International Conference, January 16-17, 2014
Dissent!
Histories and Meanings of Opposition from 1968 to the Present
An Activity of the Research Group in International Studies, Aalborg
University
Globalization, post-9/11 politics and the post-2008 financial crisis have
all birthed modes and histories of opposition and dissent, be they dissent
from global political-economic systems or opposition to ranges of
international authoritarian regimes. Contemporary dissent, however,
oft-draws from forms and imaginations of earlier modes of protest, be they
student protests from the late ‘60s onward, the peace movement in the same
period, the anti-nukes movement of the 1980s or the anti-Apartheid movement
spanning the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s. Still, dissent takes other historical
forms: individual critiques of “actually existing” socialist systems, be
they civil rights based critique from individual figures such as Sakharov
or Rostropovich (or Solzhenitsyn’s nationalist-culturalism), media-driven
dissent, such as the political magazine Mladina’s criticisms of the
Yugoslav regime in the late 1980s and early 1990s or the voices of
“everyday” social actors, such as the Damas de Blanco in Cuba. In a
historical period encapsulating the last decades of the Cold War and an
unfolding twenty-first century, dissent and social opposition undergo and
have undergone redefinition within the confines of modern and contemporary
culture.
Dissent!: Histories and Meanings of Opposition from 1968 to the Present
addresses these issues with history and theory in dialogue. The conference
seeks to reveal dissent in its ideological, social and political diversity.
The conference seeks to comprehend dissent as “owned” not by one
counter-cultural or ideological position, but via broad pastiches of global
movements and ideas. The conference seeks to address socio-political
opposition as contextually responsive and historically diverse. Moreover,
Dissent! seeks to examine dissidence in a period where late twentieth and
early twenty-first centuries do not necessarily “break” (typically around
1989), but rather provide genealogies of acts warranting comparison,
narrativization, theorization and representation under the heading of
“social and political opposition.” The conference thus calls for papers
falling within the following areas:
· Histories of dissident acts or movements from 1968 to the present
· New theorizations of dissent and socio-political opposition
· Representations of dissent from 1968 to the present, and discussion of
their historical context
· Genealogies of dissident and oppositional socio-political movements
from 1968 to the present
· Dissent and ideology; what are and have been dissenting political
positions in recent history (since ’68) and in what contexts?
· Education and dissent: what challenges are posed teaching either
histories or theories of dissent in institutions of higher education?
Abstracts should be 500 words long and accompanied by a short (two to three
line) biography, including institutional affiliation. The conference plans
a publication based on the presented papers.
Deadline for submission of abstracts: October 1, 2013
Deadline for submission of draft papers: December 1, 2013
Planned keynotes:
Franco “Bifo” Berardi (activist and author of, among other works, The Soul
at Work [Semiotexte])
Barbara Falk (international studies scholar, Canadian Forces College,
author of, among other works, The Dilemmas of Dissidence in East-Central
Europe: Citizen Intellectuals and Philosopher-Kings [Central European
University Press])
Website: http://www.dissent.aau.dk/
Submissions and inquiries may be made to: bdorfman@cgs.aau.dk
Planning Group: Ben Dorfman, Óscar Garcia Agustín, Laura Bang Lindegaard,
Sandro Nickel
Ben Dorfman, PhD
Associate Professor, Intellectual and Cultural History | Department of
Culture and Global Studies
Editor, Ideas in History | Coordinator, Research Group in International
Studies
Kroghstraede 3 | DK-9220 Aalborg East
T: (+45) 9940 9179 | Email: bdorfman@cgs.aau.dk | Web:
http://personprofil.aau.dk/108313