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Concepts of Passions and Politics

03 June 2016, 12:00 am

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3 June 2016
Looking at specific situations of political action, this international workshop - part of our Passionate Politics projects - will explore how the passions are linked to politics in theories, languages, symbolic systems, and vocabularies.

When:
3 June 2016
10am-6.30pm

Where:
Common Ground
UCL Institute of Advanced Studies
South Wing, Wilkins Building
Gower Street
London WC1E 6BT

Between 2014 and 2017, an interdisciplinary research group at UCL is exploring the role of the passions in shaping political action, identities, movements and ideologies. Through a series of reading groups, conferences and an online archive, we seek to understand the role of emotions at key historical moments of social change - be this grief as a response to social upheaval; empathy and the creation of political and social solidarity; or the roots of political dissent in anger.

In 2015, our first workshop reviewed and compared how different academic disciplines in the social sciences and humanities engage with political passion. In this, our second workshop, we aim to explore how the passions are linked to politics in theories, languages, symbolic systems, and vocabularies. Until recently, where the passions received attention from political theorists and philosophers at all, it was in a negative fashion. Thought to foster injustice, intolerance and irrationality, the passions were called at best incompatible with, at worst disruptive to our prevailing ideal of politics. But the recent "affective turn" has not only begun to trouble this narrative by providing new insights into the role emotions play in decision-making, community-building and political action. It has also offered an understanding of how fruitful an interdisciplinary approach might be when we reconsider the passionate in politics and the political in the passions.

Looking at specific situations of political action, this international workshop will combine brief presentations with open discussion to address this field.

PROGRAMME

10.00-12.00:     Words, Languages, Concepts
  • Axel Körner, UCL Centre for Transnational History: Introduction: Passionate Politics and Intellectual History
  • Kirill Levinson, Social History, HSE Moscow: Emotion concepts and conceptual history: perspectives on the challenges of translation
  • Michael Syrotinski, French, University of Glasgow: Passion, Politics, and the Untranslatable
  • Discussant: Avi Lifschitz, UCL History
12.00-13:00     Lunch
13:00-15:00    Social movements and mass events
  • Charity Scribner, Comparative Literature, CUNY: After the Red Army Faction
  • Lutz Klinkhammer, German Historical Institute in Rome: Emotional killing? On massacres committed by German Armed Forces during the occupation of Italy 1943-1945
  • Caoimhe Nic Dháibhéid, History, University of Sheffield: Emotions and political violence: reflections on the centenary of the Easter Rising
  • Chair: Uta Staiger, UCL European Institute
15.00-15:30     Coffee
15:30-17:30:     Gestures, actions and speech
  • Monica Mookherjee, Political Philosophy/Theory, Keele University: Recognition and Multiculturalism
  • Antonio Sennis, UCL History: Beauty, fame and power
  • Molly Andrews, Centre for Narrative Research, University of East London: Believing others
  • Chair: Dina Gusejnova, History, University of Sheffield
17:30-17:45: Break
17:45-18:30: Concluding roundtable discussion over wine
  • Tim Beasley-Murray, UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies
  • Michael Freeden, School of Politics and International Relations, University of Nottingham
  • Dina Gusejnova, History, University of Sheffield
  • Julia Ng, Goldsmiths, University of London
  • Uta Staiger, UCL European Institute
  • Chair: Alessandro De Arcangelis, UCL History

About Passionate Politics

Between 2014 and 2017, an interdisciplinary research group at UCL is exploring the role of the passions in shaping political action, identities, movements and ideologies. Through a series of reading groups, conferences and an online archive, we seek to understand the role of emotions at key historical moments of social change - be this grief as a response to social upheaval; empathy and the creation of political and social solidarity; or the roots of political dissent in anger.

In 2015, our first workshop reviewed and compared how different academic disciplines in the social sciences and humanities engage with political passion. A concluding conference will take place in 2017.

The project is convened by the UCL European Institute, the UCL Centre for Transnational History, the UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies and the Centre for Modern and Contemporary History at the University of Sheffield. It has been made possible by a generous grant from the UCL Centre for Interdisciplinary Research Projects, no longer in existence.