Conference: Thinking through ‘The Transnational’: A Tumultuous Task?
Table of contents
Date: December 1 and 2, 2022
Location: TU Dresden, Seminar Room FAL 311-314, Chemnitzer Str. 46 01187 Dresden
Conference organizers
Prof. Dr. Heike Greschke
Professorship for Comparative Cultural Studies and Qualitative Social Research (Sociology)
Dr. Irene Tuzi
Comparative Cultural Studies and Qualitative Research (Sociology)
Dr. Patricia Ward
Center for Integration Studies
Comparative Cultural Studies and Qualitative Research (Sociology)
Disruption and Societal Change Center
Registration
For preparation purposes, please register here:
The conference will be held in English. Please let us know if you would like translation provided and in which language upon registration.
Inputs by
Prof. Dr. Heike Greschke, Chair of Comparative Cultural Studies and Qualitative Research, Institute for Sociology, Technische Universität Dresden Institute for Sociology, TU Dresden
Prof. Dr. Manuela Boatcă (Institute for Sociology and Global Studies Programme, Albert-Ludwigs-University Freiburg) (Keynote Speaker)
Prof. Dr. Anna Amelina (Brandenburg Technical University Cottbus-Senftenberg), Dr. Ladin Bayurgil (KU Leuven), Jun-Prof. Dr. Ana Lucia Fernández (Universidad Estatal a Distancia de Costa Rica/ Universidad de Costa Rica), Prof. Dr. Giampietro Gobo (Università di Milano) , Jun-Prof. Dr. Ali Meghji (University of Cambridge), Prof. Dr. Magdalena Nowicka (Humboldt University/DeZIM Berlin) , Prof. Dr. Stephen Scheel (Leuphana University Lüneburg), Dr. Nader Talebi (Humboldt University Berlin), Jun-Prof. Dr. Meghan Tinsley (University of Manchester), Dr. Siqi Tu (NYU Shanghai), Dr. Pieter Vanden Broeck (Columbia University/Università degli Studi Modena Reggio Emilia), Jun-Prof. Dr. Alexandre White (John Hopkins University)
Program
Focus of the Conference
The overall goal of this conference is to improve understandings of how sociologists can mobilize transnationalism at the local and international levels to respond to and account for present-day social transformations through academic work. The nation-state is often the starting point used to understand social change within society: what is included or excluded as important groups and processes for understanding these changes and the social inequalities that manifest (or are mitigated) from them. The concept of transnationalism as a corrective to methodological nationalism offers an opportunity to expand accounts and explanations of social transformations beyond these limited geographical and imagined boundaries of the nation, and thus who and what constitutes 'the social' as a result. At the same time, transnational lenses may be leveraged to paradoxically reinforce concepts of society as confined within a nation-state world order .
Without coordinated dialogue and international exchange, these paradoxes and fragmentations may subsequently limit our ability to account and address some of the most critical social issues of our time such as climate change, displacement crises, anti-immigrant sentiment and the rise of right-wing nationalist parties that fuel and relate to changing configurations of belonging, work and family.
Invited participants will therefore take on the 'tumultuous' task of addressing what transnationalism means theoretically, methodologically and pedagogically, and how our assumptions about 'the transnational' often direct, shape, and perhaps unwittingly limit how 'we' may think about the transnational, too. Participants' contributions will draw on their own research and instruction, and will have the opportunity to collectively reflect on how to incorporate them into a comprehensive research agenda moving forward.
Hosted by the Professorship for Comparative Cultural Studies and Qualitative Research, Institute for Sociology and the Center for Integration Studies, TU Dresden
Funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the Freestate of Saxony under the Excellence Strategy of the Federal Government and the Länder