As
scholars in the humanities and social sciences today we are faced by global
realities that present veritable and immediate challenges to the foundations of
our work and our sense of emplacement. We work in disciplinary frames that were
shaped in particular cultural, political and colonial moments and whose claim
to universality has long since been contested. Since early in the 20th
century most of our disciplines have had to go through a series of radical turns,
occasionally leading to the emergence of new multidisciplinary modes of
inquiry, such as cultural studies, postcolonial studies and global history,
which have not only questioned disciplinary formations but also the concepts
that determine the reach and legitimacy of our work. As Mieke Bal has argued
already back in the 1990s, “interdisciplinarity in the humanities, necessary,
exciting, serious, must seek its heuristic and methodological basis in concepts rather
than methods” (Travelling Concepts in the Humanities,
p. 5). However, we might do well to
remember that the circulation of critical and theoretical concepts comes with
power differentials that have to do with what constitutes knowledge in
disciplinary practices, and not just with the institution and projections of
geopolitics in travelling theories.
The
aim of this interdisciplinary workshop is twofold: first, we propose to explore
concepts, to discuss their significance in multidisciplinary frames and how
they operate in our work. Each participant will present a concept of their own
choice, discuss its significance and development within a disciplinary and
interdisciplinary frame of inquiry, and then reflect on the use of this
concept in their own research. How do we move from concept to method? How are
concepts translated across disciplinary, linguistic and cultural forms? What
semantic and syntactic changes occur in order to produce the grammar of meaning
that constitute our critical positionalities? The workshop is therefore a
critical reflection on the conceptual and ethical dimensions of our scholarly
pursuits.
The
second aim of the workshop is community building. The workshop brings together
scholars from both institutions to learn about each other’s research projects
and to facilitate further collaboration. Scholars from a broad range of
disciplines, including literary and cultural studies, history, philosophy,
anthropology and political science.
Coordinators:
Islam Dayeh (Freie Universität)
Ayman El-Desouky (Doha Institute for
Graduate Studies)
Workshop
Program
Doha, 18-20
February 2018
Sunday, 18
February 2018
13:30-14:00 Reception
14:00-15:00 Welcome
Address:
The
Doha Institute: A Vision for the Humanities and Social Sciences
Yasir Suleiman Malley,
Acting President and Vice
President for Academic Affairs
Doha Institute for Graduate
Studies
15:00-16:00 Opening
Session: Concepts in the Humanities & Social Sciences
Chair: Abdelwahab El-Affendi,
Dean of the School of Social
Sciences and Humanities
Doha Institute for Graduate
Studies
Travelling Concepts:
The Ethical Dimensions of Scholarly Pursuits
Islam
Dayeh (Freie Universität
Berlin)
The
Afterlife of Concepts: Untranslatables or Philosophemes?
Ayman El-Desouky (Doha Institute for Graduate Studies)
Monday, 19 February 2018
Welcome Note
Abdelwahab El-Affendi, Dean of the School of
Social Sciences and Humanities
Doha Institute for Graduate
Studies
9:00-11:00 Roundtable One
Gunther
Gebauer Fairness
Ahmed Badawi Democracy
Chair and Discussant: Abdelwahab El-Affendi
11:00-11:30
Coffee
Break
11:30-13:30 Roundtable Two
Sophie
Richter-Devroe Gesture
in the Field
Shourideh
Molavi
Forensic Architecture
Chair and Discussant: Sebastian Conrad
13:30-15:00
Lunch Break
15:00-17:00
Roundtable
Three
Konrad
Hirschler Archive
Christoph
Wulf Anthropology
Chair
and Discussant: Esmail Nashif
17:00-17:30 Roundtable
& Concluding Remarks
Ayman
El-Desouky & Islam Dayeh
19:00 Dinner
Tuesday, 20 February 2018
9:00-11:00 Roundtable Four
Atef
Botros State of
Exception
Abdelwahab El-Affendi Terrorism vs. Democracy
Chair
and Discussant: Susanne Klengel
11:00-11:30 Coffee Break
11:30-13:30 Roundtable Five
Susanne
Klengel Sur/South
Sebastian
Conrad
Asia
Chair and Discussant: Ayman El-Desouky
13:30-15:00 Lunch Break
15:00-17:00 Roundtable Six
Dana
Olwan
Migrating Genders
Esmail
Nashif
The Tragic
Chair
and Discussant: Konrad Hirschler
17:00-17:30 Roundtable
& Concluding Remarks
Ayman
El-Desouky & Islam Dayeh
19:00 Dinner
