The Käte Hamburger Centre CURE will hold its first annual conference, exploring theoretical approaches to cultural practices of reparation. The international conference will take place at the Innovation Center on the campus of Saarland University. It will open on Wednesday, 4 June, at 6 p.m., with a welcome address and keynote by Rukmini Bhaya Nair (Indian Institute of Technology Delhi).
The twenty-first century appears to be distinctly marked by irreparability, shaped by profound damage and harms arising from colonialism, wars, the climate crisis, and other destructive forces. Building a future in full awareness of this irreparability calls for a new understanding of cultural practices.
The conference foregrounds theory – this year’s designated theme at the Käte Hamburger Centre CURE – to ask about the theoretical foundations for a reparative function of cultural practices. Which media, paradigms, or concepts allow us to meaningfully describe these practices? How are they related to one another? What reparative functions can cultural practices fulfil, from both individual and collective perspectives? In what ways do they transform our relationship to the past, and how might they contribute to new ways of living together in the future?
The conference speakers – joining from Senegal, Canada, Gabon, France, Turkey, and elsewhere – will approach these questions from a wide range of perspectives. Papers will address theories of reparation in connection with topics including the reparative potential of sounds, psychotherapy from a postcolonial point of view, and dreams as a way of working through irreparable experiences. Several of the speakers are currently research fellows at the Käte Hamburger Centre CURE. The conference will open with a keynote by one of today’s leading cultural theorists and linguists, Rukmini Bhaya Nair. Her presentation, titled “Story Boxes & Speech Bots: Decolonizing our Narratives, Repairing our Conversations”, will explore ways in which language and dialogue might be repaired from a decolonial perspective.
Attendance at the conference is free of charge.
Please register by writing to kontakt@khk.uni-saarland.de
Conference convenors: Julien Jeusette / Markus Messling / Hendrik Rungelrath / Laurens Schlicht / Christiane Solte-Gresser / Hannah Steurer
For more information contact Anna Warum, kontakt@khk.uni-saarland.de
