Now in Open Access: “Humanity. A History of European Concepts in Practice From the Sixteenth Century to the Present”

Fabian Klose/Mirjam Thulin (ed.), Humanity. A History of European Concepts in Practice From the Sixteenth Century to the Present, Göttingen 2016.  

This edited volume investigates the development of the concepts and practices of “humanity” from the sixteenth century to the present. By choosing a longue-durée approach the book analyzes how shifting concepts of humanity shaped various practices and at the same time how ideas themselves were informed by these practices in the course of four hundred years. As humanity is evoked in a remarkable array of themes, the contributors deliberately focus on issues such as humanism, colonial expansion and imperialism, missions, abolitionism, international humanitarian law, humanitarianism, human rights, charity and philanthropy. In their understanding, these are crucial arenas, in which concepts and practices of humanity were sustainably shaped, defined, questioned and reconfigured. While there are a huge number of individual studies on each theme, the book seeks to connect these various fields and analyze their entanglements under the overarching theme of the idea of humanity.

The volume is now available in open access and you can now download the complete book at: http://oapen.org/search?identifier=1004710 or
https://www.doabooks.org/doab?func=search&uiLanguage=en&template=&query=32757 

Conference Program “Humanity – a History of European Concepts in Practice”

Convenors:    Fabian Klose and Mirjam Thulin as well as all members                                      of the Leibniz Institute of European History Research Area II

Venue:            Leibniz Institute of European History in Mainz, Germany

Date:               October 8 to 10, 2015

2015-10-08 -10  Poster Humanity

Conference Program

Thursday, October 8, 2015

16:00: Welcome and Introduction, Johannes Paulmann (Mainz), Fabian Klose (Mainz), Mirjam Thulin (Mainz)

16:30-17:30: Keynote Lecture: Humankind from Division to Recomposition, Francisco Bethencourt (London)

18:00 Dinner

 

Friday, October 9, 2015

09:00-10:30: Panel I: Morality and Human Dignity, Part I: Early Modern Concepts

  • Humanism and Its Humanitas. The Transition from humanitas Christiana to humanitas politica in the Political Writings of Erasmus, Mihai-D. Grigore (Mainz)
  • All People have Reason and Free Will. The Debate about the Nature of the Indigenous Americans in the 16th Century, Mariano Delgado (Fribourg)
  • Chair: Jorge Luengo (Mainz)
  • Commentary: Wolfgang Schmale (Vienna)

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Interdisciplinary Conference “Humanity – a History of European Concepts in Practice”

Convenors:    Fabian Klose and Mirjam Thulin as well as all members                                      of the Leibniz Institute of European History Research Area II

Venue:            Leibniz Institute of European History in Mainz, Germany

Date:               October 8 to 10, 2015

The aim of the interdisciplinary conference “Humanity” – a History of European Concepts in Practice is to analyze the varieties and shifting meanings of the term “Humanity” within the European context as well as in the context of Europe’s relations to other world regions from the 16th to the 20th centuries. The term defined in an English dictionary of 1755 as “1) The nature of a man, 2) Humankind; the collective body of mankind, 3) Benevolence; tenderness, 4) Philology; grammatical studies”, offers a wide range of starting points in research. Thus, references to “Humanity” can be found in ever increasing numbers on the research agenda of different disciplines.

2015-10-08 -10  Poster Humanity

In our interdisciplinary conference we seek to investigate the intertwined theoretical debates about “Humanity” on the one hand, and their diverse consequences in practice on the other hand. Having religious, colonial, social, and gender perspectives in mind, theologians, philosophers, legal and literary scholars as well as historians will discuss the issue of “Humanity” in a broader dialogue in order to connect their research agendas. In doing so, we will focus on the following issues:

  • Morality and Human Dignity
  • Violence and International Law
  • Philanthropy
  • Social Inequalities

By taking a comparative approach and exploring the intersections of religious studies, international law, philosophy, and literature as well as the history of humanitarianism and human rights the conference will be organized along four leading key questions:

  1. Is the term “Humanity” used as a central point of reference in your sources? If this is the case, to what extend is the term connected to the emergence of normative concepts, implying moral and religious commandments, humanitarian obligations, international law, and human rights?
  2. Which differences and similarities can be identified in the context of various linguistic, cultural and political backgrounds? Are there any equivalent or alternative terms used?
  3. Which historical actors explicitly refer to the term “Humanity”? What was the purpose of doing so? Did it significantly contribute to overcome existing divisions, or did it rather foster the emergence of new differences?
  4. Finally, what transformations of the definition and meaning of “Humanity” can be identified within the period of these 400 years that the conference focuses on?

The conference will be taking place at the Leibniz Institute of European History in Mainz, Germany. For further information please contact Fabian Klose or Mirjam Thulin at klose@ieg-mainz.de or thulin@ieg-mainz.de.

Humanitarianism & the Media

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At St Antony’s College Oxford, the Richard von Weizsäcker fellow organizes a conference on humanitarianism and aid. The meeting takes place at the European Studies Centre, 70 Woodstock Road, on 19 -20 June 2015. It focuses on the media as an essential feature of the history of humanitarianism. Contributors discuss both the role of the media in humanitarian activities, and the imagery produced in print or on screen. Scholars from history, media studies, and anthropology present recent research with a view on the visual discourse, the meanings and materiality of the images since the beginning of the 20th century. Critically considering the medialisation of the humanitarian, they analyse the interaction between humanitarian agencies and media actors.

Speakers and topics:
(Detailed Programme Hum & Media 2015)

Johannes Paulmann (Oxford/ Mainz)
Introduction

I Humanitarian Imagery

Katharina Stornig (Mainz)
Promoting Distant Children in Need: Christian Imagery in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries

Rose Holmes (Sussex)
‘Make the situation real to us without stressing the horrors’: Children, photography and British humanitarianism in the Spanish Civil War

Daniel Palmieri (ICRC, Geneva)
Humanitarianism on the Screen: The ICRC Films from the 1920’s to the 1960’s

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Conference: ‘Jewish Questions’ in International Politics. Diplomacy, Rights, and Intervention

Simon Dubnow Institute for Jewish History and Culture, Leipzig
University
12/06/2014-13/06/2014,

Leipzig, Simon Dubnow Institute, Goldschmidt 28,
04103 Leipzig, Gr. Seminarraum

In recent years a growing number of works have studied the role Jews
played in shaping the international system in the 19th and 20th
centuries to defend the rights of Jews in Europe and beyond. Dealing
with ‘Jewish questions’ such as citizenship and emancipation as well as
experiences of persecution, this field of research at the same time
reflects structures and problems of modern international politics more
generally.

The Dubnow Institute 2014 annual conference presents fresh studies on
this subject matter and seeks to discuss the historiographical and
conceptual questions that arise from the ‘transnational turn’ in modern
Jewish history. The papers in the conference will explore topics
relating to Jews and European empire, international organization,
transnational philanthropy, humanitarian intervention, minority rights,
human rights and collective claims.

Conference Programme

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News: International Workshop “Histories of Humanitarianism: Religious, Philanthrophic, and Political Practices in the Modernizing World”

Sonya Michel (University of Maryland, College Park) and Britta Waldschmidt-Nelson (German Historical Institute Washington) are organizing an international workshop concerning the topic “Histories of Humanitarianism. Religious, Philanthrophic, and Political Practices in the Modernizing World”.

The conference will take place at the University of Maryland, College Park, and at the German Historical Institute, Washington, D.C. from March 7th to March 8th 2014. The deadline for applications is September 15th 2013.

For the Call for Papers and detailed information see:

http://ghi-dc.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1379&Itemid=1197