Berliner Festspiele 2019: Dag Herbjørnsrud holds speech and workshop

The program for MaerzMusik 2019 (March 22-31), Festival for Time issues, as part of the Berliner Festspiele (Berlin Festival), is now official:

The author and historian of ideas Dag Herbjørnsrud, founder of SGOKI, will hold one speech (March 23, 2019) and one 4-hour workshop (March 25).

Speech: March 23 (Saturday), 15:00-16:00

Title: «Fake history, distorted world-views: How ideology shapes what we (think we) know»

Venue: Haus der Berliner Festspiele, Berlin

Paper/speech by Dag Herbjørnsrud at the conference «Circluding History I«, part of the conference «Thinking Together»:

Preview: «What do we know? And how do we know it? – In this presentation, Dag Herbjørnsrud, specialised in global history of ideas, will make a tour de force through some of the most vital parts of our knowledge systems within history and the humanities. The presented material – text, pictures, and music – will cover, among other things: Our distorted world maps; music by Mozart, Haydn, and their contemporary Joseph Bologne; colourful statues and buildings of the ancient Greeks;the creation of the first philosophy (in Egypt); women thinkers of antiquity from India, China, Syria, Nigeria, and Mexico; the influence of the Egyptian Saint Maurice, the Moritzkirche, and African Christianity on Central Europe; the untold story of Muslim-Christian cooperation at the Battle of Vienna in 1683; the importance of the pre-Kant African scholars Abba Gorgoryos and Anton Wilhelm Amo for Germany; the Enlightenment of the Haitian Revolution; the relationship between Zhuangzi and Buber/Heidegger; the latest research on the original writing and communication systems of the Maya, Aztec, and Inka cultures; the hidden stories of the Vikings, the stave church in Heddal (Telemark), and the Sami people in the Nordic countries,. and then some more.
Dag Herbjørnsrud’s presentation will try to open our minds for a new, decolonised, and non-Eurocentric take on history – in order to make us better understand the present and be prepared for the future in a global 21st century.»

Participants: Anke Charton (AT)Elizabeth Freeman (USA)Amelia Groom (AU/DE)Dag Herbjørnsrud (NO)Björn Schmelzer (BE)Rolando Vásquez (MX/NL) and others.

Workshop: March 25 (Monday), 10:00-14:00

Venue:  Haus der Berliner Festspiele, Berlin

Title of workshop with Dag Herbjørnsrud: «Beyond Eurocentrism and Tribal History: Towards Decolonization and Connected Histories«

Preview: «How can we use history to understand each other and cooperate better in the present?

In this workshop, we will look closer at the different topics raised in Dag Herbjørnsrud’s presentation “Fake history, distorted world-views: How ideology shapes what we (think we) know.”

More examples from Germany and the world will be given within the humanities, social sciences, and the natural sciences. And we will try to find a method in order to spot ideological presentations of the past and the present.

This is an attempt to find a way beyond eurocentrism and tribalism, to move our minds towards decolonization and connected histories – wie es eigentlich gewesen ist. In dialogue we will try to “circlude history”, to build on the concept of “circlusion” in order to open for more diverse perspectives. A workshop that will explore different takes on a symmetrical distribution of agencies.»

More info on Herbjørnsrud and the global and comparative history of ideas project: www.sgoki.org/no/english/

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