North-Net Agenda 5 May, 2006

The Northern Network of Critical Global Scholars (North-Net)

International Politics Research Group, University of Newcastle
Newcastle Institute for the Arts, Social Sciences, and Humanities (NIASSH)

Inaugural Meeting

5 May, 2006
Mertz Court L302
University of Newcastle

Agenda

11:00-11:30 Introduction and Welcome
Barry Gills (Politics, University of Newcastle)
Kyle Grayson (Politics, University of Newcastle)

11:30-1:00 Session I: Critical Scholarship, Critical Pedagogy, and the (Counter) Production of Global Knowledge

Traditionally the academy has been integral in the production of knowledge of the ‘global’ which has both reflected and made possible particular sets of hierarchical power relations. What roles can critical scholarship play in countering dominant narratives in academia and in popular discourse? What then might it mean to teach the ‘global’ critically? What are the prospects of 'engagement' in academic research, including with social movements or popular organizations and NGOs, indigenous peoples, and other 'subjects' or 'units' - of analysis? Have new challenges and opportunities presented themselves in the current historical context, both inside and outside the university? How can we encourage and help undergraduates and postgraduates who are interested in pursuing critical projects? Will current and proposed RAE procedures circumscribe the space for critical research?

Chair and Presenters:

Matt Davies (Politics, University of Newcastle)

Bernadette Buckley (Art Gallery and Museum Studies, University of Newcastle)
Jocelyn Mawdsley (Politics, University of Newcastle)
David Mutimer (Centre for International Cooperation and Security, University of Bradford)

1:00-2:00 Lunch

2:00-3:30 Session II: Critical Narratives of Imperialism and Empire

Narratives of imperialism and empire have a lengthy genealogy in critical scholarship. To what extent have these critical narratives proliferated in the post-9/11 world? What can they add to our understandings of the ‘global’? Have they changed the ways in which we perceive our own disciplines and the (imaginary) boundaries among them? What can they offer in terms of broader projects of socio-political transformation, or are strategies of direct resistance ill-advised in the current global environment?

Chair and Presenters

Barry Gills (Politics, University of Newcastle)

Hartmut Behr (Politics, University of Newcastle)
Mick Drake (Criminology and Sociological Studies, University of Hull)
Vass Fouskas (Politics, Stirling)

Welcome to North-Net

The Northern Network of Critical Global Scholars is an initiative of the International Politics Research field at the University of Newcastle which is designed to strengthen the community of researchers in the north of the UK who engage in critically informed work with a global dimension. In bringing a community together, we do not intend to police boundaries or to develop a template of what ‘critical’ necessarily means. Our goal is to provide a safe and open forum to showcase the diversity of critical scholarship in the region and to network across disciplines. To this end, North-Net seeks to bring together professional academics, postgraduates, and independent researchers from across fields and perspectives in order to foster interdisciplinary and inter-paradigmatic dialogues as well as to informally explore the possibilities for cooperative research, teaching, and outreach activities.

Our inaugural meeting took place 5 May, 2006 at the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne. Our second meeting will be held in early October 2006. Further details will be announced in the following weeks.

If you are interested in becoming a member of North-Net, please contact Dr. Kyle Grayson at k.a.grayson(at)ncl.ac.uk