Dis:connectivity in processes of globalisation: theories, methodologies, explorations.

Concept and Organisation: Hanni Geiger und Tom Menger, global dis:connect

The first annual conference of the Käte Hamburger Research Centre global dis:connect at LMU Munich aims to rethink our understanding of globalisation processes past and present. In recent years, the established narrative of ever-increasing global connectivity, which has dominated both public and academic debates on globalisation for a long time, has lost much of its explanatory power. Anti-globalism and chauvinist nationalism have produced disintegrative political movements, while trade protectionism, supply chain breakdowns, travel restrictions and reinforced border controls have significantly curbed the global movement of goods and people. Talk of deglobalisation has become ubiquitous.
In light of such developments, this conference asks whether we need a more sophisticated understanding of globalisation, both historical and contemporary. It seeks to develop and examine new theorical and methodological approaches to globalisation research, emphasising the concept of dis:connectivity, which notes how globalisation processes have always been characterised by a dynamic and co-constitutive relationship of connection and disconnection. Friction, absence, interruptions and detours are as integral to globalisation as are entanglement, exchange and connection.
Given the recent prominence of global history, global art history and global theatre history, scholars have arguably focused on questions of increasing connectivity. Already in 2017, the historian Jeremy Adelman warned of the blind spots induced by such a one-sided approach. For global art history, Monica Juneja has recently highlighted the meaning of dis:connections in ‘world making’. Overall, however, scholars have really just begun to think about what such a different approach to researching globalisation processes might look like theoretically, methodologically and thematically.
The Käte Hamburger Research Centre global dis:connect supports these endeavours and is delighted to host its first annual conference with the title Dis:connectivity in processes of globalisation: theories, methodologies, explorations. The conference will survey the concept of dis:connectivity by bringing together historians, art historians and theatre scholars in order to capture a broad spectrum of dis:connectivity’s facets. Panels are structured around three themes that are particularly pertinent to our research: interruptions, detours and absences. We will also bring scholars into conversation with creative professionals from the arts whose approaches offer privileged access to the fluidity and transience that mark many of the phenomena in question.
On the evening of 20 October, the conference will also feature a conversation between the artist Parastou Forouhar and anthropologist Catherine Bublatzky on The Global Dis:connect: embodiment and personality as symbols of interruptions, detours and absences in Parastou Forouhar’s art. The conference will close on 21 October with a screening of the short film Atlantiques (Mati Diop, 2009) with a commentary by Fabienne Liptay.

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Programme:

THURSDAY, 20 October 2022

12:00–12:30
Registration

12:30–13:00
Welcome and opening words

PANEL I: ABSENCES

13:00–13:45
Richard M. Kabiito
Globalising Ugandan art: remixing the contest between tradition and modernity

13:45–14:30
Gabriele Klein
The dancing body is absent/present. Methodological and theoretical aspects of digitalisation in dance

14:30–15:00
Coffee break

15:00–15:45
Aleksandra Domanović
From yu to me to turbo culture: presence and absence in internet technology and culture in the former Yugoslavia

15:45–16:30
Meha Priyadarshini
Fashion and its absent histories: the case of Madras fabric in the Caribbean

16:30–17:30
Break

17:30–18:45
Artist lecture
Parastou Forouhar / Cathrine Bublatzky
The global dis:connect: embodiment and positionality as symbols of interruptions, detours and absences in Parastou Forouhar’s art

FRIDAY, 21 October 2022

09:00–09:30
Warm-up and welcome

PANEL II: DETOURS

09:30–10:15
Sujit Sivasundaram
Detours in the history of Islam in the Indian Ocean: Muslim Colombo

10:15–11:00
Kerstin Schankweiler
Global contexts of art in the GDR

11:00–11:45
Promona Sengupta
Time travel for all: decolonising the time-space continuum

11:45–13:00
Lunch

PANEL III: INTERRUPTIONS

13:00–13:45
Zoom
Anupama Kundoo
Rethinking urban materiality: time as a resource

13:45–14:30
Valeska Huber
‘The Limits of my Language mean the Limits of my World’: language barriers and ideas of global communication in the 1920s

14:30–15:00
Coffee break

15:00–15:45
Peter W. Marx
The elephant in the room: (dis:)connecting encounters in the early modern period

15:45–16:15
Wrap-up

16:15–17:45
Film screening and commentary
Fabienne Liptay
Atlantiques (2009, Mati Diop)

Registration: The event is open to everyone, but seating is limited, so we kindly request attendees to pre-register here:
https://www.globaldisconnect.org/10/20/20-21-october-2022-annual-conference-disconnectivity-in-processes-of-globalisation-theories-methodologies-explorations/?lang=en

Those not wanting to create an account should leave the password field blank. We will send a Zoom link immediately prior to the event to those who wish to participate remotely.