Tromsø Winter Conference 2024
The 2024 Tromsø Conference in Ethics and Political Philosophy aims to bring together political theorists with scholars working on affects/emotions in various fields, ranging from democratic theory to phenomenology and feminist theory. To what extent can work on emotions, affects and topics such as affective justice contribute to or supplement theories of democratic and social equality and/ or populism?
Today, affects and emotions draw a lot of attention across the humanities. In cultural studies, affect theory in the tradition of scholars such as Eve Sedgwick, Sara Ahmed and Laurent Berlant has long been influential, drawing our attention to the fundamental relation between affects and power, the social origin of emotions, their circulation among people and their political and social effects. Concepts such as “affective labor” and “emotional labor” have provided a lens through which to describe and analyze how the production and management of feelings in self and others is distributed (unequally) in society and across groups. More recently, Shilol Whitney and others have highlighted “affective harm” and “affective injustice” as specific forms of harm and injustice that are inherently affective in nature.
At the same time, affects and emotions have also entered discussions in political theory concerning topics such as justice, democracy, populism, and their accompanying dynamics. Chantal Mouffe’s recent work analyzes how all politics is affective, and how populist parties are using affects like resentment and xenophobia (right populism) or hope and solidarity (left populism) to pursue specific strategies. Similarly, political theorists like Martha Nussbaum and Sara Protasi warn that emotions like fear, envy, and resentment have been neglected in political theory, even though they play a critical role in racial tensions and divides – and thus are easily exploited by populist leaders. Similar concerns arise in the work around democratic and social equality with Martin Hartmann highlighting the need to include an understanding of the emotional impact of social inequality into relational theories of democratic equality and Joseph Vogl and Alan Finlayson analyzing the power of affects in modern finance capitalism and their effect on democracy – Vogl with a focus on ressentiment, Finlayson with a focus on affect and rhetoric.
The conference aims to bridge these various approaches to the political and social dimensions of affects and emotions and the role they can, should, and do play in populism, democracy, and debates about justice.
Time and place: UiT The Arctic University of Norway, 12.-13. desember 2024, Campus Tromsø: SV-HUM E0103/E0104
Organizers: Kaja Jenssen Rathe, Vegard Stensen, Jonas Jakobsen, Kerstin Reibold, Insitutt for Filosofi og Førstesemsterstudier (IFF)
Kontakt: vegard.stensen@uit.no; kaja.j.rathe@uit.no
PROGRAM
DAY 1: Thursday Dec 12
DAY 2: Friday Dec 13