Call for Abstracts
The Critiques of Violence
Conference

Institute of Philosophy – University of Leuven

Keynote speakers
James Dodd (New School of Social Research, US)
Ilit Ferber (Tel Aviv University)

The question of violence is a fundamental problem that addresses a manifold of disciplines in the humanities. Although philosophy often discusses violence from an ethical perspective, there is also a strong tradition in philosophy that expands the investigation of violence beyond the confines of ethics. Philosophers such as Arendt, Butler, Derrida, Pato?ka, Sartre, and Sloterdijk have discussed, among others, the relation between sovereignty and violence, the constitutive possibilities of violence, and the metaphysical meaning of the transformation of violence beginning with the First World War. However, several stones stay unturned, such as the relation between violence and sense-bestowal, the question of how excessive violence is related to transgression, or the way (religious) violence is connected to the concept of the end of times. Therefore, and in line with recent work by scholars such as James Dodd, Michael Staudigl and Leonard Lawlor, the University of Leuven will be hosting a two day conference around the complex topic of violence. More specifically, the aesthetic, political-philosophical, and phenomenological aspects of violence will be the three pillars of investigation for the theme.

Contributions
We are searching for presentations on (but not limited to) the following themes:

- Eschatological violence
- Excessive violence
- Violence and sense-bestowal
- Violence and the image
- Structural Violence

We look forward to receiving contributions from researchers in philosophy, but we would like to encourage researchers from other domains, including, but not limited to, art history, political theory, history, sociology, and theology.

Papers should be 30 minutes in length, with 15 minutes for questions.

Submission Guidelines
Please send an abstract of no longer than 500 words to violencekuleuven.be by 31 January, 2017.

Organizers
Stéphane Symons (Centre for Metaphysics, Philosophy of Religion and Philosophy of Culture)
Mathijs van de Sande and Annemarije Hagen (Centre for Ethics, Social and Political Philosophy)
Christian Sternad and Lode Lauwaert (Husserl-Archives: Centre for Phenomenology and Continental Philosophy
Laura Katherine Smith (Faculty of Arts: Literature and Culture)