[Discussion] CFP: Commitment and Complicity (Netherlands) (10/15/05; 3/29/06-3/31/06)

[Sule Tarakcioglu]

From: "Graebner, C.M.E." <C.M.E.Graebner@uva.nl>

Trajectories of Commitment and Complicity

Knowledge, Politics, Cultural Production

The Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis (ASCA) invites proposals for the
international workshop, Trajectories of Commitment and Complicity, to be 
held
between 29th - 31st of March, 2006 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. This
interdisciplinary workshop will be dedicated to exploring the concepts of
commitment and complicity as they manifest themselves at the 
intersections of
knowledge, politics and cultural production.

Confirmed Keynote Speakers: Prof. Elleke Boehmer, Prof. Rey Chow and Prof.
Timothy Brennan.

The concepts of commitment and complicity come into play when scholars 
engage
with tensions between knowledge, world politics and everyday life. For 
example,
if one asks how knowledge and methodologies in the humanities can travel 
to make
a difference in everyday politics and vice versa. Although the two 
concepts are
widely used in colloquial language, their intellectual trajectories have 
often
been under-illuminated. Either commitment seemed (a) good in itself, or the
so-called disinterestedness of knowledge production foreclosed any kind of
assessment of the term. Equally, the uses of complicity have kept the 
concept
outside the realm of examination. Either complicity was used to stress the
accommodating roles of knowledge, intellectuals and cultural production in
relation to dominant power structures, or it was celebrated as an enabling
condition for research.

Sparked by an interest in commitment as a form of self-reflexive, 
engaged and
responsible knowledge production, while haunted by the hidden or explicit
complicity of the theories and concepts with which we work, this 
workshop sets
out to examine both concepts within their situated trajectories. In 
order not to
turn blind - methodologically and conceptually - at the very moment we use
commitment and complicity, both concepts need to remain subject to critical
examination. Thus, the question is not whether one is a committed or a 
complicit
scholar, but how the twin concepts crystallize and manifest themselves 
at the
intersections of knowledge, politics and cultural production, and how they
travel through space and time, institutions, and methods of analysis.

Uncomfortably and paradoxically, "individuality," "freedom" and "choice" are
some of the constitutive conditions of intellectual practices. However, the
position of the intellectual, the commitment and/or complicity of the 
knowledge
s/he produces and her/his actions are not merely contingent upon these
conditions, particularly when other notions such as autonomy, intellectual
solidarity, critical thought and answerability are taken into consideration.
Opening up a space for discussion for alternative conceptualizations of
intellectual practices while keeping in mind that knowledge, politics and
cultural production are discourses of power, we wish to develop an 
understanding
that both works with and against commitment and complicity. In doing so, we
intend to treat these twin concepts with the same kind of generous scrutiny
bestowed on other traveling concepts in the humanities.

* We encourage contributions surrounding, but by no means limited to, the
following questions:

Spatio-temporal Trajectories: Definitions of commitment and complicity 
are often
dependent on the historical, political and cultural frameworks within 
which they
are discussed. Due to this variation, the "object" of commitment and 
complicity
as well as its specific spatio-temporal cultural manifestations should 
not be
taken for granted. Yet, commitment and complicity also seem to relate to
universalisms such as human rights" and "freedom of thought." How can we 
think
of commitment and complicity without running the risk of turning them into
either master narratives or culturally relativist concepts? To what 
extent are
commitment and complicity culturally specific concepts? How do specific 
forms of
commitment and complicity arise in particular geographic, cultural and 
social
locations, and how can they possibly move to other contexts?  Regarding the
genealogy of commitment and complicity, how, by whom and to what aims 
have both
concepts been used?

Trajectories in Cultural Production: Cultural artifacts as productions of
knowledge are often informed by practices of commitment and complicity, and
hence require to be analyzed in terms of them. In what ways do cultural 
products
articulate or produce forms of commitment and complicity? How, and 
through which
strategies, do cultural artifacts negotiate the ways in which they are 
committed
or complicitous? How are reading/viewing practices informed by 
commitment and
complicity? In what ways do overtly "committed" cultural artifacts become
expressions of complicity? Is there such a thing as a "committed" cultural
artifact or is it more apt to talk about committed or complicitous 
readings? How
can we understand processes of cultural production and consumption in 
terms of
commitment and complicity?

Trajectories of intellectual production: While committed to socio-political
causes, intellectuals are also mediated by that which they seek to resist.
Through the concepts of commitment and complicity, the nature of the
relationship between the intellectual, the knowledge s/he produces, and 
everyday
politics can be scrutinized. How can we envision intellectuals to be 
committed
and complicit in terms of their political (institutional, personal, 
cultural)
situation? To what extent is their institutional situation an enabling or
restrictive condition, and to what extent does that situation politicize or
depoliticize the very material and ideas they work on? When do the 
commitment
and complicity of knowledge and its production risk inserting one's 
scholarly
production into the dominant ideologies one sets out to criticize? And 
to what
extent could the concepts of commitment and complicity contribute to an
effective methodology (e.g. self-reflexivity) for studying these questions?

* Organizing Committee: Bregje van Eekelen, Begum Ozden Firat, Sarah de Mul,
Ihab Saloul, Sonja van Wichelen
* Practicalities:  The Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis (ASCA) is 
devoted
to studying contemporary culture through detailed, historically as well as
theoretically informed analyses of case studies. Participants should 
specify how
the concepts of commitment and/or complicity are theoretically, 
politically, and
culturally relevant and related to their own work. The concepts may be 
addressed
together or separately and preferably in correlation with cultural 
objects such
as film, artworks, television, literature, photography, music, museums,
scientific objects/practices, religious objects/practices, etc. This 
conference
is the latest in a series of ASCA graduate conferences and is inspired 
by the
Theory Seminar organized by Mieke Bal in 2004-2005 on "Commitment in the
Humanities."

*The workshop format of the conference is designed to stimulate 
discussion in
the panels. Instead of =93reading=94 their papers at the conference,
participants are encouraged to give a 15-minute presentation of their work,
connecting their paper to the other papers in their panel and to the overall
concerns of the conference. Please send your one-page proposal, 
accompanied by a
short CV, by October 15th 2005. Proposals will be selected according to 
their
relevance to the topics of the conference. Participants will be asked to 
send
the final version of their papers (4000-word maximum) by January 30th, 
2006. A
reader will be prepared for each of the panels and will be circulated 
before the
workshop. Keynote speakers are to be announced.

* Please send your proposal to the ASCA office at the following address
Dr Eloe Kingma, Managing Director ASCA
Spuistraat 210. 1012 VT Amsterdam. The Netherlands.
Phone: +31 20 525 3874.
Fax: +3120 525 3052.
Email: asca-fgw@uva.nl <mailto:asca-fgw@uva.nl>.
Website: <http://www.hum.uva.nl/asca>.



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