[Discussion] Alterity and the Experience of Limits

[gonul@bilkent.edu.tr]

International Society for Intellectual History 
(ISIH) 

CALL FOR PAPERS 

Alterity and the Experience of Limits 
International conference at the Department of History, Bogaziçi 
University, 
Istanbul, Turkey 
December 10-13, 2003 

Alterity has emerged as one of the master concepts of recent thought, 
powerfully influencing our ideas about the formation of personal and 
collective identity, narratives of encounter and confrontation, theories 
of meaning, and experience of limits and transgression. Disciplines as 
diverse as anthropology, theology, psychoanalysis, literary criticism, 
philosophy, and history have employed, confronted, theorized and 
problematized various conceptions of alterity or otherness. The ISIH 
conference in Istanbul invites intellectual historians and scholars from 
any field to explore: 

· The history of the category of alterity. When was alterity invented 
and used in the social and human sciences? What historical circumstances 
account for the emergence and development of the concept of alterity? 
What antecedents or similarities might be found in other times and 
places? How does alterity relate to such analytic categories as 
transmutation, transformation, change, discovery, novelty or paradigm 
shift? 
· The experience of limits. How does alterity –as the existence of 
opposed terms within a shared system in which relations become possible– 
function as a concept and a rhetoric that expands and/or destabilizes 
the limits of knowledge, classification and law? 
· Case studies in intellectual and cultural history of the role played 
by alterity or otherness in concept formation, the growth of 
disciplines, and representations of identity and difference. 

The ISIH invites intellectual historians and scholars from other fields 
to submit abstracts for individual papers or proposals for sessions. 
Submissions should be in English or in French and consist of a title, a 
brief abstract of 150-250 words, a short bio-bibliography of 50 words 
and complete contact information. Session proposals should consist of a 
session title, titles and brief abstracts for each paper, and complete 
contact information. Proposals must be received by 1 July 2003 and sent 
by e-mail (Word for PC or Rich Text Format attachment) or by postal mail 
to the conference organizer: 
Levent Yilmaz (Centre Louis Gernet-EHESS) 
105 rue de l’Ouest 75014 Paris – France 
E-mail: levent@easynet.fr 
Professor Selçuk Esenbel is the correspondent of ISIH at Bogaziçi 
University. 

Participants must be(come) members of ISIH. Information about 
membership, conference registration and accommodation will be provided 
to the participants by 15 September 2003. Foundation of Intellectual 
History will assure a limited number of financial grants for junior 
scholars. 

ISIH: www.the-isih.org