6-7 September 2016
Conference venue: ***** Hotel De France, Schotenring 2, 1010, Vienna, Austria
RATIONALE
Identities are various: personal, national, religious, regional, racial, gender etc., and it is very difficult to determine which identity is affecting us most. Sometimes it can be one, and sometimes the other. For example, during the presidential race in the United States between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, black women wondered which of the two identities represented them most: their racial or their gender identity.
National identity bears huge relevance and people are willing to die for their nations. Religious is as important as ever, and people are willing to sacrifice their own comforts and sometimes even to discriminate others because of their religious identities. European identity had been an issue of debate since the foundation of the EU when founders envisaged European unification based on a particular set of values shared among founders and prospective future members.
The notion of identity is often ending up in stereotyping and othering of those who have different identities, and irrespective of the approach we take in identity studies we always end up with the same dilemma: why are identities and identifications so important? These and other issues will be a subject of our conference.
In a lively and interesting debate, participants debated identity issues from variety of perspectives, i.e. women and identity, critical theory, war and media representation of identity, and sexuality.
Selection of photos is available in the gallery below.
