All posts by Cefres

Other Activities

2018 Winners of CEFRES Platform Award and Derrida Award

We are happy to announce the names of the winners of the second CEFRES Platform Award for best article in social sciences and humanities in an international peer-reviewed journal (see the cfa here):

  • Michal Sipos (Institute of Ethnology AV ČR), for his article “Informal practices and the street-level construction of migrant deportability: Chechen refugees and local authorities in Polish accommodation centres for asylum seekers”

The second Derrida Social and Human Sciences Prizes rewarded three PhD students:

  1. Josef Wilczek (Faculty of Philosophy of Masaryk University): New approaches for the acquisition, systematisation and interpretation of archaeological artefacts
  2. Radek Janhuba (Faculty of Social Sciences UK, CERGE-EI AV ČR): Essays on Sports Economics
  3. Jana Fabová (Faculty of Philosophy of Palacký University): Language varieties based on Italian language and their use in Nova Trento and Nova Veneza in Brazil

The award ceremony took place on 20 June 2018 at the French Embassy in Prague in the presence of  the Ambassador Roland Galharague and three Nobel Prize laureates: Jean-Marie Lehn, Jean-Pierre Sauvage and Serge Haroche. The prizes were supported by Mgr. Karel Janeček, PhD., MBA.

Calls for Papers, Other Activities

Double Others? Non-human Migrants and Changing Moral Economies of Hunting – CfP for EASA 2018

Deadline: 9 April 2018
Convenors: Ludĕk Brož (The Czech Academy of Sciences and CEFRES) and Erica von Essen (Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences)

To propose a paper go to: https://nomadit.co.uk/easa/easa2018/conferencesuite.php/panels/6426

We are pleased to announce that our TANDEM team have succeeded in proposing a panel for the 15th EASA Biennial Conference titled “Double Others? Non-human Migrants and Changing Moral Economies of Hunting”! Call for papers for the panel is opened till 9 April.

Abstract

Dystopias of invasion feature prominently not only in popular conceptualisations of human migration e.g. during the so-called refugee crises and its aftermath. Hunting cultures across Europe have been for long time subscribing to strikingly similar imagery describing migrating non-human animals as transgressing physical, symbolic and moral boundaries. It seems obvious that processes of globalization and climate change induce changes in the spatiality and logic of interspecies coexistence across these borders. Yet, how are those modes of coexistence established, maintained or challenged on the ground? When are animals treated as ‘legitimate returnees,’ ‘precious visitors,’ welcome extensions of the list of game animal species, or are simply ignored by human gamekeepers, and when (and how?) do they become invading intruders to be eradicated? Such unwelcome animal migrants become double others – other to humans and other to indigenous animal inhabitants of a particular territory, in comparison to who they lead life of ‘animal sacrum’ (after homo sacer, a kind of outlaw).

In this panel, we invite submissions that explore along which new boundaries and axes non-human species are excluded and ‘othered’, what sorts of ethical regimes these reflect, and what the non-human and human cases of migration have in common. We further invite panellists to empirically engage with and theoretically conceptualize how migration of animals imparts changes in the moral economy of wildlife and in the necropolitics – the (in)formally coded decisions of what lives or dies – pursued in contemporary hunting cultures.

Illustration: Courtesy of Matěj Macháček – https://matejmachacek.com/

CEFRES Team

Kannan Muthukrishnan: Research & CV

Research program on contemporary Tamil culture

Research Area 1: Displacements, “Dépaysements” and Discrepancies: People, Knowledge and Practices

Research Project:  Archives and Interculturality 

Since 1991, Kannan Muthukrishnan has been leading the research program on contemporary Tamil culture, establishing a collection of sources comprising journals and books in the library of the IFP (French Institute of Pondicherry). This research program functions as a bridge linking the isolated fields of classical Tamil and contemporary Tamil.
The studies, conferences, collections and publications taken up by this program aim to build a Centre for Contemporary Tamil at the IFP.

In the framework of this program, Kannan Muthukrishnan has supervised more than 30 doctoral students from India and abroad. He has been on regular lecture-research visits to Belgium, France, and the USA in several universities (University of Namur, Paris III, Sorbonne, INALCO, UC Berkeley, Rutgers University, Princeton, Harvard, etc.). He is an active and founding member of the Historical Atlas program at the IFP.

In trying to write a cultural history of contemporary Tamil in India, one is inevitably led to raising the question of sources. There are sources In India, but there is no access or path to them — there is serious lack of “archive fever” (either oral, written, or visual) among the people. Our research at the IFP looks into this lacuna in Indian culture and explores the following question: What constitutes an archive in India? The current research entails a return from the sources at hand to the construction of an archive. What kind of process will enable it? How do we make an archive alive in the present context?

