In the Greco-Roman world various groups had to negotiate cultural and religious space within the empire. Some were official, some tolerated, and others illicit. Recent scholarship on the complexity of these relationships and interactions has opened up new ways to understand our western tradition.
The conference focuses on the intersection of Jews, Greeks, and Christians in antiquity. It is an interdisciplinary effort to examine this period from different religious, social, philosophical, and cultural perspectives. The aim is to deepen our understanding of how these three traditions thought of their gods, themselves, and the world around them. What did they have to say to one another?

• Relationships and Connections between Africa and its Diasporas
• Afrogenic Epistemologies and Hermeneutics: Conceptualizing the African Diaspora from the Inside
• The Pre-Columbian African Presences in the Americas
• The Diaspora as Imagined Community
• Africa and the Development of the Americas and Europe
• Twenty-First Century Pan-Africanism
• Twenty-First Century Racism and Anti-racism
• African and Diasporic Intellectuals and Discussions of a "Black Atlantic"
• The Indian Ocean African Diaspora
• Diasporic Migrations
• Wars, Dysfunctional States, Refugees and Migration
• Diasporic Languages and Linguistics
• Expressive Culture as Boundaries and Linkages between Diasporic Populations
• The Media and Diaspora Representations
• Independent Film and the Reconstruction of the Black Image
• African and Diasporic Oratures as Historic Sites of Struggle
• Economies of the African Diaspora
• Gender and Class in Trans-National Perspective
• Non-governmental Organizations as Catalysts for Change or as Cultural Imperialists
• Human Rights within the Diaspora: Issues of Autonomy and Interventions
• African Diaspora Youth Attitudes and Behaviors
• The Plight of Black Children Globally and its Implications for the Future
• African and Diaspora Theologies and their Relationships with Ethics and Law
• African Diasporan Spiritualities
• Health Care Issues in African and African Diasporan Communities
• Diasporic Collaborations
• Reparations
• Resistance and Marooning
• Sustainable Development in the Diaspora
• Education in and about the African Diaspora

The colloquium is intended to provide a forum for reflection on the issues raised at the July summit of G8 nations in Gleneagles, Scotland. Based on roundtable discussion of pre-circulated papers, the event in Stirling will draw together delegates from diverse backgrounds (leading academics, policy-makers and commentators) to provide a critical lens on the moral issues of global justice, development, war and terrorism. Through interdisciplinary discussion the aim is to build bridges between political practitioners and theorists, in order to analyse and evaluate the principles and policies that can foster global justice and security.

• Welche Rolle spielt der Begriff der Erfahrung einerseits in der christlich- abendländischen und andererseits in der fernöstlichen Geistesgeschichte?
• Welche Prägungen hat das jeweilige (Vor-)Verständnis von Erfahrung?
• Hat Erfahrung wirklich eine konstitutive Funktion für Religiosität?
• Welche Erwartungen sind an diesen Begriff geknüpft und inwieweit kann dieser sie erfüllen?

• Migration
• Creolization
• Hybridity

• Taming the Unknown; describing Otherworldliness and the Other; the real, the exotic and the strange; culture clashes and the multiple voices of discourse
• World-building: social projects as duplicates of European societies, New-World hybrids and original creations
• Myth-making: grand narratives and national stereotypes; constructing and deconstructing national myths

• Las identidades en la globalización
• La experiencia civilizatoria: encuentros y desencuentros
• Creencias y valores
• La experiencia civilizatoria en perspectiva comparada
• El poder y la seguridad internacional
• La ONU, el multilateralismo y los derechos humanos

1. Intersections of Diversity
• Ethnicity and »Race«
• Ethnicity and Class
• Ethnicity and Gender
• Ethnicity and Sexual Orientation
• Ethnicity and Region
• Ethnicity and Immigrant Status
• Identity/Identities: Negotiating multiplicity
2. Sites of Struggle
• Racialized Encounters
• Ethnicity and the Rural/Urban Divide
• Unequal Relations: Case Studies Past and Present
• Diversity and Homelessness
• Cultural Representation: Competing Visions in Literature and the Arts
• Immigration: the Ongoing Debate
• Refugees: Who gets in?
• Frameworks for Understanding Diversity: Competing Paradigms
3. Visions
• Toward Inclusive Institutions
• Re-thinking Canada: Aboriginal Peoples
• Re-thinking Canada: Multicultural Minorities
• Re-thinking Canada: Charter Groups
• Re-thinking Canada: Tackling Homelessness
• Unequal Relations: Policy Alternatives
• Multiculturalism: State Policy or Critical Discourse

The conference explores the links between institutions and empowerment within the context of poverty research. How do institutions deal with poor people? Do institutions contribute to the empowering of poor people? How?

