Abstract:

Over the past two decades, there has been a worldwide resurgence of discourses that define peoples in terms of their unique civilizational identity and call for states to refurbish their
timeless civilizational glory. Despite these clear patterns, we lack a systematic, empirically grounded interdisciplinary understanding of new civilizationisms. What are the historical genealogies, intellectual trajectories and academic matrices underlying the forms of new civilizational thought across these regions and the globe at large? How do recent forms of civilizationism (both globally and in single societies) resemble earlier articulations of civilizational identities, and in what regard do they differ from such antecedents? To what extent, and how, do they travel across languages, political systems, religious traditions and other contexts? What explains their rise and influence in the contemporary historical conjuncture and as globally simultaneous phenomena that animate political landscapes in China and the United States, Russia, India and many other places?

Roundtable:

Monday June 29
10:00 – 12:00 Introductory Remarks: Srirupa Roy & Dominic Sachsenmaier
Roundtable 1: Russia, China, Japan
Sören Urbansky (Bochum), Immo Rebitschek (Göttingen), Rebecca Karl (NYU), Rolf Elberfeld (Hildesheim)
Chair: Eva Orthmann (Göttingen)

12:00 – 13:00 Lunch

13:00 – 15:00 Roundtable 2: MENA, Africa
Mohammad Alsudairi (Canberra), Ulrike Freitag (ZMO Berlin), Anke Graness (Hildesheim), Kai Kresse (ZMO Berlin)
Chair: Dominic Sachsenmaier (Göttingen)

15:00-15:15 Break

15:15- 16:45 Roundtable 3: Europe, India
Hans Kundnani (London), Julian Strube (Göttingen), Thomas Hansen (Stanford)
Chair: Srirupa Roy (Göttingen)