HUMANITY IN THE MILITARY: FEMINIST PERSPECTIVES ON SOLIDARITY IN CONFLICT

The question "What is human?" today is also deeply connected with the questions of military activities – is solidarity commensurable with the military? What is the place of human solidarity in the military? And is war justifiable at all?

The topics in relation to conflict and solidarity cross different areas of inquiry – from law and political science, to postcolonial discussions and robotics ethics. These questions are importantly complimented by a feminist perspective and calls for a delineation of the genealogies of women in different circumstances – be it "in the trenches", driving a remote military drone or leading a peaceful life in an active conflict zone.

Recognizing the relevance of these human conditions, we invite scholars from various fields of academic or political spheres to address the societal and ethical concerns of the processes in the military, and to consider applying for presenting a short paper that will serve as a topic for the online discussion at this event. We organize this 'trace' as a pre-read conference section and, thus, kindly invite contributing papers a week prior to the presentations. Each presenter will also be allotted a five-minute slot for presenting their paper during the event ('trace') itself. We also invite interested parties to submit short reflections on the topic as participation notices for the discussion, without presenting a paper.

For inspiration we provide the prospective applicants with this non-exhaustive list of possible topics to explore:
● Post-androcentric experiences in the military
● Post-androcentric experiences of conflict
● Humanity, solidarity, and war
● Feminist perspectives on conflicts and the military
● Roles, archetypes, and stereotypes in conflict situations
● The archetype of “mother” in military contexts
 

There are two ways to join this event:
1) either with a reflection paper (that might be later transformed in a longer paper and included in a collection of papers as a continuation of this project);
2) or with a reflection note (that can also serve as an expression of interest to further the topic in an article form).
Please note that this is a pre-read event and thus the reflection papers will be available for reading to the NSU Summer Symposium participants. Submissions should be sent to parrhesia.info@gmail.com
 

Submission guidelines:
Paper presenters:
1. Submission of abstracts (100 – 200 words): July 8 , 2020. Submission of short reflection paper (8000 – 15 000 characters): July 24 , 2020
2. Reading/reflection time for the discussion participants: July 24 – 31, 2020
3. 5 minutes presentation July 31, 9.30 – 10.30 (CET) and participation in the discussion of the respective topic July 31, 11.30 – 13.30 (CET).

Reflection notices:
1. Submission of short reflections/participation notices: July 29 (Note that we expect a short reflection (1 – 3 paragraphs) or the expression of interest of a general topic you feel you would like to contribute to in the discussion. This information is needed for us to be able to give a general structure of the event.)
2. Participation in 'trace' – sharing reflections and conversing: July 31, 11.30 – 13.30 (CET)
 

Who are we?
We represent a group of researchers in Latvia from several different fields, who have come together to focus on our shared interest in questions of feminist philosophy, activism, diversity, equality, and solidarity. Our joint efforts are quite recent, and we would like to mark the beginning of our (hopefully fruitful) collaboration, by extending our efforts outside and creating a 'trace' for this year's Summer Symposium of NSU.
After the event we have set our sights to collaborating on the proposed topic a little further, and thus hope to build friendships and develop the conversation with all interested scholars from different walks of the academic life. In case we are successful in
continuing the project, we are also set on publishing a collection of articles and reflections after the symposium.
For questions and inquiries about this trace, please, contact parrhesia.info@gmail.com or the corresponding project author Anne Sauka ( anne.sauka@gmail.com ).
 

About us:
Anne Sauka (Dr. Phil.) is a lecturer and researcher at the University of Latvia, Faculty of History and Philosophy, Department of Philosophy and Ethics. Her research interests include critical genealogy, feminist philosophy, biopolitics and poststructuralism, and lately she has broadened her horizons by adding posthumanist discussions to the list of her interests. In her research she focuses mostly on the understanding of human enfleshedness, and its ethical and sociopolitical aspects, trying to navigate the stormy waters of a materiality understood beyond essentialism.
 

Agnija Antanoviča is a PhD student at the University of Latvia, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Political Science. Her research interests are gender and politics, in particular, women in politics, gender equality in decision-making, policies  promoting women’s rights and political representation of women. She is developing a PhD thesis about factors affecting the share of women in national parliaments of the Member States of the European Union. Besides her studies at the University, she is Senior Consultant of the Baltic Assembly, an international organization for cooperation among the parliaments of the Baltic States.