Mesas de trabajo:
- La categoría de conflicto para pensar las relaciones entre etnias, sociedades, géneros y naciones
- ¿Qué identidades (nacionales, étnicas, genéricas) son válidas en la globalización?
- América Latina global o subregional: Caribe, Cono Sur, Mundo Andino, Espacio Amazónico
- ¿Cómo rearticular el sentido de los estudios latinoamericanos hoy día?

Temáticas:
- La filosofía de la cultura ante la globalizacion y la integración
- El Pensamiento Latinoamericano ante el desafío científico, tecnológico y ecológico
- Herencia cultural e identidad
- Pensamiento social y conciencia histórica
- La intelectualidad iberoamericana ante la condición humana
- Principales corrientes y rasgos de la filosofía latinoamericana del siglo XX
- La filosofía de la ciencia en América Latina
- Filosofía política en América Latina
- Filosofía en América Latina y Liberación
- Filosofía cristiana en América Latina
- El marxismo en América Latina
- El desarrollo de la axiología en Latinoamérica
- Los estudios de ética en América Latina
- El lugar de la estética en el pensamiento filosófico latinoamericano
- Problemas metodológicos del estudio de las ideas en América Latina

Rationale and Aim:
A country's efforts to achieve ethically-based economic and political development often fail because those who violate national laws or international human rights – whether citizens or foreigners – are not held accountable for their deeds. In Honduras and other countries, such as El Salvador, Guatemala, Sierra Leone, and Cambodia, impunity manifests itself in (i) a failure to bring to justice individuals and institutions that committed egregious human rights violations (disappearances, killings, torture); (ii) street crime, domestic violence, and private vengeance; and (iii) public and private corruption (judicial bias, bribes, and kickbacks). These three types of impunity interpenetrate and reinforce each other. The Conference will seek to understand impunity and its causes, investigate the moral and developmental costs incurred by impunity, and propose ways to combat a "culture of impunity" and replace it with a "culture of accountability and human rights". It will ask what lessons can be learned from such countries as Honduras, South Africa, and Chile as well as what roles can and should be played by trials, truth commissions, poverty alleviation, democratization, civil society, and judicial reform.

Description:
The century that is past was characterized by an enormous scholarly interest in matters linguistic, as well as in theories associated with them. The 'linguistic turn' initiated by G. Frege, guided and dominated philosophical activities in the Anglo-American 'west'. Parallelly, F. de Saussure's 'general linguistics' and semiotics had underpinned much of the innovative intellectual ventures in the social and the human sciences in continental Europe, since the 1950's. However, by the end of the 20th century, these linguistic orientations have been on the wane, and have been substituted by concerns and programmes that are directly cognitive, cultural, and ethical-philosophical. Scientific disciplinary concerns and critical intellectual pursuits have developed in an uneasy relationship of coexistence and mutual contestation. For instance, 'thinking' has been given an essentialist-scientific explanation on the one hand, and a critical-philosophical interpretation, on the other. Similarly, the constitution of the individual and that of the community has again come up for thorough and detailed scientific and critical investigations. Institutionally, centres of research dedicated to the cognitive sciences, cultural studies, and those that promote ethical questions in literature and philosophy have come up all over the world. Particularly interesting are those tendencies that inquire into the cultural and the historically shifting moorings of human cognition, and those that seek to 'deconstruct' the ideological sedimentations in language, literature, and culture while opening up ever new pathways for dialogical responsibility. These intellectual currents and movements, though not in the same order and with the same priorities as anywhere else, have been witnessed in the Indian context too. The seminar is designed to offer a wide and open forum to discuss and debate these developments and their implications for the present and for the future.

Themes:
Area 1 will examine the changing relationship between nature, culture, and society and will look at the impact of environmental thinking and ethics on issues such as animal/species welfare and rights, conservation and preservation, sustainable resources, food and feeding, space and air space, present and future needs, human 'rights', and our obligations to future generations.
Area 2 will examine the ethical and political impact of environmental thinking, looking at its emergence and role in political contexts, the factors which influence the formation of environmental policy, what (if any) is the place of economic methods and considerations, differing perspectives on the interpretation of scientific data, and the ability of national and international communities to successfully implement environmental policies.
Area 3 will examine the international nature of environmental issues and look at the problem solving processes which are or might be employed particularly in light of globalisation. Specific examples and case studies can be used to highlight the rise to international political prominence of ecological and environmental concerns, how environmental negotiation works in the context of international relations, the responsibilities of multinational companies, the feasibility of establishing environmental 'laws', and the future of ecological 'business'.
Area 4 will explicitly examine the themes of justice, community and citizenship, looking at the tensions present in ecological debates, the influence of cultural values, the meaning of ethical business practice, the assessment of what counts as environmental equality, inequality, and justice, and our responsibilities toward the world in which we live. The translation of statistics to individual faces, numbers and the people they represent, questions about what we must do, and the role of protest groups will also be considered.

