Reset Dialogues on Civilizations is pleased to present another edition of the Venice-Delhi Seminars (click here for details about past editions in this series).
Speakers and participants are invited to consider the proliferating inequalities that characterize our political and economic situation today: the gap, ever widening, between citizens and non-citizens (including immigrants, guest workers and refugees) in the democracies of Western Europe; between majority communities and minorities in countries like India and Turkey; and everywhere between those who claim to belong and those trying desperately to lay claim to a share of the rights, resources and life-chances that are accessible to so-called ‘full’ citizens.
Economic differences and socio-political conflict between different sectional, religious and caste-based (in India) identities are crucial issues in today’s world. A period of growth and at least promised social mobility seems to be drawing to a close. Together with the welfare crisis, poverty, inequalities becoming chronic problems both in the Eastern and Western countries. Moreover, it appears that now there is no plausible political inspiration, ideology, party or leadership capable of breaking this impasse, whether in Europe, India or the US.
On October 12, 13 and 14, 2016 in Venice, Reset-DoC will stage a dialogue on these issues shaping and defining our world in ways that pose severe challenges to inclusive development, religious pluralism and liberal democracy.
PROGRAM OF THE CONFERENCE
Venice-Delhi Seminars
Identity and Democracy in the Age of Fear
Giorgio Cini Foundation, Venice, Italy
October 12-14, 2016
Wednesday – October 12th, 2016
10.00 am – Welcome Coffee
10.15-10.45 am – Welcome address
Giancarlo Bosetti | Director of Reset-Dialogues on Civilizations
Emilio Quinté | Communication Director, Fondazione Giorgio Cini
Antonio Rigopoulos | Ca’ Foscari University, Venice
10.45.00-11.15 am – Introduction
Ananya Vajpeyi | Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, New Delhi
11.15 am -12.45 am – Session 1. A World at War: Is Religion to Blame?
Nilüfer Göle | Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, ParisThe Unintended Consequences of the Post-Secular Paradigm
Nauman Naqvi | Habib University, Karachi, Pakistan
Religion and Identity Do Not Exist
Stephen Prothero | Boston University, Boston MA
Culture Wars in the United States from the Election of 1800 to the Islam Wars
Chair: Ananya Vajpeyi |Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, New Delhi
12.45 am-2.00 pm – Lunch
2.00-4.00 pm – Session 2. The Rise of “Strongmen” and the trend of Illiberal Democracy
Marina Forti |Independent Journalist, Rome
The Identity One Cannot Touch. The Place of “parias” in a Modern Democracy
Mukul Kesavan | Jamia Millia University, New Delhi
Majoritarianism and Republican Virility
Thomas Dahnhardt | Ca’ Foscari University, Venice, Italy
Caught between Devotion and Violence: the Subtle Balance between Conflict and Mediation among Muslims in South Asia
Chair: Roberto Toscano | Former Italian Ambassador to Iran and India
4.00-4.15 pm – Coffee Break
4.15-5.45 pm – Session 3. Elected Autocrats, Demoralized Democrats: Who Speaks for the People
Roberto Toscano | Former Italian Ambassador to Iran and India
Entrepreneurs of Fear, Peddlers of Reactionary Utopias
Sheri Berman| Barnard College, Columbia University
Identity, Political Community and Democracy in Europe
Stefano Beggiora | Ca’ Foscari University, Venice,
Adivasis: Indigeneity and Identity in Contemporary India
Chair:Nina zu Fürstenberg | President, Reset Dialogues on Civilizations
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Thursday – October 13th, 2016
9.00 am – Coffee
9.15-10.45 am – Session 4. Political Conflict, Economic Inequality and the Radicalization of Identities
Mira Kamdar | International Affairs Journalism Program, École de Journalisme, Sciences Po, Paris
Unveiling the Politics Behind France’s Burkini Bans
Farhad Khosrokhavar | Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris
The New European Jihadists and the Challenge to Democracy
Maurizio Franzini | University of Rome “La Sapienza”
Chair: Volker Kaul | LUISS University of Rome
The conference will change location: on the occasion of the lectio magistralis given by the Indologist Professor Giuliano Boccali, we will move to Ca’ Foscari University
12.00 am-2.00 pm – Lectio magistralis
Giuliano Boccali |University of Milan
Le immagini della natura nella poesia indiana classica
Aula Magna “Silvio Trentin”, Ca’ Dolfin – Ca’ Foscari University
2.00-3.00 pm. Lunch – Ca’ Foscari University
3.00-4.00 pm – Aula Magna “Silvio Trentin”, Ca’ Dolfin, Ca’ Foscari University
The failures of nationalism and secularism, in the West and in the Rest
Ashis Nandy in conversation with Ananya Vajpeyi
4.00-5.30 pm – Aula Magna “Silvio Trentin”, Ca’ Dolfin, Ca’ Foscari University
Session 5. Closing Roundtable. Economic Stagnation, Marginalization and Identities under Threat
Moderated by Giancarlo Bosetti, Director of Reset-Dialogues on Civilizations
Giuliano Amato | Former Prime Minister of Italy and Judge of the Constitutional Court
Nilüfer Göle | Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris
Ashis Nandy | Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, New Delhi
6.30 pm – Artistic rendez-vous
Auditorium S. Margherita, Ca’ Foscari University, Venice
MARGA – Indian Dance Performance
Apoorva Jayaraman
Free Entry
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Friday – October 14th, 2016
Cultural rendez-vous for the final day
10.30-11.30 am. Giorgio Cini Foundation, Island of San Giorgio, Venice
Le Stanze del Vetro – The art of Glassmaking in the 20th and 21st Centuries, Permanent Exhibition
Paolo Venini and His Furnace curated by Marino Barovier, Autumn Exhibition
Glass Tea House Mondrian by Hiroshi Sugimoto, Temporary Exhibition
By invitation only
Free Time
6.30 pm – Giorgio Cini Foundation, Island of San Giorgio, Venice – Sala Arazzi
In collaboration with
FIND India Europe Foundation for New Dialogues, Kama Productions and Associazione Gamaka
Tagore’s: Songs of Love and Destiny
The music and the poetry of Rabindranath Tagore arranged for voice and piano by Alain Daniélou
Francesca Cassio | Chair in Sikh Musicology and Associate Professor of Music at Hofstra University, New York
Ugo Bonessi | Music professor, piano performer, musicologist
Tania di Giuseppe | Voice-over narration, actress
The concert is free and open to all
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Project Director: Giancarlo Bosetti (Reset-Dialogues on Civilizations)
Scientific Coordinator: Ananya Vajpeyi (Centre for the Study of Developing Societies)
Artistic Director: Riccardo Biadene (Artistic Dialogue FIND)
Project Manager: Chiara Galbersanini, Cristina Sala (Reset-Dialogues on Civilizations)
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The conference is free and open to all
Please confirm your participation at: cristina.sala@resetdoc.org