Recognition

Constitution as a viable social subject is dependent on being recognized by others as such, whether that recognition takes the form of an ethical gesture, a political objective, or a legal instrument. The desire for recognition is therefore often assumed to be universal. For many activists and theorists, recognition of rights and identities has been at the heart of social justice movements, particularly since the 1980s. This is reflected, for example, in the ‘gay rights’ slogan, ‘recognize our relationships’. Yet, appeals to recognize what certain groups have in common tend to be made at the expense of more widely expanding the range of lives that might be acknowledged as possible and worthy of protection. Moreover, the identificatory categories through which rights claims can be made often fail to map onto the actual lived experiences of those they purport to describe, suggesting that becoming socially legible as part of a group can come at the expense of true recognition as an individual. In such ways and more, the demand for recognition is inherently intertwined with a dimension of conflict and often manifests as a struggle. This symposium aims to develop critical approaches to the concept of recognition, exploring the potential gains and losses when historically marginalized groups attain social, political, or legal legibility.

In English

Thursday, 23 May 2024, 14:30

14:30 Welcome Coffee

14:45 Introduction

15:00 – 16:30 Panel I – Narrating Difference

Alvise Capria
Organizing Narratives: The Role of Political Myths in Politics of Recognition

Anat Kraslavsky
Homophilosemitism

Carson Cole Arthur
A ‘Universal’ Story—of Motherhood: Testimony, Black Femininity, and the Logic of Recognition in the Trial of Fabienne Kabou and Saint Omer

16:30 Coffee Break

17:00 – 18:30 Panel II – Grassroots Alternatives

Philippa Mullins
Russian Disability Worldbuilding Through Queer-Crip Solidarities

Alaa Badr
I’tiraf اعتراف—A New Grassroot Model of Recognition

VAMKY Collective (Simo Kupiainen & Melina Morr de Pérez) and MELT (Ren Loren Britton & Iz Paehr)
Krüppelqueer: Intersecting the Trans-Crip Archive

18:30 Break

19:00 Keynote Lecture – Stella Nyanzi
Unrecognized in Life, Misrecognized in Death
Comparing (In)Justices between Trinidad Chriton and Edwin Chiloba

Friday, 24 May 2024, 11:00

11:00 – 12:30 Panel III – State Forms

Berkant Caglar
Facing the State, Coming Out to The Judge:
Forms of Queer Recognition in the Turkish Courtrooms

Levi C. R. Hord
Recognition and the Write-In Box:
Reflections on the 2021 Canadian Census ‘Gender Question’

B Camminga and Ruth Ramsden-Karelse
X as Unspecified: A Reparative Model of Legal Gender Recognition in South Africa

12:30 Lunch Break

14:30 – 16:00 Panel IV – Language, Normativity, Plurality

Lilja Walliser
Recognition, Negativity, and the (Proto)symbolic Third:
Jessica Benjamin and Judith Butler on Communication

Natascia Tosel
Naming the Social: Normalization, Resignification, or a New Re-Cognition?

Mariano Croce
Why Should the State Recognize Them at All?

16:00 Coffee Break

16:30 – 18:00 Panel V – In/Visibility

Arantxa Ortiz
Caring for Images: Computational Anonymization as Refusal?

Lisa Deml
After Us There’ll Be a Horizon:
ZouZou Group’s Practice of Framing and Leaking the Syrian Conflict

Darja Dočekalová
Extending Recognition: A Case of Invisible Disabilities

How to Attend

• At the venue (registration required): Registration will open on 8 May 2024.
• No online attendance or livestream available (in-person only).