Past Events

	Title	Date	Type	Speakers
	How Smart People Got Too Powerful and Why That Might be About to Change	Wed, 27.03.2019, 16:00	Seminars and Colloquia	David F Goodhart	How Smart People Got Too Powerful and Why That Might be About to Change Wed, 27.03.2019, 16:00 Speakers: David F Goodhart Series: Seminars and Colloquia There is one overarching explanation for current political discontents that is hiding in plain sight: cognitive ability—that hard to define ability that helps people to pass exams and then process information efficiently in their professional lives—has become the gold standard of human esteem. People with higher levels of cognitive ability—what one might call the cognitive classes—now shape society. And they do so broadly in their own interests favouring openness, autonomy, mobility and a social fluidity that they find easy to navigate. Read more
How Smart People Got Too Powerful and Why That Might be About to Change Wed, 27.03.2019, 16:00 Speakers: David F Goodhart Series: Seminars and Colloquia There is one overarching explanation for current political discontents that is hiding in plain sight: cognitive ability—that hard to define ability that helps people to pass exams and then process information efficiently in their professional lives—has become the gold standard of human esteem. People with higher levels of cognitive ability—what one might call the cognitive classes—now shape society. And they do so broadly in their own interests favouring openness, autonomy, mobility and a social fluidity that they find easy to navigate. Read more
	Messianism and Sociopolitical Revolution in Islam	Mon, 25.03.2019, 16:00	Seminars and Colloquia	Ayşe Çağlar Said Arjomand	Messianism and Sociopolitical Revolution in Islam Mon, 25.03.2019, 16:00 Speakers: Ayşe Çağlar Said Arjomand Series: Seminars and Colloquia This report of Saïd Arjomand`s work on progress followed a new theoretical approach to the sociology of revolution offered in Revolution: Structure and Meaning in History to appear next month with regard to the motivation to revolutionary action. This approach shifts the focus of analysis from the putatively general causes of revolutions to the specific motivation and consequences of revolutionary social action in historical and comparative perspective. Within this framework, major instances of Islamicate revolutionary transformation beginning with Muhammad’s constitutive revolution and the rise of Islam in seventh-century Arabia, followed by four cases of medieval and early modern Mahdist revolutions are examined in the companion volume he is working on. The persistence as well as radical transformation of the millennial motivation in revolutionary movements of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries will be treated in the concluding chapters. The presentation briefly outlined the conclusions regarding the Fatimid revolution in North Africa at the beginning of the tenth century and the Berber revolution of Mahdi Ibn Tumart in Southwestern Maghreb in the mid-twelfth century but mostly focus in the Shi`ite Messianism in occupied Iraq and the Sunni reaction to it in the form of DA`ESH/ISIS in the concluding chapter. Read more
Messianism and Sociopolitical Revolution in Islam Mon, 25.03.2019, 16:00 Speakers: Ayşe Çağlar Said Arjomand Series: Seminars and Colloquia This report of Saïd Arjomand`s work on progress followed a new theoretical approach to the sociology of revolution offered in Revolution: Structure and Meaning in History to appear next month with regard to the motivation to revolutionary action. This approach shifts the focus of analysis from the putatively general causes of revolutions to the specific motivation and consequences of revolutionary social action in historical and comparative perspective. Within this framework, major instances of Islamicate revolutionary transformation beginning with Muhammad’s constitutive revolution and the rise of Islam in seventh-century Arabia, followed by four cases of medieval and early modern Mahdist revolutions are examined in the companion volume he is working on. The persistence as well as radical transformation of the millennial motivation in revolutionary movements of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries will be treated in the concluding chapters. The presentation briefly outlined the conclusions regarding the Fatimid revolution in North Africa at the beginning of the tenth century and the Berber revolution of Mahdi Ibn Tumart in Southwestern Maghreb in the mid-twelfth century but mostly focus in the Shi`ite Messianism in occupied Iraq and the Sunni reaction to it in the form of DA`ESH/ISIS in the concluding chapter. Read more