Objetivo:
El objetivo del congreso es contribuir al acercamiento entre los pueblos de Centroamérica, el Caribe y el Golfo de México, en la búsqueda de nuevos sentidos de solidaridad, identidad y pertenencia a la región.
El lema del congreso, Por la construcción de la paz, implica una ruptura con las prácticas políticas, coloniales y postcoloniales que han desarticulado a las comunidades y generado nuevas formas de violencia histórica y cultural. Trabajar con miras a la construcción de la paz representa un paso fundamental para la reformulación de la historia y la conciencia regionales.
Para lograrlo, la antropología latinoamericana debe reflexionar desde su propia perspectiva sobre los caminos recorridos y plantear nuevas formas de integración que nos conduzcan a la tan necesaria paz.

Sections:
I Cultural Semiotics and Complex Cultural Analysis (in English)
II Russian Culture sub specie semioticae lotmanianae (in Russian)

Rationale:
Are we living in a late modern planet? Have we moved into the postmodern universe? In what ways have globalization and diaspora changed culture and society and when did this begin? How are shifts in technology, international politics, or transnational economics registered as changes in art, identity or other cultural forms? Activist, empirical, and theoretical papers welcome. We encourage papers from any historical period.

Description:
This symposium begins with an interest in the relationships among race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, cyberculture, life history and material culture studies. We are interested in understanding how the complex histories of race, ethnicity, gender, politics, ideology, and economics are negotiated visually and spatially in sites of memory. What are the particular challenges of documenting, interpreting, and preserving life stories, oral cultural traditions, performances, and cultural landscapes, including those historically ignored or forgotten? We are interested in considering the roles that communities, places, spaces, institutions, and online identities play in these processes. We are also interested in publicizing sites of memory in cyberspace. How might cyberspace be used as a space of advocacy?
How can those of us working "at the crossroads" maintain culture and tradition in the built environment or through material and popular culture, oral traditions, and performances? How might we document stories, actions, violence, advocacy, success justice and injustice? Can public discourse and personal experience be transformed by the collective memories of struggle, once made visible? What are some of the tangible ways and means that we can engage a call to action? How might we rethink and develop practices, pedagogies, and research strategies that address these and other crossroads?

Suggested Topics:
- Hip Hop: International Urban Consciousness and Youth Culture
- Philosophy of SAP and Third World Impoverishment
- The Cosmopolitanism of Lingala: Congolese Music on the World's Stage
- The Black Gaze, Cinema and Existential Life
- "Speaking with the Body": Dance, Thought and African Life
- Throwing Voice: Palava, Spoken World and Rap Literatures
- Carnivalizing the World: Popular Spectacles and Performances
- "Essentially Reggae": Themes on Social and Political Philosophy
- Afrobeat, Kalakuta Republic, and Contemporary African Philosophy
- Hair, Head and Body Politics
- "Orisa Goes Global": New Religions and Cosmologies Tracking the Lines of Salience
- Flying High: African Women and Global Trade
- African/a Thought and Resistant Cultures
- Monogamy versus Polygamy: Rethinking the Institution of Marriage
- Tagging from Kingston to Brooklyn: Graffiti as Public Art
- African Cultural Influences on White Identity
- Culture and Politics in a globalising world
- Philosophy and the Law: Impacts of African laws on "Modern Law"
- African cultural influences on Ethics

Description:
The conference intends to examine the phenomenon and the concept of Tolerance in interaction with disciplines like Philosophy, Religion, Literature and Media and Socio-economic Trade Relations. In the light of interdisciplinary interaction one hopes to locate tolerance or intolerance in theory and practice. The papers should try also to trace the manner of discourse i.e. Tolerance or Intolerance exhibited in the context of intercultural discourse – the method of discourse and the language of discourse, the concept of "Wissenschaft" itself, the method of arguments in the conception and perception of other cultures, role of Tolerance in the field of thought and conception of thought.

