Call for Participation Pluriversal Dialogues on Environmental Ethics: Decolonising Scientific Practice for Futures Beyond ‘Development’
Date: 21-24 May, 2024
Venue: Center for Life Ethics, University of Bonn
We are inviting researchers from TRA 4 and TRA 5 with a particular interest in or research focus on the global south, environmental ethics, education and/or research, (critical) development studies, marginalized indigenous, feminist and/or decolonial standpoints to apply for participation. We particularly encourage colleagues with provenience from and/or research focus on Africa, Asia or Oceania to share their views with us. Since the event consists of dynamic workshops with a limited capacity, places for participants are limited to five (5) participants from TRA 4 and five (5) from TRA 5, respectively.
Who is inviting? This event is being co-organized by a group of eight (8) researchers from different research institutes at the University of Bonn (Global Heritage Lab, Center for Life Ethics, Center for Development Research, Institute of Archaeology and Cultural Anthropology, and Interdisciplinary Center for Latin American Studies) who share a particular interest in decolonial, marginalized perspectives (from the south, women, indigenous people) on urgent socio-environmental challenges.
What is the event about? Our conception of “pluriversal dialogues” follows recent decolonial notions of a pluriverse of many diverging worlds, each being re-created through particular worlding or cosmopractices, and the need to get these diverging cosmopractices into a co-creative dialogue on ethically oriented ways of future making. For these first pluriversal dialogues in Bonn we have invited ten (10) researchers and practitioners from Latin America and three (3) from Germany to share with us, on a practical basis, their experiences and approaches in intercultural and environmental research and education, community-led co-creation, and dialogical and transrational practices of knowing. We will bring different experiences and practices into dialogue in a series of workshops. Being traversed by long histories of coloniality and “development”, our encounters will revolve around constructing alternative, pluriversal futures that revalue systematically excluded living heritages. We intend to open a dialogue between “worlds”, a conversation to address the ontological, epistemological, methodological, ethical, and political challenges posed by this approach. In this way, we address coloniality, knowledge, and power questions through an exchange of lived practices.
Event Programme – Tuesday, May 21st to Friday, May 24th: Consists of daily indoor and outdoor workshops from 9:00 am to 12:30 pm and from 2:00 pm to 5:30 pm, followed by (optional) activities in the evening.
What kind of participation do we expect from you? All participants are expected to actively engage in the workshops during the entire event. As a participant, you will have the opportunity to share and exchange ideas and experiences during dialogical, co-creative and performative workshops, and build and enhance global networks. If you do not have the time, but you do have an interest in this or similar topics, please still contact us as we plan to develop further dialogues in the future.
To apply: Please send an email to Alejandro Mora Motta (a.moramotta@uni-bonn.de) -for TRA 5 members- or Jan Linhart (jlinhart@uni-bonn.de) -for TRA 4 members-, briefly introducing your research approach, your motivation to participate in the event, and your availability.
Deadline: 24.04.2024