	Brexit: Deal or No Deal? What’s next for Britain and the EU?	Sun, 24.03.2019, 11:00	Panels and Discussions	Ivan Vejvoda Mary KaldorTessa Szyszkowitz, Tom Tugendhat, Denis Staunton	Brexit: Deal or No Deal? What’s next for Britain and the EU? Sun, 24.03.2019, 11:00 Speakers: Ivan Vejvoda Mary KaldorTessa Szyszkowitz, Tom Tugendhat, Denis Staunton Series: Panels and Discussions In June 2016, the majority of the British population voted in favour of the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union. Since then, this decision has created enormous political waves within Great Britain – it has been in fact already termed as the biggest political crisis in the UK since World War II. Read more
Brexit: Deal or No Deal? What’s next for Britain and the EU? Sun, 24.03.2019, 11:00 Speakers: Ivan Vejvoda Mary KaldorTessa Szyszkowitz, Tom Tugendhat, Denis Staunton Series: Panels and Discussions In June 2016, the majority of the British population voted in favour of the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union. Since then, this decision has created enormous political waves within Great Britain – it has been in fact already termed as the biggest political crisis in the UK since World War II. Read more
	Systemic Earthquake: National, Regional and the Global Dimensions	Tue, 19.03.2019, 18:00	Panels and Discussions	Ivan KrastevAhmet Davutoğlu	Systemic Earthquake: National, Regional and the Global Dimensions Tue, 19.03.2019, 18:00 Speakers: Ivan KrastevAhmet Davutoğlu Series: Panels and Discussions In the second event of the series “Geopolitical Talks” IWM Permanent Fellow Ivan Krastev talked with Ahmet Davutoğlu, former Prime Minister of Turkey (2014-2016), about the current geopolitical challenges on national, regional and international level. Read more
Systemic Earthquake: National, Regional and the Global Dimensions Tue, 19.03.2019, 18:00 Speakers: Ivan KrastevAhmet Davutoğlu Series: Panels and Discussions In the second event of the series “Geopolitical Talks” IWM Permanent Fellow Ivan Krastev talked with Ahmet Davutoğlu, former Prime Minister of Turkey (2014-2016), about the current geopolitical challenges on national, regional and international level. Read more
	Soviet Ukrainian Patriotism in Brezhnev`s Dnipropetrovsk	Mon, 18.03.2019, 16:00	Seminars and Colloquia	Andrii Portnov	Soviet Ukrainian Patriotism in Brezhnev`s Dnipropetrovsk Mon, 18.03.2019, 16:00 Speakers: Andrii Portnov Series: Seminars and Colloquia One of the biggest Soviet industrial centers, a city of more than a million people in southern Ukraine, Dnipropetrovsk (today Dnipro), was closed to foreigners beginning in 1959 because of the secret rocket production in the city. It was also considered ‘Brezhnev’s city’ because the first secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was born nearby and began his career there. How was nationality, cultural and language politics performed and perceived in Soviet Ukraine in the 1960-70s? How was ‘Soviet’ connected/bordered to ‘Ukrainian’ in official discourse? How did the socialist realist novel ‘The Cathedral’ by Oles’ Honchar became an ‘anti-Soviet’ text, and what did that mean for the biggest closed city in Soviet Ukraine? Read more
Soviet Ukrainian Patriotism in Brezhnev`s Dnipropetrovsk Mon, 18.03.2019, 16:00 Speakers: Andrii Portnov Series: Seminars and Colloquia One of the biggest Soviet industrial centers, a city of more than a million people in southern Ukraine, Dnipropetrovsk (today Dnipro), was closed to foreigners beginning in 1959 because of the secret rocket production in the city. It was also considered ‘Brezhnev’s city’ because the first secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was born nearby and began his career there. How was nationality, cultural and language politics performed and perceived in Soviet Ukraine in the 1960-70s? How was ‘Soviet’ connected/bordered to ‘Ukrainian’ in official discourse? How did the socialist realist novel ‘The Cathedral’ by Oles’ Honchar became an ‘anti-Soviet’ text, and what did that mean for the biggest closed city in Soviet Ukraine? Read more
