How do processes of globalization interact with the dynamics of community construction? In our conference, we invite speakers to engage with and reflect on this question from a variety of disciplinary perspectives, such as literary studies, political science, and sociology. We set out to examine both the transformations in existing communities and the way communities are conceptualized.

Program

Thursday, October 6

13.30–14.00 | Robert Stockhammer (LMU Munich). Introductory Address

Panel I | Contesting Identity Politics
Chair: Katharina Martl

14.00–15.00
Aamir Mufti (UCLA). Strangers in Europe: Terrorists, Migrants, Refugees

15.00–15.30 | Coffee break

15.30–17.30
Suman Gupta (Open University). What does “White Working Class” mean? On the Underperformance of White Working-Class Students in the UK

Ulrike Kistner (University of Pretoria). Pan-Africanist Disarticulations

Panel II | Cosmopolitanism, Solidarity and Trauma
Chair: Sema Kara

17.30–18.00 | Coffee break

18.00–19.00
Nikita Dhawan (Innsbruck University). One World, One Pain? Transnational Literacy and Planetary Ethics

Friday, October 7

Panel II | Cosmopolitanism, Solidarity and Trauma (continued)
Chair: Sema Kara

10.30–12.30
Stef Craps (Ghent University). Cross-Traumatic Affiliation

Bernhard Pirkl (LMU Munich). Unfinished Business. Legacies of Perpetration in Boualem Sansal’s Le village de l’Allemand

12.30–14.00 | Lunch break

14.00–15.00
Daniel Levy (Stony Brook). Revisiting Solidarity in the Cosmopolitan Age

15.00–15.30 | Coffee Break

Panel III | Constructing Leaders
Chair: Fabienne Imlinger

15.30–17.30
Wolfgang Schwentker (Osaka University). “Karisuma” in Japan? Leadership and Followership in a Community-based Society

Norulhuda Othman (LMU Munich). Alexander the Great and the Legitimation of Dynastic Space in Malay Political Mythology

Saturday, October 8

Panel IV | Religion and Community
Chair: Pierre-Héli Monot

9.00–11.00
Bernhard Teuber (LMU Munich). Phantasia & Koinonia or How to Make Believe Catholicity ‒ The Impact of Literary Imagination on the Construction of a Christian Community

Lars Bullmann (LMU Munich). Apostle at the Crossroads. Interpellation, Universalism and Community in recent Readings of Paul

11.00–11.30 | Coffee break

Panel V | Literature and Aesthetics
Chair: Robert Stockhammer

11.30–13.30
Theo D’haen (Leuven University). World History and World Literature

Susanne Lüdemann (LMU Munich). Geschmacksgemeinschaften / Communities of Taste

13.30–14.00 | Final discussion and closing remarks