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Upcoming Lectures and Conferences

You are cordially invited to participate
in a series of events on

"The Public Sphere and Modern Social Imaginaries"

Led by: Bernd Fischer (Germanic Languages and Literatures) and Alan Beyerchen (History)

The aim of this group's interdisciplinary research initiative is to explore the historical and contemporary significance of the public sphere and modern social imaginaries—the discourses, norms, and ideas shared by members of a given society. The motivation for such an investigation arises from the growing interdependence of different nations, regions, and communities that demands and generates new ways of political, legal, economic, strategic, and cultural forms of cooperation. What kind of public spaces facilitate and what kind of shared imaginaries support such cooperation and how do they emerge? What aspects in society hinder productive communication and interaction? Does productive social cooperation presuppose certain governmental, in particular democratic structures? Answering these and related questions will require the collaboration of a variety of disciplines, including, but not limited to social and political sciences, cultural theory, religious studies, philosophy, anthropology, economic theory, linguistics, history, art history, and education.

For upcoming events Autumn Quarter 2009:
Upcoming Public Sphere Lectures

Past lectures (2008-09)

The "Habermas' Theory of Communicative Action" Reading group
with Prof. Carmen Taleghani-Nikazm (Germanic L & L) met on May 22, 2009.

The following texts were discussed:
"Habermas' Theory of Communicative Action"
"Knoblauch's Communication, Contexts, and Culture"

"The Public Sphere and Modern Social Imaginaries" Reading group on
"Peter Sloterdijk" with Prof. Rick Livingston (Comparative Studies) met on April 17, 2009.

The following texts were discussed:
"Die Verachtung der Massen" by Peter Sloterdijk
"Doppelte Wunden" by Peter Sloterdijk
"It's (Not) All Good: One Sloterdijk's Contempt"
"Modern Social Imaginaries"
"Atmospheric Politics"

"The Public Sphere and Modern Social Imaginaries" Reading group on "Hegel and Nietzsche" with Prof. Christian Emden (Rice University) met on April 6, 2009
The texts discussed were:
"Elements of the Philosophy of Right" by G.W.F. Hegel
and "Human, All Too Human" by Friedrich Nietzsche

"The Public Sphere and Modern Social Imaginaries" Reading group on 'Vienna around 1900' with Paul Reitter (Ohio State) met on March 9, 2009.
The texts discussed were:
"Erpressung" by Karl Kraus
and "Vienna in the Age of Uncertainty" (Intro) by Deborah Coen

"The Public Sphere and Modern Social Imaginaries" Reading group on Herder with Dorothea von Mücke (Columbia University) met on January 12, 2009.
The text discussed was:
"Haben wir noch das Publikum und das Vaterland der Alten" 1795 version (57. Humanitätsbrief)

These texts were discussed on Nov. 21:

Two short seminal texts were discussed on Oct. 17:
Moses Mendelssohn, "On the Question: What is Enlightenment?"
AND
Immanuel Kant, "An Answer to the Question: What is Enlightenment?"

Project Description
The goal of the interdisciplinary research and teaching initiative "The Public Sphere and Modern Social Imaginaries" is to investigate how cultural and artistic expressions arising from and contributing to modern social imaginaries—understood by Charles Taylor as the ways in which people in a society understand and realize their collective existence—work within and against the classical Habermasian notion of the political public sphere of German speaking and European societies, in a historical (1750—today) and global context. Our guiding question is whether the creation of a political public sphere—defined by Jürgen Habermas as the realm of power-free and rational discourse that he believes is fundamental to a functioning democracy—is and has indeed been necessary for establishing and maintaining social freedom and justice. This initiative wishes to explore the interrelations between modern social imaginaries and the public sphere and, at the same time, the validity of these concepts, by analyzing cultural and artistic practices that have emerged between the Enlightenment and the present. We will ask in what ways these practices might enable or impede the emergence of a political public sphere and to what extent culture and the arts can themselves create public realms and discourses that might further—or hinder—the development of free and just societies.

    In practical terms, we plan to create a collaborative and interdisciplinary research infrastructure in three steps:
  • Reading group
    We would like to encourage a discussion of seminal texts related to this topic within the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures and neighboring disciplines. Over the course of the next two years, we will offer one or two reading sessions each quarter in which members of the GLL Department and neighboring disciplines will introduce us to these texts.
  • Lectures and Seminars
    We have invited experts in their fields who work on fields related to the topic of the initiative to give presentations on their ongoing research and teach workshops to interested graduate students and faculty. We are also in the process of inviting international scholars who will teach graduate seminars on the initiative's topic.
  • Conference
    In 2010-11 we will host an international conference on the topic, which will result in the publication of some of the initiative's ongoing research.
For more information, comments, or suggestions please email malkmus.1@osu.edu and mergenthaler.4@osu.edu.

Past GLL Lectures and Conferences can be found at http://germanic.osu.edu/news/lectures-past.cfm.

Content Owner: N. Miller

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