit Parijs-VII) over J. L. Peretz en het Chassidisme.
De seminaries richten zich op de talige, literaire en cultuurhistorische analyse van enkele van Peretz' Chassidische Vertellingen. De in de seminaries gebruikte talen zijn het Jiddisch en het Frans (we helpen elkaar in het Nederlands, het Engels en de sjivim-lesjoines).
Concept, organisatie en begeleiding:
- Dominique Dossche
- Paul Gybels
- Herman Note
Uitnodiging J.L. Peretz en het Chassidisme (NL) (PDF)
"What does the Veil know?"
DOCOP-seminarie met Eva Meyer, Vivian Liska en Katrien Vloeberghs
Hierbij zouden we u hartelijk willen uitnodigen om deel te nemen een het DOCOP-seminarie 'What does the Veil know' met de filosoof en literatuurwetenschapper Eva Meyer rond het thema van de sluier vanuit filosofisch en cultuurwetenschappelijk perspectief.
Het seminarie zal bestaan uit drie delen: een voordracht door Eva Meyer, gevolgd door een dialoog met prof. dr. Vivian Liska en dr. Katrien Vloeberghs en tot slot een discussie met de deelnemers. De activiteit bevindt zich op het snijvlak van literatuur, filosofie, geschiedenis, politiek en cultuurwetenschap en laat inzichten uit poststructuralisme en postkoloniale kritiek aan bod komen. In bijlage vindt u een situering van de problematiek en van de benadering die Eva Meyer in haar voordracht zal kiezen incl. een korte biobibliografie.
Het seminarie zal plaatsvinden op 1 februari 2006 van 14:00-17:00 op de Stadscampus van de Universiteit Antwerpen, Rodestraat 14, 2000 Antwerpen, in lokaal R.Annex. De voertaal is het Engels.
Eva Meyer werd in 1950 in Freiburg geboren. Ze studeerde filosofie, kunstgeschiedenis, archeologie en literaturwetenschap in Freiburg en Berlijn en volgde een opleiding figurentheater aan de Figurentheaterschule in Bochum. Ze is medeoprichtster van de Lilith-vrouwenboekenwinkel en -uitgeverij in Berlijn en doceert in binnen- en buitenland.
Publicaties (selectie):
Zählen und Erzählen. Für eine Semiotik des Weiblichen; Wien, Berlin 1983
Versprechen. Ein Versuch ins Unreine; Basel, Frankfurt 1984Architexturen; Basel, Frankfurt 1986
Briefe oder die Autobiographie der Schrift; Bern 1986
Die Autobiographie der Schrift; Basel, Frankfurt 1989
Der Unterschied der eine Umgebung schafft. Kybernetik-Psychoanalyse-Feminismus; Wien, Berlin 1990
Trieb und Feder; Basel, Frankfurt 1993
Tischgesellschaft; Basel, Frankfurt 1995
Glückliche Hochzeit; Frankfurt vorauss, Herbst 1999
Tentoonstellingen (selectie):
1988: (It's) I prefer chocolate, Galerie Anselm Dreher, Berlin
1992: Documenta 9, Kassel 1993 Aperto, Biennale di Venezia
1994: We is o.k., De Vleeshal, Middelburg
1995: Among others, Biennale di Venezia
1996: Surfing Systems, Kunstverein Kassel
1997: Recasting, Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst, Antwerpen
Filmprojecten:
1997: Comme d'habitude. Une Pièce à engager, 27 min, digital video
1998: Documentary Credit, 71 min, digital video
1999: Europa von weitem, ca. 75 min, digital video
Junior Scholars' Conference "On the Outlook: Figures of the Messianic"
May 10th - 11th, 2006
Universiteit Antwerpen
In conjunction with the international conference "Messianism and the Law" which will take place on 11 and 12 May 2006, the Institute of Jewish Studies at the University of Antwerp is also planning a Junior Researcher Symposium "On the Outlook: Figures of the Messianic" which will be conducted on 10 and 11 May 2006.
