2nd Session of North-Net 6 October, 2006

THE NORTHERN-NETWORK OF CRITICAL GLOBAL SCHOLARS (NORTH-NET)


2nd Session, 6 October, 2006 at Newcastle University

Mission:

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.

In light of the success of our inaugural meeting earlier this spring, we would like to convene a second session of North-Net at Newcastle University on 6 October, 2006. Three sessions of approximately 1.5 hours will take place, followed by a strategy meeting (please see the schedule below). There will be no formal paper presentations and sessions will be in a true roundtable format. We have asked panellists to offer only brief opening comments at which point we will open up the discussion to all interested attendees with the help of session moderators. Lunch will be provided.

To register or for further information please contact Dr. Kyle Grayson at:
k.a.grayson(at)ncl.ac.uk (replace the at with @)

Introduction and Welcome 10:00-10:15

Session I: What Does it Mean to Be Global? 10:15-11:45
In its first meeting in May 2006, North-Net produced a fruitful dialogue on the use of the term critical as a mode of academic self-address. This panel will address the related concern of what it means to be a critical global scholar, along two axes. First, we need to examine our own research in its descriptive and normative dimensions of the global, and look at how dominant discourses that mask the unequal power relations therein can be challenged both epistemologically and ontologically.

Second, and more critically, the meaning of global scholarship can itself by subjected to reflexive forms of critique. The transnationalisation of the academic job market appears to offer us greater opportunities to advance our careers than in previous generations. At the same time, there are very real concerns that by becoming ‘global’ in such a fashion, we contribute to the ‘brain-drain’ from the developing world. Furthermore, as global scholars, our experiences of crossing national borders with ease are not matched by the less privileged. This is indicative of growing material chasm between critical academics sympathetic to the plight of such people, and their lived experiences, rendering any accurate identification with their predicament difficult. Additionally, the transnational nature of academic conferencing, whilst contributing to the emergence of a truly global academic profession, contributes to carbon emissions by greatly increasing academic air miles. Whilst these are obvious examples of the ambiguities and dilemmas of the globalisation of academia, they are by no means exhaustive. The panel will tackle both axes by relating dominant discourses of the global with ongoing practices within academia that reproduce uncritical notions of global space.

Break 11:45-12:00

Session II: The Internet and the (De)Political 12:00-13:30
As symbol of global communication and connectivity, the internet represents a phenomenon of participation on a scale never experienced before. Yet, how can we position the internet in relation to the political? Does the internet offer an opportunity for political engagement transcending the limits of geography or function as a medium of exclusion, through creating a virtual class? Is the internet a means of spreading democracy, allowing freedom of speech and expression, or is it merely a vehicle for capital, culminating in a world of ‘frictionless capitalism?’ Can we understand the internet in terms of a shift away from the political, where politics has fragmented to the degree that it is no longer capable of forming a foundation to give a sense of unity? Is the political merely a simulation in the age of the internet?

Lunch 13:30-14:30

Session III: What’s the Mission? Religion, Theology, Critical Scholarship, and Progressive Politics 14:30-16:00
Within contemporary (geo)politics, religiosity has become closely identified with a series of ideological currents including conservatism and nationalism that are very often at direct odds with traditional notions of progressive social transformation. Concurrently, fundamentalist theological study has been utilized by various social forces to provide divine justification for the re-imposition of biopolitical regulations over everyday reversing the results of a long political struggles. Thus, for some critical scholars, the return of religion and theology into contemporary political debates represents a very clear threat to the potential for less confrontational inter-subjective dialogues.

On the other hand, there has been a counter-move to reclaim religion and theology as distinctly critical enterprises. For example, Slavoj Zizek has argued that Christianity should be seen as the first critical theory in the tradition of Western thought. Moreover, religion is able to offer distinct vehicles for praxis as the Latin American experience with liberation theology demonstrates. What then might it mean to be both ‘religious’ and ‘critical’? What purchase on social mobilisation can reclaiming religion and theology from forces of conservatism and fundamentalism provide to critical scholarship? Are there alliances and relationships that might be made between the critical academic and religious worlds?

Strategy Session 16:00-17:00
This session has one primary goal: to develop a collaborative strategy to financially sustain North-Net.