	Between Predation and Protection	Thu, 14.03.2019, 18:00	Lecture	Keith Krause	Between Predation and Protection Violence, Order, and the “Insecurity Trap” Thu, 14.03.2019, 18:00 Speakers: Keith Krause Series: Lecture Why, despite long-term and general declines in all forms of lethal violence, are some states and regions caught in an “insecurity trap”? What are the processes and mechanisms that facilitated the emergence of pacific states in the 19th and 20th century, and where (and why) do these conditions not hold today? The talk explored the scope and dimensions of contemporary violence and insecurity, and detailed the reasons for the persistent failure of some states to provide security and order as a public good for their citizens. Read more
Between Predation and Protection Violence, Order, and the “Insecurity Trap” Thu, 14.03.2019, 18:00 Speakers: Keith Krause Series: Lecture Why, despite long-term and general declines in all forms of lethal violence, are some states and regions caught in an “insecurity trap”? What are the processes and mechanisms that facilitated the emergence of pacific states in the 19th and 20th century, and where (and why) do these conditions not hold today? The talk explored the scope and dimensions of contemporary violence and insecurity, and detailed the reasons for the persistent failure of some states to provide security and order as a public good for their citizens. Read more
	Statelessness in South Asia	Mon, 11.03.2019, 18:00	Lecture	Ranabir Samaddar	Statelessness in South Asia Mon, 11.03.2019, 18:00 Speakers: Ranabir Samaddar Series: Lecture The lecture examined the entanglements of citizenship policies and practices with the spread of statelessness today. It discussed the genesis of the Rohingya question in Myanmar in the broader context of citizenship registration drives in some postcolonial countries, which render massive number of “illegal immigrants” stateless. Current citizenship policies in these countries reflect the desire to achieve a perfect fit between the “right” kind of population and the “right size” of territory for a nation-state. But they must be also understood against the background of a shift in emphasis from jus soli to jus sanguinis, the existence of borderland populations and the no-where people, population flows across (post)colonial border formations and boundary delimitations and the growth of regional informal labour markets characterised by immigrant labour economies. In what ways is the production of statelessness in the postcolonial world different from the classical idea of statelessness originating from succession of states (for instance, Yugoslavia)? The talk also addressed the implications of such national citizen registers for international human rights laws and for key instruments on statelessness – the 1954 UN Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. It showed why the international legal understanding of statelessness is inadequate to theorise the growing phenomenon of statelessness today. Read more
Statelessness in South Asia Mon, 11.03.2019, 18:00 Speakers: Ranabir Samaddar Series: Lecture The lecture examined the entanglements of citizenship policies and practices with the spread of statelessness today. It discussed the genesis of the Rohingya question in Myanmar in the broader context of citizenship registration drives in some postcolonial countries, which render massive number of “illegal immigrants” stateless. Current citizenship policies in these countries reflect the desire to achieve a perfect fit between the “right” kind of population and the “right size” of territory for a nation-state. But they must be also understood against the background of a shift in emphasis from jus soli to jus sanguinis, the existence of borderland populations and the no-where people, population flows across (post)colonial border formations and boundary delimitations and the growth of regional informal labour markets characterised by immigrant labour economies. In what ways is the production of statelessness in the postcolonial world different from the classical idea of statelessness originating from succession of states (for instance, Yugoslavia)? The talk also addressed the implications of such national citizen registers for international human rights laws and for key instruments on statelessness – the 1954 UN Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. It showed why the international legal understanding of statelessness is inadequate to theorise the growing phenomenon of statelessness today. Read more
