Istanbul Seminars 2012
Bilgi University

Istanbul Seminars

Philosophers Bridge the Bosphorus

“Close encounters across all divides”: Every spring independent minds from different civilizational backgrounds discuss and debate the prospects for democracy, human rights and religion across all divides in week-long meeting (find out who attended the conference last time). Something in between a summer school and a think tank, the Istanbul Seminars have established themselves as a remarkable cultural appointment for a recognizable community of scholars and students.

The Rome-based foundation Reset-Dialogues on Civilizations has been promoting intercultural understanding over the past ten years through public international meetings ad interviews with a wide range of scholars and opinion leaders, with a distinctive focus on the Islamic area. Please go through the website to figure out what we are talking about.

ResetDoc Seminars are willing to promote and consolidate a network of cultural, intellectual and academic relationships among senior and junior scholars and PHD candidates in the social sciences, political theory, sociology, legal and religious studies.

Our goal is to activate mutual understanding and interaction between democratic intellectuals and opinion makers belonging to different geo-political and cultural areas of the “East” and the “West”: ResetDoc promotes dialogue and respect instead of conflict and contempt.

In the past few years, the Seminars have discussed  topics such as 1.Postsecularism (2008), 2.Religion, Human rights and Multicultural Jurisdictions (2009), 3. Realigning Liberalism: Pluralism, Integration, Identities (2010), 4.Overcoming the Trap of resentment (2011), The Promises of Democracy in Troubled Times (2012).


The sixth edition of the Istanbul Seminars is in preparation for May 2013 at Istanbul Bilgi University.

The conference takes place at Istanbul Bilgi University and attracts a considerable audience of scholars and students from all over the world.

The proceedings of Istanbul Seminars are published by the journal Philosophy&  Social Criticism, Sage publications.


Executive Committee

2013: Seyla Benhabib, Giancarlo Bosetti, Alessandro Ferrara, Abdou Filali-Ansary, Nina zu Fürstenberg, Nilüfer Göle, Ferda Keskin, David Rasmussen.

2008-2012: Seyla Benhabib, Giancarlo Bosetti, Alessandro Ferrara, Abdou Filali-Ansary, Nina zu Fürstenberg, Nilüfer Göle, Ferda Keskin, Nadia Urbinati.

Scientific coordinator

Volker Kaul: volkerkaul@reset.it

Organization

Reset-Dialogues on Civilizations
Contact: luisa.rovati@resetdoc.org

With the contribution of Italian Foreign Ministry