Thinking Together 2019

Thinking Together 2019 looks at history and historiography through a politically focused lens of time. In its fifth year of investigation, the discourse format scrutinizes common and dogged conceptions of linear time and history in order to disclose their underlying political matrices. What are the variegated politics behind historically contingent philosophies of history? What conceptions of time are they based on? And how do they, in turn, influence views onto the present, the ways of relating to the past and the ability to shape the future? The title of the conference, “Circluding History”, hints at a different way to approach history. “Circlusion” (a term coined by Bini Adamczak) is the antonym of penetration. It suggests non-linear understandings, inverts the relation between activity and passivity, and calls for symmetrical distribution of agencies. Following its speculative trajectories, Thinking Together will investigate and (re)imagine relations to the past, present and future, alternative genealogies, decolonized, global, connected as well as queer histories.