“Towards ‘the Dignity of Difference’:
Neither ‘the Clash of Civilizations’ nor ‘the End of History’”
University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada
October 2-4, 2009
Conference Panels
(Please note that conference program may be subject to change)
Friday Evening (October 02, 2009) – Old Arts Building, University of Alberta
5:00-7:00 Reception and Dinner (Private Function)
Opening Keynote Event:
Convocation Hall, Old Arts Building
7:00-8:00 Opening remarks and musical performance:
Al-Kurd by Professor Michael Frishkopf (Dept of Music). Performed by:
* Dr. Ashraf El-Assaly, oud
* Nadir Bellahmer, violin
* Steven Byrne, frame drum
* Dr. Michael Frishkopf, nay"
8:00-9:00 Keynote Address:
Chair: Thomas Keating (Professor and Vice Dean of the Faculty of Arts, University of Alberta)
• Benjamin R. Barber (Distinguished Senior Fellow at Demos and President of CivWorld, USA):
Talk title: History is not over, but! .... A Need for Global Governance
Saturday (October 03, 2009) – Lister Center, University of Alberta
9:00 – 10:00: Keynote Address
Maple Leaf Room, Lister Center
Chair: Janine Brodie (Professor and Canada Research Chair, University of Alberta)
• Robert Cox: (Distinguished Professor emeritus of political science at York University, Canada):
Talk title: Consciousness and Civilization: the inside Story
Saturday Morning Panels (10:15: 12:15)
Panel 1: ‘The End of the West’?
Saturday (10:15 am: 12:30 pm)
Maple Leaf Room, Lister Center
• Chair: Lois Harder (Associate Professor and Graduate Chair, Department of Political Science - University of Alberta)
• Hamid Dabashi (Columbia University, USA): The End of the West and the Birth of the First
Postcolonial Person
• Joshua Castellino (Middlesex University, UK): The End of Liberal State and the First Terrorist
• Robert Nichols (University of Alberta, Canada): The Conditions of Liberty and the New Civilizational Discourse
Video
Panel 2: Difference and Dialogue in Global Politics
Saturday (10:15 am: 12:15 pm)
Aurora Room, Lister Center
• Chair: Judith Garber (Associate Professor at Political Science Department, and
Chair of Centre for Constitutional Studies – University of Alberta)
•Vesselin Popovski (United Nations University, Japan): Dignity of Difference and the United
Nations
• Yuri Stoyanov (University of London, UK): De-Apocalypticizing the Differences and the End of History
• Abrahim H. Khan (Trinity College, University of Toronto, Canada): The Interplay between
Religion and Mainstream International Diplomacy
Video
12:30-1:15 LUNCH
Saturday: Afternoon Panels (1:30-3:30)
Panel 3: Beyond Exceptionalism; Towards Dialogue?
Saturday (1:30-3:30)
Maple Leaf Room, Lister Center
• Chair: Don Carmichael (Associate Professor, Department of Political Science –
University of Alberta)
• Mustafa Abu Sway (Al-Quds University, Jerusalem): Constructing civilizational dialogue,
Deconstructing grand narratives of conflicts
• Amira Sonbol (Georgetown University, School of Foreign Service, USA): Beyond Exceptionalism: Is a Common History Possible?
• Peyman Vahabzadeh (University of Victoria, Canada): Oblivion of Origins: On Hegemonic
Universals and Hybrid Civilizations
Panel 4: Cosmopolitan Political Theory of Dialogue?
Saturday (1:30-3:30)
Aurora Room, Lister Center
• Chair: David Kahane (Associate Professor, and Vargo Distinguished Teaching
Chair, Department of Political Science - University of Alberta)
• Paul Rowe (Trinity Western University, Canada): Coexist: religion, civil society and global order
• Jakeet Singh (University of Toronto, Canada): Violence, Religion, and the Politics of Post-secularism
• James Lawson (University of Victoria, Canada): The Coexistence of ‘Umran’ and the Improvement Epic of Settler Societies
Video
2:30 – 3:30: 4th Annual Hurtig Lecture (Myer Horowitz Theatre, Students' Union Building)
Neil Macdonald (CBC News): "Them and Us: Nationalism's Dangerous Attraction"
AFTERNOON BREAK
Saturday: Afternoon Panels (3:45-5:45)
Panel 5: A Clash of Civilizations? Israel-Palestine in Context
Saturday (3:45-5:45)
Maple Leaf Room, Lister Center
• Chair: Yasmeen Abu-Laban Yasmeen Abu-Laban (Professor and Research Chair, Department
of Political Science - University of Alberta)
• Ghada Hashem Talhami (Professor emerita, Lake Forest College, USA): Terrorism Across
Nations
• Mustafa Abu Sway (Al-Quds University, Jerusalem): How to end the Israeli occupation?
