We host a variety of seminars and conferences drawing on expertise from both inside the school and the wider academic and practitioner envirnoment. Seminars are run within our Research Centres as well as all-School events.
The following are summaries of previous conferences and seminars held by the School of Politics and International Relations:
‘The Pink Tide: Reconfiguring Politics, Power and Political Economy in the Americas,’ 22nd-24th January 2010.
This conference brought together academics, community scholars, activists and popular educators to create a unique space of dialogue and discussion about the Pink Tide in the Americas – the shift to the left in governments and social movements across North, Central and South America. This was a major international event with over 60 contributors who presented using a diverse range of formats including performance art, roundtables, workshops and panel discussions and who came from 13 countries. The conference sought to creatively overcome the geographical, disciplinary and spatial boundaries that often separate North from South, university from community and department from department as a means of forging innovative and strategic theory and practice about social justice in the Americas and Europe. Therefore fee waivers were granted to community scholars from the Americas as well as representatives of community organisations from Nottingham. Among the key note speakers were Noam Chomsky (via live Video Link), John Holloway and William Robinson. The conference was organized by a local team, coordinated by Dr Sara Motta, which also included Laiz Chen, Peter Cruttenden, Chris Hesketh, Jennifer Martinez and Maria Urbina.
12th Annual PSA Postgraduate CANE Conference
8th November 2008, University of Nottingham
Organisers: Martin Ottmann, Tim Veen and Chris Wood
Political debate has often oscillated around the dichotomy between creating something new and conserving the old. But what lies behind these increasingly rhetorical arguments? What patterns persist over time? When does history repeat itself? Conversely, how can we use our knowledge of history to improve the future? Who can we entrust with reform?
These questions stimulate all scholars of politics, but are especially pertinent to postgraduate researchers, who represent the future of the discipline. This regional conference provides an important forum for prospective academics to look ahead. CANE08 is organised by postgraduates for postgraduates, and aims to showcase exciting new research in all areas of politics. It provides the perfect opportunity to present and discuss a paper in a related atmosphere, to make contacts and to discuss general issues among peers.
[more information]
Transnational solidarity in times of global restructuring: an analysis of positive and negative factors of co-operation across borders.
6th - 7th November 2008.
Organisers: Professor Andreas Bieler and Ingemar Lindberg
Workshop to be held at the University of Nottingham, UK.
Globalisation has implied three core challenges for labour. First, as a result of the increasing transnationalisation of production, there has been a danger of workers in different countries competing against each other for jobs, and of different national labour movements underbidding each other for the sake of national competitiveness.
[further details]
Social Movements and/in the Post Colonial: dispossession, development and resistance in the global south Conference
24 th- 24th of June 2008
The Centre for the Study of Social and Global Justice wishes to make a contribution to the development of empirically grounded, theoretically informed and politically enabling analyses of these processes and therefore invites proposals for papers for the conference Social Movements and/in the Postcolonial: Dispossession, Development and Resistance in the Global South. The two-day conference will be structured around the following two streams of discussion: Struggles over dispossession in the global South and Social movements and the politics of development.
[further details]
Association for Legal and Social Philosophy Annual Conference
27th-29th March 2008
CSSGJ hosted the annual meeting of one of the principal associations in the field of contemporary political theory. The conference theme was ‘global justice’ and included keynote presentations by prominent thinkers in the area.
[further details]
Global Restructuring, State, Capital and Labour Workshop
12 October 2007 University of Nottingham
Globalisation and the related restructuring of the state currently comprise one of the most widely discussed issues in the social sciences, across disciplines that include political economy, historical sociology, state theory, European politics and political geography.
This one-day workshop brought together varied traditions within historical materialism to focus on conjecture about global restructuring and state theory, raised within the book Global Restructuring, State, Capital and Labour: Contesting Neo-Gramscian Perspectives, co-authored by Andreas Bieler, Werner Bonefeld, Peter Burnham and Adam David Morton (Palgrave, 2006).
The debate revolved around seven papers presented from speakers across Europe. The papers drew from a rich body of literature on state theory and global restructuring associated with the work of the Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci and the alternative reference point of open Marxism. There are plans to publish a special journal issue containing the papers and the rejoinders by Andreas Bieler, Werner Bonefeld and Adam David Morton.
The workshop was recorded on video and audio MP3 and is available to view online along with photos of the event. [view more on this event]
Global Justice and the Politics of Recognition
20-21st September 2007
A very successful two day international conference was held at the University of Nottingham, 20-21st September 2007, the theme of which was Global Justice and the Politics of Recognition. The conference was organised by Dr Tony Burns (School of Politics and International Relations, University of Nottingham) and Dr. Simon Thompson (School of Politics, University of West of England). The conference constituted one of the launch events for the recently created Centre for the Study of Social and Global Justice (CSSGJ) at the University of Nottingham.
