ACLA 2006 Annual Meeting: The Human and Its Others

The term “humanism” has a vexed history, yet one that will not die. Many scholars speak in “post-human” terms, rejecting any concept of humanism on the grounds that the term masks negative agendas and repressive ideas. Yet many others find that they need to hold on to some, perhaps vitiated, concept of humanism, often for political reasons. For example, Edward Said, shortly before he died, wrote a book about humanism. Will any humanism be possible in the future? From this central question a range of questions could emerge. Humanism has been associated with technological and historical progress. Will it continue to be viewed this way? Is humanism possible in the future without progress? Will future humanism(s) hold on to some of the precepts of the humanist tradition, or will it take a different turn entirely, or will it exist at all? Will future humanism(s) be anchored in a tension between religion and secular culture, or is there a way to destabilize such binaries? How do we understand a synthetic approach to diverse cultures after postcolonial critiques to approach a form of global humanism? What are the effects of diasporic phenomena on humanism? Papers are welcome from a variety of critical approaches: Philosophy, Social Theory, Literary Studies, Psychology, Interdisciplinary Studies.

Friday, March 24

Michael Broek, University of Essex and Brookdale Community College
“The Global Eye: Perspectives on a New Humanism”
Rachel Cole, Lewis and Clark College
“Derrida’s Human Other: How strange is the stranger?”
Steven Benko, Meredith College
“Humanism and Justice for the Other”
Sirene Harb, American University of Beirut
“Dialogism and Humanism in Suheir Hammad’s Writing”

Saturday, March 25

Rocco Rubini, Yale University
“Predicating Humanism: the Autonomy and Antecedence of the Humanist”
Mary Holland, Trinity University
“Harboring the Human: Humanist Resistance in Postmodern American Literature”
Paul Kintzele, University of Houston-Downtown
“Humanism in Ruins: Modernism and the Mourning of Culture”

Sunday, March 26

Paulina Tambakaki, University of Westminster
“The Limits of Humanism: Implications for Human Rights”
Joshua Lambier, University of Western Ontario
“Humanism without Humanism: Sartre, Derrida, and the Politics of Race”
David Washington, Miami University at Ohio
“The Consequences of Cruelty: Rorty and Said on Humanism”