• theoretical foundations of applied ethics
• bioethics / health care ethics
• business ethics
• environmental ethics

Con el comienzo del siglo XXI se han agudizado las paradojas a las que se enfrenta la humanidad. Por un lado, una emergente opinión pública mundial apela con mayor vigor que nunca a los valores humanistas de la justicia y del cultivo de la paz. Por otro, nuevos escenarios de guerra e inseguridad y radicalismos de diverso tipo han transformado sustancialmente las amenazas a la convivencia heredadas del siglo anterior, mientras el desarrollo tecnológico sin control y la despreocupación por las consecuencias sociales de la desregulación económica a gran escala han generado movimientos que buscan alternativas frente a un orden mundial tendencialmente hegemónico. En este panorama de desconcierto, la reflexión filosófica debe contribuir a vislumbrar modelos normativos e institucionales que permitan articular las dimensiones de la justicia con las prácticas políticas que consoliden una cultura de la paz.

• historia demográfica, de la población y de la familia
• historia social y cultural
• historia de las mentalidades y de las representaciones

The conference dispenses with the idea that sovereignty accrues naturally to a state. It seeks to interrogate sovereignty as a set of practices that are historically contingent – a mix of both international and intra-national processes including self-determination, international law, and natural right. Participants examine a number of diverse contexts outside of the normative center of Western Europe in order to explore how states construct themselves and how state forms seek to be sovereign. Rather than try to find one overarching and totalizing definition of sovereignty –one that is ahistorical and transnational – the conferenceseeks to disclose the strategic sovereignties that have informed histories and shaped territories in the modern world. This represents an alternative to recent literature on nationalism, which too often treats nationalism as a precursor to the formation of modern states. The conference seeks to take recent debates about nations, national identity, and the political relationships between the two and relocate them in a broader history of sovereignty, territory, and legality.

• Pensar en la naturaleza de la Cultura y la Política en su relación con la Filosofía y la Historia
• Pensar en la posibilidad de una Historia de la Cultura o de una Historia Cultural o de una Filosofía de la Cultura
• Pensar en los alcances de una Historia Política o de una Filosofía Política
• ¿Qué lugar cabe a la política y la cultura en la reflexión del pensar filosófico e histórico?
• ¿Cómo han sido pensadas estas relaciones a lo largo de los siglos que nos preceden?
• ¿Cómo son pensadas hoy a la luz de estas ciencias – y de otras, como la Teología – estas relaciones?

• to acknowledge and discuss effective strategies to combat race hate crime and institutional racism
• to share information on best policy and practice in the public and voluntary sectors
• to support and develop effective anti-racist initiatives in Europe
• to analyse the efficacy of current legislative framework and practice in dealing with racism and human rights
• to develop real and effective partnerships
• to tackle race hatred
• to analyse the future of race relations in Britain

1. Globalization and the Structure of the International System
• War and Trade: Economic Integration and Security
• The State System
• Intergovernmental Organizations
• Non-state Actors
• Regionalism
• Interdependence vs. the Security of Borders
2. Globalization and the Changing Nature of Conflict
• Theories of New Age Warfare
• Interstate and Internal Conflict
• Cooperative Security
• Failed States
• Terrorism
• Transnational Crime
• Technology and Security
• Arms Control and Proliferation
• Alliances and Coalitions
• The Privatization of Security
• The Environment and Security
3. Globalization and U.S. National Security
• The Debate over National Security Strategy
• Deterrence and Dissuasion
• Prevention and Preemption
• Defense Transformation
• Peace and Stability Operations
• Arms Control and Nonproliferation
• Homeland Security
• Security and Domestic Politics
4. Values, Norms and Security in the Age of Globalization
• Democratization and International Security
• Human Rights and Security
• The Battle of Ideas
• The Role of Torture
• Development and Security
5. Globalization and Current Conflicts
6. Globalization and the World Regions

• Case studies, such as Afghanistan or Iraq
• Public administration, sustainment and reconstruction
• The role of private enterprise
• The role of NGOs and IGOs
• The role of the military
• Humanitarian operations and interventions
• International security and new security frameworks
• Terrorism and responses to terrorism
• Poverty and development issues
• Citizenship and integration challenges
• Regional economic and security cooperation and collaboration
• Globalization and economic development