 CV

Specialization

Contemporary Tamil, Language, Literature and History, Translation Studies, Indian Media and Cultural Studies, Dalit Literature and Politics, World Literature.

Experience

1991-present: Researcher, Department of Indology, French Institute of Pondicherry, Pondicherry.

1987-1991: Assistant Lexicographer, CRE-A’s Contemporary Tamil Dictionary, Mozhi Trust, Chennai.

11 books edited and published by the French Institute of Pondicherry and more than 20 with other publishers

Publications

Books edited for IFP

  • Kannan.M, Rebecca Whittington, Senthil Babu, David.C.Buck, (tr&eds.), 2014, Time will write a song for you, contemporary Tamil writing from Srilanka,  Penguin books, New Delhi, French Institute of Pondicherry, Pondicherry, pp 274.
  • Kannan.M. (ed.), Vadivacal, Ci.Cu. Chellappa, translated into French by Francois Gros, French Institute of Pondicherry, Pondicherry, 2014, pp 112.
  • Kannan.M (ed.), Le vagabond et son ombre , selected writings of G. Nagarajan, translated into French by Francois Gros, French Institute of Pondicherry, 2013,  pp 256.
  • Kannan, M. and David C. Buck. (eds.), 2011, Tamil Dalit Literature: My Own Experience, French Institute of Pondicherry, Pondicherry, pp 158.
  • Kannan, M. and Jennifer Clare. (eds.), 2009, Passages: Relationships Between Tamil and Sanskrit, French Institute of Pondicherry and Tamil Chair, UC Berkeley, pp 423.
  • Kannan, M. and Jennifer Clare. (eds.), 2009, Deep Rivers: Selected Writings on Tamil Literature by Francois Gros, French Institute of Pondicherry and Tamil Chair, UC Berkeley, pp 520.
  • Kannan, M., Francois Gros and V.Arasu., (eds.), 2008,  Narrinai: Text and Translation by N.Kandasami Pillai,  French Institute of Pondicherry, pp 284.
  • Kannan, M., (ed.), 2008, Streams of Language: Dialects in Tamil, French Institute of Pondicherry, pp 335.
  • Kannan, M. and Carlos Mena. (eds.), 2006, Negotiations with the Past: Classical Tamil in Contemporary Tamil, French Institute of Pondicherry and Tamil Chair, UC Berkeley, pp 478.
  • Kannan, M., (ed.), 2004, Dalit Ilakkiyam – Enatu Anupavam, French Institute of Pondicherry and Vitiyal Patippakam, pp 200.
  • Kannan, M., (Trans), 1993, Nakaramum  Vitum, Valumitattin unarvukal, French Institute of Pondicherry, pp 138.

Books edited, translated for other publishers

(under the Frame work of the IFP programme on Contemporary Tamil culture)

  • Kannan, M., (ed.) 2016, karril mitakkum karrin nila, Short Stories by Gowribalan, Vitiyal Patippakam, Coimbatore, pp 284.
  • Kannan, M., (ed.) 2014, kili ninra calai, Novel by Sentamilinian, Vitiyal Patippakam, Coimbatore, pp 200
  • Kannan, M., (ed.) 2014, malaipparai, Novel by Pantiyakkannan, Vitiyal Patippakam, Coimbatore, pp 224
  • Kannan, M., (ed.) 2012, ini enatu natkale varum, long poems by Nilanthan, Vitiyal Patippakam, Coimbatore, pp 104.
  • Kannan, M., (ed.) 2012, Kaiman, Short stories by Sudhakar Ghatak, Parvai Pathivukal, Coimbatore, pp 156.
  • Kannan, M., (ed.) 2012, Malai Nakaram, Poems by Raja Vadivel, Parvai Pathivukal, Coimbatore, pp 50.
Calls for Applications, Summer Universities

CFA – Summer Seminar on Nationalism, Religion and Violence 2018

Summer Seminar on Nationalism, Religion and Violence 2018

Where & When: Prague, 18-29 June 2018
Organizers: Charles University  and  Aristote University of Thessaloniki
Partners: CEFRES–French Research Center in Humanities and Social Sciences, School of Slavonic and East European Studies (UCL),  University of Birmingham and Humboldt University of Berlin
Priority Deadline: 28 February 2018
Deadline for applicants needing visas to the Czech Republic: 31 March 2018
Final application deadline: 30 April 2018

Contact
Nikola Karasová
Program Coordinator
Summer Seminar on Nationalism, Religion and Violence Institute of International Studies
Charles University, Prague 
E-mail: nrvsschool@fsv.cuni.cz
Website: nrvsschool.fsv.cuni.cz
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nrvsummerseminar/

For more details please  visit the website of the Nationalism, Religion and Violence Summer Seminar. 

