Hannah Arendt Center at Bard College Hosts 16th Annual International Conference on “Tribalism and Cosmopolitanism: How Can We Imagine a Pluralist Politics?” October 17–18

Participants Include New York Times Bestselling Author Sebastian Junger, Cultural Commentator and Artist Ayishat Akanbi, Turkish-born American Philosopher Seyla Benhabib, Irish Journalist Fintan O’Toole, Arendtian Scholar Lyndsey Stonebridge

Hannah Arendt was suspicious of cosmopolitanism, world government, and the loss of the commonsense connections that are part of living with and amidst one’s tribe. Wary of assimilation and universalism, Arendt understood the need for a tribe, whether that tribe be her “tribe” of good friends or living amongst people with whom one shares cultural and social prejudices. At the same time, Arendt was also deeply suspicious of tribalism in politics. Politics always involves a plurality of peoples. Thus, tribal nationalism—what she called the pseudo-mystical consciousness—is anti-political and leads to political programs aimed at ethnic homogeneity.

Arendt believed that the aspiration of politics is to bind together a plurality of people in ways that do justice to their uniqueness and yet find what is common to them as members of a defined political community. The rise of tribalist and populist political movements today is in part a response to the failure of cosmopolitan rule by elites around the world. As understandable as tribalism may be, the challenge today is to think of new political possibilities that allow for the meaningful commitments of tribal identities while also respecting the fact of human plurality.

Presented by OSUN, the Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and Humanities, and Center for Civic Engagement, the Hannah Arendt Center Conference “Tribalism and Cosmopolitanism: How Can We Imagine a Pluralist Politics” responds to the undeniable fact that tribalism is real, appealing, and dangerous. The conference asks: How can we make a space for tribal loyalty and tribal meaning while simultaneously maintaining our commitment to pluralist politics? The 16th annual Arendt conference will bring notable speakers to Bard College in Annandale to discuss the implications of tribalist politics just weeks before the national US election. 

The two-day conference takes place on Thursday, October 17 and Friday, October 18 in Olin Hall, on Bard’s Annandale-on-Hudson, New York campus. Register here.

Registration online closes on October 6th. On-site registration will remain open. The conference is free for Hannah Arendt Center members (plus one guest), Bard College students, faculty, and staff, as well as for members of the press. For non-members, the registration fee is $175. The conference can also be attended virtually via the live webcast. All registrants will receive a link to the live webcast.

The conference will also host a special student journalism contest, where young people will have the opportunity to cover the conference and be paid to have their writing, video, interviews, and photos published in the Hannah Arendt Center’s newsletter Amor Mundi.

Conference highlights include:

• Post-Lecture Discussion and Reflection with Sebastian Junger, in which the public may engage directly with the speaker
• “Tribalism and Cosmopolitanism in Israel and Palestine,” a breakout session with Shai Lavi and Khaled Furani, two Israeli and Palestinian scholars and friends who will engage in conversation with the public
• “Bloods, Crips, and Overcoming Tribalism in Los Angeles,” a panel discussion with Mandar Apte, Phillip “Rock” Lester, and Gilbert Johnson, moderated by Niobe Way
• “Embodied Connection: Reimagining the Tribe,” a breakout session with Jacob Burda and Magnus Jonas Støre, cofounders of The Blue Initiative which aims to pioneer a novel approach within higher education
• A guided walking tour to visit Hannah Arendt’s grave on Bard College campus and her personal library archives housed at the Stevenson Library with Arendtian scholar Lyndsey Stonebridge and Bard College’s Jana Mader

For the full conference schedule, click here.

Featured speakers include:
Ayishat Akanbi, a fashion stylist and writer based in London who challenges popular ideas by championing understanding, curiosity, and independent thought; Seyla Benhabib, Eugene Meyer Professor of Political Science and Philosophy Emerita at Yale University and currently Senior Research Fellow and Professor of Law Adjunct at Columbia University; Sebastian Junger, award-winning journalist, Academy Award–nominated filmmaker, and author of the #1 New York Times bestseller The Perfect Storm, as well as Fire, A Death in Belmont, War, Tribe, Freedom, and In My Time of Dying; Joseph O’Neill, distinguished visiting professor of written arts at Bard whose novels include Netherland, which received the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, and Godwin (2024); Fintan O’Toole, a prize–winning columnist with The Irish Times and advising editor of The New York Review of Books; Lyndsey Stonebridge, professor of humanities and human rights at the University of Birmingham (UK) and a fellow of the British Academy.

Read a full list of speakers with bios here.

The Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and Humanities at Bard College conferences are attended annually by nearly 1000 people and reach an international audience via live webcast. Past speakers have included maverick inventor Ray Kurzweil; whistleblower Edward Snowden; irreverent journalist Christopher Hitchens; businessman Hunter Lewis; authors Teju Cole, Zadie Smith, Masha Gessen, and Claudia Rankine; Wall Street Journal columnist Walter Russell Mead; and political activist and presidential candidate Ralph Nader. Previous conferences have explored citizenship and disobedience, crises of democracy, the intellectual roots of the economic crisis, the future of humanity in an age increasingly dominated by technology, the crisis in American education, American exceptionalism, democracy under the tyranny of social media, and friendship and politics.

Post Date: 09-16-2024