Zaproszenie na wykłady online dr hab. Agnieszki Halemby, prof. PAN – 11.03.2025 godz.14.00 i 12.03.2025 godz. 14.00
Zapraszamy na wykłady dr hab. Agnieszki Halemby, prof. PAN,
które odbędą się w formie hybrydowego seminarium (w języku angielskim) w dniach:
11 marca 2025 r. o w godzinach 14.00-16.00 - What is a church tower for? Religious materiality in a secularised society
Abstract
Church buildings, because of their prominent presence and visibility, but also because of their connection to religion, which by definition has a special status in secular states, can be focal points for the examination of important social issues such as social justice, the liberal economy, social memory, democracy as practice or public/private debates. This is also, or perhaps especially, true for buildings located in regions where they are not (anymore) needed for daily religious worship. If one looks at the struggles involved in their maintenance and restoration as processes, one can see that economic issues come to the fore, including a critique of neoliberal capitalism and in East Germany in particular, a critique of the post-1990 transformation, and struggles over access and private/public ownership. The church buildings, and especially their towers, ask questions and demand action that address wider social issues.
LINK for online connection:
12 marca 2025 r. w godzinach 14.00-16.00 - There are no spirits of Altai Mountains: New Materialism as an Alternative to Dualistic Ethnographic Description
Abstract
In recent years an important body of ethnographic works concerning personhood and sociality in relation to Andean mountains has been developed, discussed and criticised. In his 2018 article Peter Gose critically reviewed some of those debates arguing especially against political ontology approach, which, in his view, underestimates the extra-human world’s importance, autonomy and power. Gose claims that the political ontology approach goes on the one hand too far when it seems to postulate existence of separate ontologies; on the other hand however, it does not go far enough because it remains human-focused and does not make space for non-human autonomy.
In my presentation I take this approach as a starting point to develop a reflection on personhood and sociality with regard to mountains in Inner Asia and in particular in Altai. I re-examine my research material collected in the Republic of Altai and other works which use the concept of master or guardian “spirits of mountains”. I argue that we might produce more adequate descriptions of the place that mountains take in social networks if we restrict or even abandon a use of word “spirits”. I present an alternative based partly on Karen Barad’s relationality approach.
LINK for online connection:
Lokalizacja: Bâtiment de recherche nord, room 5.067 (5th floor), Campus Condorcet -14 cours des Humanités, 93322 Aubervilliers (France), Métro Front Populaire (Ligne 12) /RER B La Plaine – Stade de France (see map attached). Bring your ID to obtain a badge at the counter on the ground floor of the bâtiment Nord, so that you can gain access to the upper floors. Use the badge in the lift (like a no-contact credit card) to go to the fifth floor.