Lecture Series - "Language(s) and Conflict"

The lecture series "Language(s) and Conflict," organized by the Research Center Knowledge and Cognition at the University of Bologna, aims to delve into the complex interrelationships between language(s) and conflict. The exploration is multifaceted, involving examinations from semantic, linguistic, and political perspectives.  Some of the key inquiries to be explored include:

1. Semantic Conflicts: The series intends to investigate what happens when multiple meanings clash for the same linguistic item. This involves an exploration of how ambiguity or conflicting interpretations of linguistic terms contribute to or reflect broader conflicts as well as an investigation into question of indeterminacy and ambiguity of meaning as such.
2. Impact of Harmful Language Games and Conceptual Blindness: The lectures will delve into the ways in which harmful language games, characterized through the use of particular tropes and ways of talking, can influence and exacerbate societal and political conflicts. This involves examining specific case studies, to illuminate how language is and can be used as a tool for conflict escalation and de-escalation. Furthermore, pillar 2 investigates how to identify sites of conflict in the first place, as conflict can often be hidden.
3. Spaces of Agency: The series aims to identify the spaces of agency within language and conflict dynamics. This involves understanding where individuals or groups have the ability to exert influence or effect change through language. Analyzing these spaces can provide insights into potential points of intervention or resolution.

The overall goal of the series is to foster a deeper understanding of how language (and languages) shapes and reflects conflicts and is itself a constant ground of contestation. In this first round of lectures the emphasis is on pillars 2 and 3.

March 14, 15-16.15: Claudia Mazzuca (experimental psychology, La Sapienza, Rome) and Matteo Santarelli (moral philosophy, University of Bologna): Making it abstract, making it contestable – Politicization at the intersection of political and cognitive sciences

April 10, 15-16.15: Michela Bella (theoretic philosophy, University of Molise): Irenism as an attempt to cohabitate peacefully with conflicting vocabularies 

May 15, 15:00-16:15: Tracy Llanera (political philosophy, University of Connecticut): “Sinners and salvation” – An inferentialist framework to make sense of the function of religious tropes in Duterte’s drug war

June 19, 15-16.15: Bjørn Ramberg (philosophy of language, University of Oslo) and Unn Røyneland (sociolinguistics, University of Oslo): Language Activism and social justice – case-studies from Norway.