Global Justice and the Politics of Recognition Conference
Funding was provided by The Centre for the Study of Social and Global Justice, the Conference Fund of the School of Politics at the University of Nottingham, the School of politics, University of West of England , and the British Journal of Politics and International Relations. Delegates to the conference came from all over the world, including Canada, Czechoslovakia, Italy, and the United States, as well as the UK. The proceedings of the conference are to be published by Palgrave as a part of their new International Political Theory series, in a volume entitled Global Justice and the Politics of Recognition, edited jointly by Tony Burns and Simon Thompson, which will appear in 2009.
The conference was in part inspired by the recent debate between Professor Nancy Fraser and Professor Axel Honneth over the issue of ‘redistribution versus recognition’ in contemporary politics in their co-authored work, Redistribution or Recognition: A Political-Philosophical Exchange? (London: Verso, 2003). The editors are delighted that Professor Fraser has agreed to contribute to the collection.
Pluralism and democracy: The 'radical pluralism' of William E. Connolly
One-Day Conference: 18th May, 2007
Centre for the Study of Social and Global Justice
This proved to be a highly successful meeting with more than forty delegates from the UK and the US. Panels focused on three themes in the work of Professor Connolly: pluralism and metaphysics, with papers by Professor James Williams (University of Dundee) and Dr. Mark Wenman (CSSGJ, University of Nottingham); pluralism and hegemony, with papers by Dr. David Howarth (University of Essex) and Dr. Gulshan Khan (Nottingham Trent University) and pluralism and practice, with papers by Professor David Owen (University of Southampton) and Dr. Saul Newman (Goldsmith's College, University of London). The conference ended with a response from Professor Connolly himself.
The quality of both the papers and the discussion was excellent and we were able to explore the corpus of Professor Connolly's work in an atmosphere that was at once thoughtful and inquiring, yet informal and sympathetic. We look forward to being able to share our conversations with a wider audience.
One-Day Workshop: Stem Cell Identities, governance and ethics: implications for social and political theory
One-Day Conference: 14th May, 2007
Centre for the Study of Social and Global Justice
Institute for Science and Society
University of Nottingham
Recent years have seen a rapid growth of interest across the social sciences in the science and technology of stem cell research. Much of this work has been focused upon empirical studies of innovation, regulation and clinical development with attention often concentrated upon improving the development of stem cell therapies. There has been rather less conceptual work carried out that aims critically to explore the meaning and consequences of the development of stem cells for social and political theory. The aim of this workshop was to address this gap and in particular to think about the following sorts of issues: stem cells, materialism and materiality; stem cell identities (how are stem cells constructed as socio-technical objects?); reframing the ethics of stem cells; expectations and the construction of imagined stem cell futures; the politics of stem cell governance and innovation.
A group of some thirty scholars from across the UK, Europe and the U.S. convened in Nottingham to explore these issues at a one-day meeting held at the University of Nottingham on 14th May, 2007 jointly organised by Dr Paul Martin from the Institute for Science and Society and Professor Chris Pierson from the Centre for the Study of Social and Global Justice.
Overall, this was a highly successful workshop. We were able to explore issues surrounding the politics and ethics of stem cell research in a properly inter-disciplinary way joining together insights from philosophy, sociology, political science and the law. The final question, answer and comment session of the afternoon, with a discussion led by Dr Nik Brown (SATSU,University of York), enabled us to bring together many of the day’s insights in what proved to be a lively and wide-ranging discussion.
Anglo-American Relations and the Vietnam Wars, 1945-1975
March 2007
Matthew Jones convened a colloquium of international historians who over two days explored the subject of ‘Anglo-American relations and the Vietnam Wars, 1945-1975’. Paper givers from the United States included Professors Fredrik Logevall (Cornell University), James Hershberg (George Washington University), Mark Lawrence (University of Texas at Austin), and Jeff Engel (Texas A & M); Charles Rheaume came from the Canadian Defence Academy. Presenters based in the UK included Andrew Preston (Cambridge), Kevin Ruane (Canterbury Christ Church), Sylvia Ellis (Nortumbria), Peter Lowe (Manchester), and a University of Nottingham contingent that included Asaf Siniver, Alex Danchev, John Young, and Matthew Jones. The colloquium had excellent attendance from other interested academics and also from postgraduate students, and the discussion often produced illuminating comparisons with the current state of Anglo-American relations and the background to the Iraq War of 2003.
EPOP Conference, 8-10 September 2006
The 2006 EPOP conference took place at the University of Nottingham, on 8-10 September. EPOP is the largest specialist group of the UK’s Political Studies Association bringing together people interested in the study of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties. The group has over 100 members, including media commentators, leading opinion pollsters and national party officials as well as academics.
