War as the idée fixe of our time: humanities scholars seek an alternative to military pathos and the spread of militaristic rhetoric.

Humanities scholars from Lithuania, Ukraine, Russia and Belarus will gather in Minsk at the end of October to reflect on the current socio-political situation in the region and the possibilities for humanitarian reflection under conditions of “wartime”.
On 28-29 October 2017, the conference “Logos and Pathos: Humanitarian Reflection in Conditions of War” will take place in Minsk.

The event is organized by the International Association for the Humanities, the European Humanities University (Vilnius), the Flying University (Minsk), the Centre for Interdisciplinary Humanities Research (Minsk), and the Political Sphere Institute (Minsk-Vilnius).

The challenge to which the conference must respond is set by the socio-political situation in the East European region. The “undeclared war” in Ukraine, which has unfolded both in the real and virtual (media) dimensions, has led to an extraordinary escalation of the rhetoric of war, a tendency toward quasi-rational justifications and affects in the spirit of “a la guerre comme a la guerre”.

Increasingly often, both politicians and humanities scholars discuss possible scenarios of a new war, occupation, and so on, and it is no longer clear whether we are capable of breaking out of this closed circle of the “militaristic race” on the fields of our consciousness.

Can humanities knowledge become a means of resisting propaganda?

What cultural or artistic practices can be used to deconstruct the “imaginary war”?

To what extent can humanitarian thought itself remain outside the framework of ideological confrontation and form an effective alternative to militaristic rhetoric and the escalation of the pathos of possible war?

We invite you to reflect on and discuss these and other urgent questions of our time together with the conference participants: intellectuals and researchers from Ukraine, Russia, Lithuania and Belarus.

The working languages of the conference are Belarusian, Russian and Ukrainian.

The conference programme is available here (https://goo.gl/skVR5m).

All interested participants may register via the link (https://goo.gl/CPjNiE).

Registration is open until 20 October 2017.

Participation in the conference can be combined with a useful master class on writing applications for international conferences, registration for which is open until 6 October.

Details of participation and registration are available at the link (http://fly-uni.org/novosti/majstar-klas-pa-napisanni-zayavak/).