The dialogical exchange between researchers on an equal footing is a basic normative principle of the academic field. Differentiations within the field result from academic recognition and merits. As democratic as this ideal may sound, the academic landscape is also permeated by multiple, intersectional inequalities, discrimination, and exclusionary mechanisms. There is often still a gulf that is rooted in a historically developed colonial geopolitics of knowledge particularly between the Global North and the Global South. Here, an equal dialogue cannot be established solely through inclusion; rather, eurocentric orders of knowledge, which are constitutive for the global institutions of knowledge, must also be questioned. Further, intra-academic boundaries of knowledge are drawn by the organization in disciplines. In view of the dawning era of the Anthropocene, the sharply drawn boundary between natural and cultural sciences proves to be particularly problematic. In this context, the proposed conference aims at critically examining the limits of academic knowledge production and to discuss steps for further transdisciplinary and transcultural dialogues.
The challenge of the Anthropocene: Dialogue with the non-human world
Social Inequalities and Political Exclusion