This junior scholars' conference will focus on the present state of research into the modes, functions and stakes of messianic thinking in twentieth- and twenty-first-century theory. In recent years, messianic figures of thought are frequently evoked not only in areas that are traditionally connected to it, such as theology and politics, but also in philosophy of history, sociology, philosophy of language, art and literature. It is therefore highly promising to investigate current approaches to the relationship between these more recent writings and the Judeo-Christian legacy as well as the present use of this tradition in various areas.
Particular attention will be paid to new discoveries about the diverse contexts in which messianic thinking emerged, to messianic conceptualizations of discontinuous historiographies developed as a reaction against the concept of linear time and universal history, to the impact of messianic thinking on theories of language and literature, politics and the law and to notions of interruption, human progress and messianic arrest in the philosophical writings of Benjamin, Lévinas, Derrida and other thinkers of the past century. Furthermore, the conference will focus on some of the fundamental controversies, ambiguities and tensions in messianic thinking (human agency vs. divine intervention; passive awaiting vs. active participation; transcendental event vs. revolutionary act; particularist vs. universalist salvation; subjection under the law vs. anarchism and others.)
In gathering a group of international younger scholars, the conference intends to draw the contours of the present state of messianic thinking and to indicate the direction this tradition could possibly take in the future.
Organizers:
Drs. Thomas Crombez
Dr. Katrien Vloeberghs
International Conference "Messianism and the Law" (Filosofie en Jodendom III)
May 11th - 12th, 2006
International Conference
Institute of Jewish Studies, University of Antwerp
in cooperation with the Department of Philosophy at the University of Antwerp & the International Walter Benjamin Association and the Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf
with the kind support of Evens Foundation & Star Diamond Group.
"The essential character of messianism may well be precisely its particular relation to the law". This statement by Giorgio Agamben confirms a renewed interest in the interstices between theological, mystical, political and juridical discourse. In the past decades, philosophers and political thinkers repeatedly drew upon the millennial tradition of messianic thinking in their efforts to come to terms with the injustices of the present. Their conceptions of messianism build upon and revise, modify or radicalize politico-theological theories developed in the period between the two world wars by thinkers who, in the face of doom and destruction, reverted to ancient Judeo-Christian visions of redemption.
In the Jewish tradition, the relationship between messianism and the law ranges from ideas of an absolute restoration of order when "all the ancient laws will again be in force" (Maimonides) to visions of the eventual suspension of the law as such. Historically, attitudes toward messianism and the legal tradition interact with the political and historical conditions as well as with the prevailing theoretical and philosophical discourses of their times. Cross-fertilization between messianism, politics and philosophy also informs recent conceptualizations of history and time, language and the law in the writings of Emmanuel Lévinas, Jacques Derrida and, most recently, Giorgio Agamben.
The conference will explore the traditional and contemporary modes and stakes of messianic thinking in its close interactions with both previous and actual political contexts and theoretical discourses. Contributions will address the ways in which today's messianic thinking relates to its historical Jewish and Christian origins and how it deals with the legacy of its early twentieth-century precursors: Walter Benjamin, Franz Rosenzweig, Ernst Bloch, Gerschom Scholem, Theodor W. Adorno and others. The analysis of messianism in contemporary discourse encourages reflections on the following questions: How does messianism figure in modern and contemporary philosophy? How does it relate to today's state of affairs in the juridical, political and social realm. Is it still primarily a Jewish concern and how has it interacted with other religious and political traditions? How does the impact of Jewish messianism on modern philosophy compare with and relate to other influences of Jewish thought, such as the legalistic tradition? Should Kantian and Neo-Kantian schools of thinking - viewed by some as close to a more mainstream tradition of Jewish ethics - be considered in opposition to or as secularized variants of messianic ideas? How valid, how relevant is it to revert to religious and theological concepts for an analysis of concrete historical events, for an assessment of the present state of the planet and for the task of politics in the future?
Speakers will include Micha Brumlik, Lieven De Cauter, Astrid Deuber-Mankowsky, Moshe Idel, Ashraf Noor, Ada Rapoport-Albert, Aviezer Ravitzky, and Sigrid Weigel.