Conferencias:
- Sobre democracia comunitaria (Luis Villoro)
- La experiencia del proceso venezolano actual (Carmen L. Bohórquez)
- Tradiciones democráticas argentinas (Carlos Cullen)
- De la legitimidad democrática formal a la legitimidad material y crítica (Enrique Dussel)
- Democracia y globalización (Franz J. Hinkelammert)
- ¿Autodeterminación racional o autocreación desenfrenada? Sobre la concepción de la libertad en la democracia moderna (Hans Schelkshorn)
- Problemas de la participación democrática en los últimos 25 años en España (Juan Antonio Senent)
- Democracia a la africana: ¡qué es eso y porque es así! (Mthokozisi Maseko)
- Democracia y cultura en Rusia (Edward Demenchonok)
- ¿Qué es libertad? Un análisis desde la experiencia de la democratización en Corea (Sang-Bong Kim)

Mesas:
- Fronteras multiculturales y globalización
- La pertinencia de los estudios latinoamericanos hoy
- Los paradigmas del nuevo milenio
- Naciones e identidad nacional
- Movimientos étnico-políticos
- Cultura, literatura y política
- Violencia estatal y resistencia civil
- Género, clase y poder
- Luchas partidarias en México y Estados Unidos
- Historia y ficción: la novela histórica
- Nuevas identidades colectivas y nuevos actores políticos

Description:
The conference will address the broad issue of how human rights are conceptualized, contested, and accommodated in East, South, and SE Asia. Panels and presentations will consider current human rights problems in specific Asian countries and the prospects for resolving conflicts. Proposals treating women's rights at household and workplace settings, refugee issues, and sustainable development and sustainable democracy, from contemporary, historical or comparative perspectives are invited. Papers may also focus on indigenous rights, watchdog groups (NGOs and others), and the ways human rights enter into bilateral relations inter-nationally.

Themes:
- The intergenerational transmission of African culture (i.e. the role of parenting in the survival of African culture or documenting the knowledge and practices of elders in Africa, the Caribbean and the Americas).
- The retention of African culture and traditions (Africanisms) in the Caribbean and the Americas (i.e. spirituality, cultural norms, behaviors, patterns of speech, culinary arts, and aesthetic forms of expression whose roots are traceable to Africa).
- Instances of cultural unity and/or similarities among African people throughout the world.
- The diverse mechanisms through which the transmission of African cultural knowledge has been disrupted (i.e. through colonization, enslavement, neo-colonialism, schooling etc).
- The various approaches African people throughout the world use or have used to maintain, retain or rediscover their cultural knowledge and identity.
- African culture as a source of understanding and action in the context of contemporary phenomena.

Conferencias:
- Choque de culturas. Un modelo normativo de convivencia intercultural (León Olivé)
- Elementos para la comprensión identitaria de la teología feminista en América Latina (Socorro Vivas)
- El problema de la particularidad y la universalidad en la vida diaria y en la lucha por la sobrevivencia de los africanos (Peter Kanyandago)
- La experiencia de las iglesias independientes africanas como desafío a la contextualización de la teología en Africa (Luke G. Mlilo)
- Teología contextual vista desde Indonesia (Joannes Banawiratma)
- Hacer teología contextual: una perspectiva filipina (Daniel F. Pilario)
- La teología latina de Estados Unidos (María Pilar Aquino)
- La teología contextual desde una perspectiva europea-feminista (Eske Wollrad)

Themes:
1. Methodological Problems of Understanding and Reflectivity
2. Philological Problems of Understanding and Reflectivity
3. Pedagogical Problems of Understanding and Reflectivity

Themes:
The workshop will engage normative and comparative theoretical frameworks in an integrated assessment of the constitutional politics of nationally diverse societies. In particular, it shall study:
a) cases of national conflict which have led to serious political violence
b) constitutional struggles for recognition and autonomy
c) societies with deep ethnocultural divisions
d) cases where such diversity has been accommodated with relative success
The workshop will examine interrelations between ethnic or cultural struggles and the nation-state as well as investigate ways in which developments towards a post-national political order in Europe may facilitate fair accommodation. Themes to be explored include the relation between nationalism and democracy; new constitutional orders and conceptions of sovereignty; multinationalism and multiculturalism; and the management of ethnonational conflict.

Themes:
The workshop will focus on the systematic study of human rights violations around the world. The main goal is to apply the tools of scientific research to the study of human rights violations. The focus will be two-fold:
- to discuss theoretical foundations and the strengths and weaknesses of various research methods for the analysis of the origins and circumstances of various types of human rights violations,
- to use these methods to examine the causes and correlates of different aspects of human rights violations, both political and economic.
Both qualitative and quantitative studies are welcome.