• The state of East-European and Russian philosophy today
• How philosophical ideas contributed (or didn't contribute) to the process of dismantling of the Communist system
• The effects that the collapse and Communism had on shaping new configurations/movements of philosophical ideas in Eastern Europe and Russia

• Building communities and organizations
• Increasing effectiveness, impact and outcomes of dialogue and deliberation
• Addressing democracy and democratic renewal
• Using methodologies, methods and tools to enable dialogue and deliberation
• Sustaining and institutionalizing dialogue and deliberation

Was there a space in Central Europe in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries for Indian colonial subjects and Europeans alike to engage in forms of cultural and intellectual exchange that transcended the limits of British imperialism? Or did varieties of imperialism in Central Europe nevertheless constrain the possibilities for intercultural encounter, despite the absence of formal colonial bonds? More generally put, how can the varied encounters between Central Europe and South Asia best be located on the spectrum stretching from power and domination to communication and dialogue?

Reflecting a multiplicity of methods and theoretical frameworks, this conference will explore phenomena of proximity and difference, of influence and resistance to influence, across the cultural divides both between and within Asia and Europe, focusing on them especially but not exclusively as they relate to modernisation. Proposals for contributions grounded in historical sociology as well as psychoanalysis, civilisational theory as well as history of ideas, international relations theory as well as cultural studies, indeed in any of the humanities and social science disciplines, will be welcome. Papers may be oriented toward either or both of two spatial nodes ("Europe" and "Asia"), and may address any of the relations of proximity and separation alluded to by the metaphors of "border" and "bridge".

• A particular theme, issue, problem, etc. explored by both a Western and an Eastern thinker
• Historical or philosophical influence of an Eastern thinker on a Western thinker, or vice versa
• Placing an Eastern thinker in dialogue with a Western thinker
• An Eastern response/approach to a particular Western problem/issue, or vice versa

• Properties of boundaries: permeability, permanence, salience, etc.
• Boundary processes: exclusion, bridging, imposition, etc.
• Historical research on racial and ethnic formations over time
• Ethnographic findings on how boundaries are negotiated in everyday life
• Boundaries in cultural production and reception: contesting authenticity, dynamics of collaboration and competition, etc.
• Imagery of boundaries in cultural artifacts and performance How boundaries operate in the expression of collective identity, through cultural and linguistic practices

• Political Representation and Integration
  (Political parties and immigrants)
• Religion in Secular Democracies
  (Immigrant religious institutions; the headscarf debate; the turban debate in Canada)
• Labour and Employment
  (Potential of Labour migration; a new ethnic proletariat?)
• Diversity and Coherence
  (The debate on "core culture" (Huntington) and "Leitkultur"; What's wrong with "Parallelgesellschaften"?)

• Knowledge Economy, Knowledge Management, and Information Society
• Information Communication Technology, e-Commerce and Business Environment
• The Role of ICT in Economic Growth, and Socio-Economic Development
• Information Science and Technology: Scientific Innovation and Information Society
• Transfer of Information Technology and Knowledge: Development and Underdevelopment
• Geographical Information System and Sustainable Information Society
• Cities and Regions, and Community Empowerment in an Information Age
• Information Society and e-Governance
• Social Stratification and the Digital Divide
• Culture and Politics in an Information Age
• Issues and the Role of Media in an Information Age
• Digital Divide: Development Policies and Action
• Digital Education, Distance Learning and Creation of Information Society
• Financing Mechanisms and International Cooperation for Information Society
• Presentation of Case Studies: Best Practices and Experiences of ICT application for Development
• ICT for Small Island Developing States, Least Developing Countries, Land Locked Developing Countries
• The Role of ICT in women's participation in development

The inaugural meeting of BILAP (Buddhism in Logic and Analytic Philosophy) will be on the theme of ›The Unsayable‹. As the title suggests, the target audience is Logicians in the first instance and people in Analytic Philosophy second.

