Occidentalism
Members
Claudia Brunner, Gabriele Dietze, Elahe Haschemi Yekani, Daniela Hrzán, Jana Husmann-Kastein, Ute Frietsch, Carsten Junker, Karolina Krasuska, Beatrice Michaelis, Simon Strick, Edith Wenzel
Time Frame: Sommersemester 2006 bis Sommersemester 2007
Research Questions
The working group “Occidentalism” was organized as a preparation group for the international conference “De/Construction of Occidentliam: A Gender-Critical Intervention in the Production of the Self in Relation to Others” which took place at Humboldt University in Berlin from June 21-23, 2007 under the direction of Professor Dr. Gabriele Dietze. The working group meetings focus on planing the content and organizational of the conference, the development of a call for papers, the invitation of international and national speakers, the development of the conference structure, practical organization, etc..
The conception of the content of the conference was the hypothesis that in debates about “parallel societies”, integration politics, and democratic suitability of immigrants is not only reinforce fear of foreign infiltration but also the description of the other also serves to solidify and reconstruct the (unsaid) self. The working group “Occidentalism” occupied itself with the content of the conference conniption with a new construction of “occidentality” in the sense of a critical occidentalism and tackled a transfer gender critical postcolonial theory of German/European relations.
In addition to the conference, a conference protocol was planned, which will be edited by Claudia Brunner, Professor Dr. Gabriele Dietze, and Professor Dr. Edith Wenzel. Nearly all of the speakers have agreed to contribute an article to the book. The editors will compose an introduction to the concept of critical occidentalism, which is also the title of the conference protocol book. The book is scheduled to be released in early 2009.
Conferences
Internationale Konferenz: De/Konstruktionen von Okzidentalismus. Eine geschlechterkritische Intervention in die Herstellung des Eigenen am Anderen
Zeit: 21.-23.06.2007
Ort: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Publications
Gabriele Dietze, Claudia Brunner, Editz Wenzel (Hg.) (2009 u. 2010): Kritik des Okzidentalismus. Transdisziplinäre Beiträge zu (Neo)Orientalismus und Geschlecht. Bielefeld: transcript.