The Role of the Intellectual in Times of Turmoil: Ways of Looking at Europe’s Troubled Geist

The Berlin Center for Intellectual Diaspora at the Catholic Academy in Berlin is honoured to host this year’s ISSEI conference. As part of the Cohesion through Conflict project we initiate seminars and conferences to discuss interreligious, secular—religious, and cross-cultural dialogues. One of our central aims is to foster debates even on highly controversial topics, for we are convinced that only by embracing a candid attitude that gives voice and ear to any legitimate perspective in current-day conflicts can we create a free, kind and fearless cohabitation of peoples and cultures that are very different from each other. If viewed from the outside by diasporic Europeans and citizens of extra-European cultures, Europe is still seen as a very desirable place in the world. It is, however, haunted and troubled by many conflicts which sometimes affect its very heart. It appears that views from the outside can sometimes radically differ from or conflict with the views from within Europe. But this kind of discrepancy is exactly what we wish to explore more thoroughly by inviting our guests from all over the world.

Founded in 1984 as an international intellectual forum by the late Ezra and Sasha Talmor, who were founding members of Kibbutz Nachshonim in Israel and the founding editors of the interdisciplinary journal The European Legacy: Toward New Paradigms (published by Routledge, UK), ISSEI holds together a large group of scholars who look at Europe and its rich past from a variety of disciplines and points of view. Over almost 40 years the journal along with ISSEI’s conferences have created a cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary tradition for the exchange of ideas between practicing academics, artists, and public figures actively engaged in local and global political projects. Often held at smaller universities on the “margins” of Europe and attended by intellectuals who have a history of “yearning” for Europe, these conferences have given rise to a continuous discourse of its own kind. This ISSEI conference—held for the first time in Germany—will pay particular attention to the meaning of secular and postsecular aspects of Europe and the West and to the self-positioning of intellectuals in times of turmoil.

Format: Academic conference.
Organizing committee:
Dr. Gesine Palmer (Theology), conference co-chair, Berlin
ISSEI / The European Legacy: Dr. Edna Rosenthal, editor and conference co-chair (Modern English Literature), Dr. Ruvik Rosenthal (Sociolinguistics), Tel Aviv; Professor Wayne Cristaudo, editor and conference co-chair (Philosophy and Political Science); Neri Sevenier, editorial assistant and conference coordinator, Tel Aviv

Guests from ISSEI:
Prof. Dr. Martin C. K. Chung (Government and International Studies), Hong Kong; Prof. Dr. Douglas Cremer (Modern History and Philosophy), Woodbury University, USA; Prof. Dr. Theodor Damian (Theology and Philosophy), Metropolitan College of New York; Prof. Dr. Francis Raska (History and North American Studies), Prague; Dr. Benedikt Haller (Foreign Policy), Berlin; Dr. Simone Raudino (Political Science and Economics), Brussels; Prof. Dr. Marianna Papastephanou (Philosophy of Education), Cyprus; Dr. Gerson Gal (Social and Political Science), Haifa; Prof. Dr. Heinz Uwe Haus (Theatre), University of Delaware; Prof. Dr. Peter Zazzali (Theatre), James Madison University, USA; Prof. Dr. Iddo Landau (Philosophy), Haifa; Prof. Dr. Victor Castellani (Classics), University of Denver; Prof. Dr. Jürgen Lawrenz (Philosophy), University of Sidney.

Keynote speakers: Prof. Dr. Laurie M. Johnson (Political Science), Kansas State University; Prof. Dr. Patrice Canivez (Philosophy), Université de Lille.

Ort: Katholische Akademie
Sprache: Englisch