• Worlds in Conflict: Discordant Realities
• Engendered Worlds: Gender Realities
• Worlds at 'Margins' : Marginalised Realities
• Hidden Worlds: Suppressed Realities
• Ruptured Worlds: Shattered Realities
• Future Worlds: Imagined or Projected Realities
• Worlds of Education: Learning Realities

• How and why was the critical voice of the intellectual so often tied to the development of national identity?
• How have ideals of intellectual autonomy and dissent been formulated within and across nation-states?
• What forms of intellectual production have states acknowledged and supported?
• What remains of the Enlightenment origins of the idea of the intellectual?
• Today, as new transnational networks of cultural interaction emerge and new public spheres take shape, what is happening to the intellectual’s affective relation to the nation-state?
• What is the role of critical thinking and the value of ideas in an increasingly global ›knowledge society‹?
• What is the role of intellectuals in the making of a new world order and in shaping responses to international crises and conflicts?
• What is the role of think tanks and advocacy intellectuals in the formation of state policy?
• How have new media redefined intellectual activity and identity?

The conference seeks to examine issues of sex and sexuality across a range of critical and cultural perspectives, and seeks to explore the associated contexts of love, desire, intimacy, the erotic, betrayal and cheating. Seeking to encourage innovative inter- and multidisciplinary dialogues, we warmly welcome papers from a variety of disciplines, including but not limited to anthropology, cultural studies, education, gender studies, history, law, literature, medicine, philosophy, psychology, religion and theology, sociology and social work. We also welcome contributions from queer activists and professionals in non-profit and non-government organizations.

The objective of the conference is to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Søren Kierkegaard's death through celebrating his work in philosophy and theology. As this will be the very first Kierkegaard conference held in the Pacific Rim, we are especially interested in how Kierkegaard has been received and interpreted in Asia. We are seeking philosophers and researchers from around the world to present papers in two categories: all original research on Søren Kierkegaard’s philosophical and religious contributions, and original research dealing with any Asian philosophy or religion with respect to Kierkegaard’s work.

• Media and racism
• Official racism
• Racism and the War on Terror
• Racisms in the New World Order
• New manifestations of racism
• Responses to racism

• The significance of Tocqueville for a federal Europe
• Democracy and its cultural and religious preconditions
• Reading Tocqueville
• Tocqueville, the politician

Do innovations and reproductions have other functions in the agrarian society, in the industrial society, in the services society, in the scholarly society? In this connection what significance does the concept of the contemporary of the uncontemporary have? What are the particular features of innovation and reproduction today?

• The Structure of Multicultural Claims
• Religion and Politics
• Financial Incentives
• Cultural Accommodations
• The ›Minority within the Minority‹

With the collapse of the communist economic and political systems, the language of rights has replaced the language of redistribution. At this particular global moment, the economic and political paradigm of the free market is the dominant one.
Intertwined with the free market paradigm is the contemporary liberal legal framework and its trappings of constitutionalism. The liberal legal paradigm has been subjected to thoughtful critiques by feminist, post-colonial and other critical scholars. They have referred to the primacy of constitutionalism and human rights as the language of progressive politics, dominating other ethical discourses.
Some of these scholars, and others, have also questioned the proliferation of programs around the world dedicated to open governance and the rule of law. These scholars further argue that despite its importance in strengthening state institutions, legal formalism plays a powerful ideological role in channeling political aspirations and immobilizing grassroots political struggle.
Participants will explore these broad themes in a global and local context, drawing patterns and comparisons where appropriate. Participants will also examine the differing judicial approaches taken on these issues to have a comparative framework for assessing their problematic impact.

1. New World Order
• W1: Values, Principles and Architecture for a participatory Global Democracy
• W2: Democratic World Government
• W3: Democratizing/ Reforming the United Nations
• W4: Globalization
• W5: Disarmament
• W6: Justice System
• W7: World Citizenship
2. Spiritual Well Being
• S1: Spirituality and Planetary Consciousness
• S2: Musical Concert
• S3: Interfaith Dialogue
• S4: Meditation & Yoga
3. Meaningful Education
• E1: Goals of Education
• E2: Meaningful Education (Peace Education included in this category)
• E3: Inclusive Education
4. Sustainable Development
• D1: Sustainable and Eco-friendly Economy
• D2: Water
• D3: Health
• D4: AIDS/HIV
• D5: Refugee Issues
• D6: Humanitarian Aid
• D7: Elimination of international debt in poor countries
• D8: Human Rights: Women’s Rights, Children’s Rights, Worker’s Rights, Civil Rights
5. Civil Society
• C1: Grassroots Movements
• C2: Freedom for Press and Role of Media
• C3: Dialogue between Civilizations
• C4: Use of Information Technology
• C5: Organizing World Democracy Forum