The 2019 Holberg Symposium: "From Double Consciousness to Planetary Humanism"

Four prominent scholars from different academic fields are invited to speak at the 2019 Holberg Symposium, in honour of Holberg Laureate Paul Gilroy. The topic is chosen by Prof. Gilroy. The speakers are invited to this year's Holberg Symposium to share perspectives on critical race theory, conceptions of otherness, colonial history and what it means to be human in our time. W.E.B. Du Bois bequeathed a set of poetic and interpretative terms intended to inform and illuminate the action of racialised and infra-human beings as they strove to secure substantive citizenship and command recognition as fully human. This symposium takes initial orientation from those concepts. Moving across the confining framework of national states, with colonial history in mind, participants will consider how critique of racial hierarchy and xenology can contribute to the development of new and richer conceptions of what it is to be human. That act of salvage is associated with contemporary struggles against the accumulated sediment of racist representations; for the security and safety of refugees; and against the emergent horrors of racecoded artificial Intelligence and algorithmic government. PROGRAM 00:43 Welcome by Professor Emeritus Sigmund Grønmo, Chair of the Holberg Board 04:55 Introduction of Paul Gilroy by Professor Ellen Mortensen, Academic Director of the Holberg Prize 11:13 Introduction of the Symposium Topic by Professor Paul Gilroy 20:50 Temi Odumosu, Senior Researcher, School of Arts and Communication, Malmö University: "Sensitive Skin". 51:25 Sivamohan Valluvan, Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Warwick: "The Long March of Racial Nationalisms: Left Complicities and Convivial Margins". 01:46:06 Lidia Curti, Cultural critic and Honorary Professor of English Studies, University of Naples "L'Orientale": "From Black Humanism to Afrofeminist Journeys". 02:09:13 Katherine McKittrick, Associate Professor of Gender Studies, Queen's University, Canada: "Wires, Kerosene, Data". 02:41:38 Commentary by Holberg Laureate Paul Gilroy 02:53:27 Panel discussion and Q & A. For more information: see https://holbergprisen.no/en/double-consciousness-planetary-humanism Image: "The Slave Ship". Painting by J. M. W. Turner, first exhibited in 1840. Photo: Public Domain, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Venue: The University Aula, Bergen, Norway. Time: 09:00 A.M. – 01:00 P.M. (CET + 1)