The conference was co-hosted by the School of Politics and International Relations and the University’s newly-established Methods and Data Institute, which seeks to enhance and build excellence in empirical social science research at the university. As well as enjoying financial support from the University of Nottingham, the conference was sponsored by the ESRC, the British Academy, the Electoral Commission, the McDougall Trust, the Corporation of London, and the ESRC’s Public Services Programme.
The programme is included more than 70 papers, along with three roundtable sessions. Papers covered all aspects of elections in both the UK and elsewhere, as well as developments in party politics, from the opening three panels on the party-media nexus, young and old voters, and electoral systems and electoral reform to the final three panels on the Europeanisation of political parties, satisfaction with democracy and political preferences and the economy.
Radio 4’s The Westminster Hour covered some of the papers presented at the conference during August and September.
‘Corruption Risks and the Risks of Fighting Corruption', 17 July 2006
The Centre for the Study of European Governance hosted the workshop ‘Corruption Risks and the Risks of Fighting Corruption, 17 July 2006. One of two focal points of this workshop was risk factors contributing to corruption and more specifically the mechanics of corruption and how to control corruption. The other focus was on possible unintended consequences of anti-corruption measures and anti-corruption campaigns. This concerned issues such as the effectiveness of anti-corruption campaigns, their effects on democratisation and democratic stability, and analysis of actors involved in anti-corruption work, why they do it and how they do it.These issues are becoming ever more important as the focus on good governance and combating corruption, not least in developing countries, are high on the international political agenda.
Six papers, both traditional papers and project ideas, were presented by scholars from different fields: ‘Risks of Corruption and Risks of Fighting Corruption in EC Public Procurement’(Sope Williams, University of Nottingham);‘Dangers and excesses of anti-corruption activity: Overview and a case-study’(Julie Bajolle, Corruption Research Network); ’Civic Education for Combating Corruption: Prospects for Donor-Funded Strategies’ (Heather Marquette, University of Birmingham), ‘Danger Zones of Corruption and the Political Management of the Ministerial Bureaucracy in Poland’(Paul Heywood & Jan Hinrik Myer-Sahling, University of Nottingham); ‘Controlling Political Corruption in the United Kingdom’ (Gloria Martínez-Cousinou, Institute for Advanced Social Studies of Andalusia & Staffan Andersson, University of Nottingham); ‘Public Sector Reform and the Creation of Corruption “Danger Zones”’ (Paul Heywood & Staffan Andersson).
‘Contrasting Responses to the US “War on Terrorism”: Perspectives from Europe and Asia’, 28 June 2006
On the 28 June 2006 the Institute for Asia Pacific Studies (IAPS) and the Centre for the Study of European Governance (CSEG) hosted the ‘Contrasting Responses to the US “War on Terrorism”: Perspectives from Europe and Asia’ conference in the School of Politics and International Relations.
The conference attracted a large and diverse audience of students, academics and interested members of the public. The opening address of the conference was delivered by Professor Mike Clarke of King’s College London with keynote addresses by Mr. Abdul Basit, the Deputy High Commissioner for Pakistan, and Professor Jorg Monar of the University of Strasbourg. Parallel sessions then explored European and Asian perspectives. The panels focussed on the themes of discourse, strategic culture, regionalism, human rights and law enforcement.
Participants were invited to engage with the proposition that the ‘War on Terror’, in its various manifestations, should be thought of as a war of ideas rather than simply one of material force. Selected papers from the conference will be published in a special issue of Cambridge Review of International Affairs in 2007.
The Legacy of Leo Strauss, 27-28 March 2006
The conference, which was organised jointly by the staff of the School of Politics and International Relations and the Department of American and Canadian Studies, took place at the University of Nottingham on 27-28 March 2006, and was attended by approximately 45 -50 people from all over the world.
Guest speaker:
Anne Norton, author of the widely acclaimed Leo Strauss and the Politics of American Empire (Yale University Press, 2005).
Papers:
Papers were presented by 19 academics from all over the world, including Canada, China, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. The organisers were especially pleased to see so many academics from the USA, eight scholars of which presented papers.
Abstracts of papers
Funding:
The conference organisers were successful in their efforts to secure external funding for the conference from the UK Embassy of the United States of America; the British Academy; and the Dean's Fund, Faculty of Arts, University of Nottingham, which enabled them to offer bursaries to postgraduate students wishing to participate in the conference, including four postgraduate students who presented papers.
The conference organisers are currently discussing with The University of Pennsylvania Press the possibility of their publishing an edited volume of the papers delivered at the conference.