	Trojanow trifft: „Wie konnte das passieren?“ – Das Gespenst des Rechtsrucks in Österreich	Sun, 10.03.2019, 11:00	Panels and Discussions	Ilija TrojanowJosef Haslinger	Trojanow trifft: „Wie konnte das passieren?“ – Das Gespenst des Rechtsrucks in Österreich Sonntagsgespräche in der Roten Bar Sun, 10.03.2019, 11:00 Speakers: Ilija TrojanowJosef Haslinger Series: Panels and Discussions Ein Terrorakt im Herzen der österreichischen Hauptstadt ist der Nukleus des Romans Opernball von Josef Haslinger, zum Zeitpunkt der Veröffentlichung 1995 eine dystopische Übertreibung. Aber ganz aus der Luft gegriffen war das Szenario nicht, hatten doch rechtsextreme Anschläge und Briefbombenterror gerade das Land erschüttert. Eine Neue Rechte aus den diversesten Lagern, mit „wissenschaftlichem“, ideologischem oder religiösem Rüstzeug bewehrt, begann sich zu formieren – aus der Mitte der Gesellschaft heraus und in diese hineinwirkend. Ilija Trojanow sprach mit dem Autor und Mitbegründer der Menschenrechtsorganisation SOS Mitmensch Josef Haslinger über Fundamente des Rechtsextremismus, alte und neue Feindbilder und völkischen Katholizismus. Und wo steht Österreich heute, 25 Jahre nach der Romanfiktion? Read more
Trojanow trifft: „Wie konnte das passieren?“ – Das Gespenst des Rechtsrucks in Österreich Sonntagsgespräche in der Roten Bar Sun, 10.03.2019, 11:00 Speakers: Ilija TrojanowJosef Haslinger Series: Panels and Discussions Ein Terrorakt im Herzen der österreichischen Hauptstadt ist der Nukleus des Romans Opernball von Josef Haslinger, zum Zeitpunkt der Veröffentlichung 1995 eine dystopische Übertreibung. Aber ganz aus der Luft gegriffen war das Szenario nicht, hatten doch rechtsextreme Anschläge und Briefbombenterror gerade das Land erschüttert. Eine Neue Rechte aus den diversesten Lagern, mit „wissenschaftlichem“, ideologischem oder religiösem Rüstzeug bewehrt, begann sich zu formieren – aus der Mitte der Gesellschaft heraus und in diese hineinwirkend. Ilija Trojanow sprach mit dem Autor und Mitbegründer der Menschenrechtsorganisation SOS Mitmensch Josef Haslinger über Fundamente des Rechtsextremismus, alte und neue Feindbilder und völkischen Katholizismus. Und wo steht Österreich heute, 25 Jahre nach der Romanfiktion? Read more
	Historia i Prawda	Tue, 05.03.2019, 18:00	Panels and Discussions	Marcin Król Timothy Snyder	Historia i Prawda 29th Tischner Debate Tue, 05.03.2019, 18:00 Speakers: Marcin Król Timothy Snyder Series: Panels and Discussions Czy historia opisuje prawdę? Na jakiej prawdzie opiera się polityka historyczna? Czy uczciwy historyk może być przekonany, że mówi prawdę? Read more

	How Does Scholarship Persuade?	Mon, 04.03.2019, 16:00	Seminars and Colloquia	Ewa Atanassow Geoffrey Harpham	How Does Scholarship Persuade? Mon, 04.03.2019, 16:00 Speakers: Ewa Atanassow Geoffrey Harpham Series: Seminars and Colloquia In this talk, Geoffrey Harpham identified as one of the main sources of authority in a scholarly argument an implicit–or, in some cases, explicit–conversion narrative. This narrative, in which the scholar confronts evidence that compels him or her to a conclusion very different from the expected one, is at the core of scholarship as such, and illuminates both the intimacy and the complexity of the relations between the practice of scholarship and the concept of freedom. His primary example was the work of Bernard Lategan, a scholar who became a key figure in the history of apartheid in South Africa. Read more
How Does Scholarship Persuade? Mon, 04.03.2019, 16:00 Speakers: Ewa Atanassow Geoffrey Harpham Series: Seminars and Colloquia In this talk, Geoffrey Harpham identified as one of the main sources of authority in a scholarly argument an implicit–or, in some cases, explicit–conversion narrative. This narrative, in which the scholar confronts evidence that compels him or her to a conclusion very different from the expected one, is at the core of scholarship as such, and illuminates both the intimacy and the complexity of the relations between the practice of scholarship and the concept of freedom. His primary example was the work of Bernard Lategan, a scholar who became a key figure in the history of apartheid in South Africa. Read more