Our exhibition, which highlights LGBTQAI+ experiences from an intercultural perspective, will be shown throughout June 2024 at Tübingen's Brauwerk Freistil. 

Dr Lorena Grigoletto
"Landscape and Imaginary: Philosophy, Arts, Literature"

Abstract
The proliferation of terms derived from the word “landscape” (cityscape, seascape, soundscape, inscape, etc.), as well as the association of a second term specifying its typology (cultural landscape, digital landscape, etc.), testifies to the richness and current fortune of this concept. A semantic extension that nevertheless needs to be discussed, in particular due to the ambiguous proximity of the term “landscape” with other words sometimes understood synonymically (atmosphere, scenery, setting). Indeed, since the first reflections on landscape in the philosophical sphere (Simmel), the term has certainly gained a new phase in its already complex evolution. The contrast between the unity of the term “nature” and the multiplicity inherent in the word “landscape” signals a fundamental change of direction in the sphere of thought, first and foremost linked to the critique of dualism and the attempt to rearticulate and overcome various dichotomies (nature-culture, object-subject, I-other). Landscape, in fact, understood as the peculiar physiognomy of a territory determined by its physical, anthropic, biological and ethnic characteristics, is inseparable from the observer and the way in which it is perceived and experienced. The notion of landscape, therefore, represents a challenge in the intercultural sphere because it forces us to question the presence or absence of a similar term in different languages, as well as a set of formal elements that characterise its representation in art or literature. The predilection for the term “landscape”, therefore, supports and even stimulates the need to explore different epistemological perspectives. The debate on the existence or non-existence of “landscape” in different cultures, as well as its “birth”, according to certain art historiography, during the Renaissance, is also part of this. The history of landscape as a pictorial genre, the area in which the term initially consolidated, is thus increasingly joined by landscape as a dimension of existence and as a specific way of relating to the territory, capable of sanctioning the assumption of different paradigms and introducing new aesthetic, ethical and political practices. Its belonging to the realm of the visible as much as to that of the invisible also makes it a “place” of reflection par excellence in the sphere of studies on the imaginary. The term “imaginary”, which is also controversial, refers here to a certain tradition of thought (Bachelard, Durand) according to which it is not opposed to reality. Instead, it is understood as a totality composed of a linguistic dimension (metaphors, symbols, narratives) and an iconic dimension (paintings, photographs) capable of forming coherent and dynamic ensembles. In this perspective, the aim of this workshop is to reflect jointly on these two concepts, landscape and imaginary, in their widest possible semantic scope. In order to explore the relationship between landscape and the imaginary in philosophy, the arts and literature, we will focus on the following thematic axes: the relationship between landscape, perception and representation; the link between landscape and identity in an intercultural and/or postcolonial perspective; the link between landscape and ecology. Finally, the scientific-academic research will be flanked by a moment of transdisciplinary reflection by artists defined as “process-creation window”. The metaphor of the window, so important for the foundation of the pictorial genre of landscape, will therefore be the occasion for a focus on the landscape as it appears and is implicated in the processes of art.  

Dr Flavia Guerra Cavalcanti
"Ocean Thinking as a challenge to the modern territorial imagination in International Relations "

Wed, 26 June 2024, 12.00 Uhr 
Großer Senat, Neue Aula
(Geschwister-Scholl-Platz, Tübingen)

Abstract
This research explores the critical potential of "more-than-wet ontology" (Steinberg, Peters, 2015) to comprehend contemporary articulations between land and sea in International Relations Theorizing. We start from the assumption, already studied by other scholars, that the principal tenets of the discipline of International Relations rely on a myriad of dichotomies such as order/anarchy, inside/outside, domestic/international, and Land/Sea. However, compared to others, the opposition land/sea still needs more theory in international relations. Thinking about the Ocean does not demand an epistemological change in international relations since it is the rational subject that observes nature and tries to tame the supposedly irrational attributes historically associated with the Sea. On the contrary, thinking with the Sea invites us to consider the productiveness of the Ocean. The Ocean's liquid materiality, motion, and temporality allow for new ways of thinking that are impossible when only thinking with the Land (Peters & Steinberg, 2015).

Dr. Havva Sinem Uğurlu
"n.n."

Wed, 10 July 2024, 12.00 PM
Großer Senat, Neue Aula
(Geschwister-Scholl-Platz, Tübingen)

Further information will follow soon.

Dr. Ponni Arasu
"n.n."
Wed, 24 July 2024, 12:00 PM
Großer Senat, Neue Aula
(Geschwister-Scholl-Platz, Tübingen)

Further Information will follow soon.