We are announcing the Conference of Science for Society, which will take place in Ljubljana and Koper (Slovenia) between April 8 and 12, and at which we will talk about the revolutionary political thought of Kurdistan.
The Kurdish people live divided between four Middle Eastern countries whose borders were drawn by colonialism. Women’s protests in Iran, the revolution in Rojava (Syria), the movement for local self-government in Turkey are just some of the materializations of their political thought, which is based on community democracy, ecology, and the radical liberation of women, which the movement understands as the vanguard of the 21st century.
The central political thinker of the Kurdish Freedom Movement, Abdullah Öcalan, has been imprisoned in solitary confinement on the prison island of Imrali in Turkey for 25 years, from where he publishes – in the form of court defenses – a new political paradigm that is not only aimed at the liberation of Kurdistan, the path to peace, and a democratic solution for the Middle East, but it also offers a method through which societies around the world can find answers to pressing social problems.
Thus, part of these efforts is also a deep revaluation of science, which tries to answer the question of what kind of social science should be to contribute to radical social changes, instead of serving as a tool of oppression and exploitation.
The international conference will host both foreign and domestic lecturers. There will be a series of short lectures, as well as in-depth seminars, including on women’s science – Jineolojî. There will be speakers from Kurdistan and round tables on the problems of the neoliberal academy, imprisoned political thinkers and the current international situation with a focus on Palestine, Kurdistan and the Balkans.
In cooperation with: Journal for Critique of Science, List of Democratic Students, Academy of Democratic Modernity, ŠSD Sociopathy, ŠSD SocioKlub, Center for Political Theory, Independent Coastal Radio
Conference program:
Monday, April 8, Koper
18:00–20:30 – Lecture: What kind of science do we need to get out of multiple crises?: Abdullah Öcalan and the liberation thought of Kurdistan
- Academy of Democratic Modernity and Socialist Reading Circle
Tuesday, April 9, Ljubljana
10:00–13:00 – Seminar: The necessity of science for society and intellectual revolutions: Öcalan’s Sociology of Freedom
- Reimer Heider (in English)
13:00-14:00 – Lunch
16:00-18:00 – Round table: Current political situation in Kurdistan
- Reporting from Rojava & Reimar Heider (in English)
Wednesday, April 10, Ljubljana
10:00-13:00 – Seminar: What is Jineolojî?
- Sarah Marcha from the Jineolojî Center (in English)
16.00–18.00 – Round table: Between emancipatory science and neoliberal academia
- Beja Protner, Anja Zalta, Sarah Marcha
Thursday, April 11, Ljubljana
9:00–12:00 – Series of short discussions: Dialogues with Öcalan
- Žiga Brdnik – Live science, think life: Liberation from scientistic dogmatism
- Peter Korošec – Beyond national liberation: A guide to internationalism in the 21st century
- Brina Jeretina & Lori Šramel Čebular – Radical love as rebellion
- Luka Hreščak – Perspectives of two socialist youth: PKK and ZKJ.
- Gaj Kolšek – Tasks of the youth
12.00–13.30 – Lunch
13:30 –14:15 – Lecture: Revolutionary time in survival spaces: Friendship and communal life among political refugees from Turkey and Northern Kurdistan in Greece – Beja Protner
14.15–16.00 – Round table: Closed political thought – Cirila Toplak, Andrej Kurnik, Žiga Vodovnik
17.00 – Talk/Workshop: Palestine, Kurdistan, Yugoslavia: Democratic Nation as a response to Balkanization / Lebanonization
- Academy of Democratic Modernity & Conference Organizing Committee
Friday, April 12, Ljubljana
18:00-20:00 – Discussion: Internationalism and the world political situation
21.00 – Concert: Below the Roots (Balkan folk) & Grunt (Ethno rock)
*Lectures will be held in Slovenian and English, interpretation in both languages will be provided. ** Hours and schedule of events are subject to change. ***Exact locations will be announced shortly.
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