Dialogue, Negotiations, or Unilateralism?
• Ben White (Freelance journalist, UK): Dialogue and resistance – mutually exclusive or
parallel tracks? Global civil society engages with Palestine/Israel.
• Franke Wilmer (Montana State University, USA): Identities and Interests in Making War,
States, and Peace: A Constructivist's View of the Israel-Palestine
Video
Panel 6: Clash within Civilizations?
Saturday (3:45-5:45)
Aurora Room, Lister Center
• Chair: Julian Castro-Rea (Associate Professor, Department of Political Science –
University of Alberta)
• Hochang Hassn-Yari (Royal Military College, Canada): Clashology within Islam: not civilizational but political
• Mekere Stewart-Harawira (University of Alberta, Canada): Indigenous Peoples and International relations at the End of Empire
Video
6:00-7:00 DINNER BREAK
7:15 – 8:15: Keynote Address:
Maple Leaf Room, Lister Center
Chair: Ibrahim Abu-Rabi (Professor and Chair in Islamic Studies, University of Alberta)
• Hassan Hanafi (Cairo University, Egypt)
Talk Title: Cultures, in Conflict or Dialogue? Alternative Models
Video
Sunday (October 04, 2009) – Lister Center, University of Alberta
9:00 - 10:00: Keynote Address:
Maple Leaf Room, Lister Center
Chair: David Goa (Director of The Chester Ronning Centre for the Study of Religion and Public Life - University of Alberta)
• Fred Dallmayr (Packey J. Dee Distinguished Professor, Departments of Philosophy and
Political Science, University of Notre Dame, USA):
Talk title: Dialogue among Faiths: The Dignity of Religious Difference
Sunday: Morning Panels (10:15-12:30)
Panel 7: Iran 2009: "Dignity of Revolt"
Sunday (10:15 am: 12:30 pm)
Maple Leaf Room, Lister Center
• Chair: Laurie Adkin (Associate Professor, Department of Political Science –
University of Alberta)
• Hamid Dabashi (Columbia University, USA): The Crisis of an Islamic Republic
• Ramin Jahanbegloo (University of Toronto, Canada): The Gandhian Moment in Iran
• Mojtaba Mahdavi (University of Alberta): The Ahmadinejad Phenomenon: The Rise and
Crisis of Iran’s Neoconservatives
Video
Panel 8: Resistance, Terror, and Religion
Sunday (10:15 am: 12:30 pm)
Aurora Room, Lister Center
• Chair: Malinda Smith (Associate Professor, Department of Political Science –
University of Alberta)
• Roger van Zwanenberg (Sussex University Alumni and Managing Director of Pluto Press,
UK): Civilization, Empire and History: Resistance, Terror and Religion
• Tanya Narozhna (University of Winnipeg, Canada): In the name of the cause: plural
pathways to female suicide terrorism
• Zachary Devereaux (Ryerson/York University, Canada): A Comparative Analysis of the
Framing of Terrorism in Online News under the George W. Bush and Barak H. Obama Administrations: from Clash to Dialogue?
Video
12:30-1:15 LUNCH
Sunday: Afternoon Panels (1:30-3:30)
Panel 9: Rethinking Civilizationist Discourse: Beyond Dialogue among Civilizations
Sunday (1:30-3:30)
Maple Leaf Room, Lister Center
• Chair: Andy Knight (Professor and Chair, Political Science, University of Alberta)
• Walther Lichem (Former Austrian Ambassador to Canada): Capacity for otherness in pluri-identity societies
• Ramin Jahanbegloo (University of Toronto, Canada): Transcending the Clash of Cultures: The Search for Common Shared Values
• Aloka Parasher-Sen (University of Alberta): Negotiating Plurality – The Indian Civilization
Perspective
• Siavash Saffari (University of Alberta): Prerequisites for Dialogue: Subaltern counterpublic
as the 'site of radical possibilities'
Video
Panel 10: Justice and Difference
Sunday (1:30-3:30)
Aurora Room, Lister Center
• Chair: Rob Aitken (Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science –
University of Alberta)
• Mokhtar Lamani (Moroccan diplomat, Former Ambassador of the Arab League to Iraq, visiting IDRC, senior fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation, Waterloo, Canada): The Extinction of Iraqi Minorities: Challenge or Catastrophe?
• Tracey O’Reilly (Grant MacEwan College, Canada): A Clash of Civilizations or a Clash of
Perceptions? Divergent Views on Democracy between “The West and the rest”
Video
AFTERNOON BREAK
3:45: 5:00: Keynote Address:
Maple Leaf Room, Lister Center
Chair: Malinda Smith (Associate Professor, Department of Political Science –
University of Alberta)
• Akbar Ganji (Iranian journalist and political activist)
Talk Title: Iran and the West: Confrontation or Dialogue?
Video