A staple of intellectual life at the Institute for Human Sciences (IWM Vienna) since its early days, the biannual conference provided an opportunity for early-career visiting researchers from a wide range of disciplinary backgrounds to present their work and exchange ideas in a collegial atmosphere. IWM Visiting and Permanent Fellows, alumni, and scholars from Viennese institutions acted as commentators and discussants.
Wednesday, 11 November
9:30 – 10:00 Welcome and coffee
10:00 – 10:15: Opening remarks by IWM Rector Misha Glenny
Panel 1: Digital Humanism: Prospects and Provocations
10:15 – 10:50
James Rosenberg: The Cybernetic State
Commentator: Misha Glenny, IWM Rector
10:50 – 11:25
Ivan Napoli: ChatPhD: The Role of LLMs in Shaping the Research Practices and Productivity of Young Scholars
Commentator: Andreas Steininger, University of Vienna (tbc)
11:25 – 11:45 Coffee break
Panel 2: Critique in Times of Crisis: Metaphysics, Epistemology, and the Practice of Dissent
Chair: Halyna Herasym
11:45 – 12:20
Alžběta Dyčková: Response to the Crisis of Metaphysics in Adorno and Patočka
Commentator: Ludger Hagedorn, IWM Permanent Fellow
12:20 – 12:55
Yannis Ktenas: Knowledge (Once Again) in Crisis: Karl Mannheim's Relevance in the Age of Generalized Suspicion
Commentator: Keith Raymond Harris, University of Vienna
12:55 – 13:30
Václav Růt: Dissidence as a Model of Ethical and Political Conduct
Commentator: Ludger Hagedorn, IWM Permanent Fellow
13:30 – 14:30 Lunch break
Panel 3: The Human Face of Political Violence: From Soviet Populism to Modern Russian War and Repression
Chair: Yannis Ktenas
14:30 – 15:05
The Contested Logic of Populism in the Late-Soviet and Post-Soviet World
Commentator: Sofie Bedford, Uppsala University/RECET Vienna
15:05 – 15:40
Anna Derzhypilska: Fingerprinted Lives: Russia’s Filtration Camps in Ukraine as Modern Repression
Commentator: James C. O'Brien, IWM Fellow
15:40 – 16:15
Halyna Herasym: Reimagining the Soldier: Online Narratives of Grief and Remembrance in Wartime Ukraine
Commentator: Václav Štětka, IWM Fellow
16:15 – 16:30: Closing remarks by IWM Senior Research Fellow Taras Fedirko