The Summer Seminar on Nationalism, Religion and Violence is ready to launch its sixth year with a special focus on the topics of ethnic and religious diversity, migration and transformation. A key goal of the Summer Seminar is to contribute to the study of violence in a substantial way and to catalyze the growth of the study of violence as a field.
The seminar targets highly motivated students, particularly graduate students, as well as post-docs and professional activists. It is led by international researchers from universities with an excellent reputation, such as the Humboldt University of Berlin, Central European University (Budapest), the University of Birmingham, the University of Manchester, the University of Pennsylvania, Eötvös Loránd University (Budapest) and the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. The program involves fieldwork designed in cooperation with research centers and international institutions in Prague and beyond.
Participants may receive a certificate of attendance and 8 ECTS credits for their active participation in the program once the assignments are fulfilled. Since degree requirements vary among universities, students/graduates are advised to ensure, preferably in advance, that their college or university will recognize such certification and award the suggested credits.
The peer-reviewed journal JNMLP agreed to consider the publication of a special issue including the best academic papers submitted upon completion of the Summer Seminar.

 

Please submit the following documents to: nrvsschool@fsv.cuni.cz

  • Short curriculum vitae
  • Letter of motivation
  • Proof of university enrollment or graduation
  • Proof of English language sufficiency

Applications are reviewed and accepted on a rolling basis, so we encourage you to apply as early as possible. Those who apply early will receive first consideration for both admission and scholarship decisions.
All applicants will be notified of admission decisions by e-mail within two weeks after each respective deadline at the latest. For more information, please contact our staff at nrvsschool@fsv.cuni.cz.

Program Costs
The participation fee is 750 Euros and includes:

  • Tuition
  • Fieldwork excursions
  • Cultural and social events
  • Weekend excursion (1 full day incl. meal)
  • Reading materials
  • Refreshments during the seminar

Participants are responsible for covering the accommodation of their choice, their travel expenses and visa if necessary.

Discounts and Fellowships
Students of Charles University, the Aristote University of Thessaloniki and the University of Birmingham as well as Nationalism, Religion and Violence Summer Seminar’s alumni are all eligible for a 20% discount on the tuition fee.
A limited number of tuition fee discounts will be available for selected candidates based on their academic merit and financial needs.
A limited number of fellowships will be granted to PhD candidates/students or advanced graduate students coming from any of the following countries: Ukraine, Russia, Moldova, Belarus, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.

 

 

Calls for Papers, workshops

Debating the Norms of Scientific Writing

International Workshop for Young Researchers

Dates and place: 23rd-24th of May 2018, Prague
Deadline for proposals: 2 April 2018
Organizer: Julien Wacquez (EHESS, CESPRA, CEFRES)
Orgnized in collaboration with: CEFRES, Institute of Philosophy of the Czech Academy of Sciences, EHESS (Paris) and Charles University
Language: English

This workshop is open to young researchers (PhD students and Post-Doc) from diverse disciplines from France and from Visegrád countries as well as the CEFRES team. Please send a short CV, title and 300 word-long abstract to Julien Wacquez: julien.wacquez@cefres.cz

Day 1 (Wednesday, May 23) will bring together researchers from France and from Visegrád countries to tackle these questions and identify by which ways the norms of writing are negotiated. Do those debates about the forms of scientific writing impact our way of writing or of doing science?

Day 2 (Thursday morning, May 24) will be devoted to the question of how we encounter and solve writing problems in the course of our investigations. Professors and young researchers will be invited to share their own writing experiences.

Continue reading Debating the Norms of Scientific Writing →

seminars

Knowledge Trouble : An Introduction to the Sociology of Knowledge and Intellectuals

Date: Every Friday at 11:40 am
Place: Room C17, Sociology Department, Charles University (Celetná 13, Praha 1)
Lecturer: Julien Wacquez (CEFRES/EHESS Paris)
Language: English

Syllabus

From public authorities struggling with the existence of climate change to notions such as “post-truth” or “post-factual” making the headlines, the recent years have brought a constant questioning of the role of knowledge in today’s polities. Is climate-change a hoax, as claimed by the current US president? Are Western democracies threatened by false information and “post-truths”? Who produces the knowledge we are using and to what purposes? And, in the end, what does it mean “to know” something in today’s cultures?

Continue reading Knowledge Trouble : An Introduction to the Sociology of Knowledge and Intellectuals →