Minor Cosmopolitan Weekend

Around the turn of the millennium, academics and politicians predicted that the world would grow together as one and that people would become less bound by national affiliations. Almost twenty years later, there is little left of this vision. This is not such a surprise when we consider that the cosmopolitan ideal – as articulated during the European Enlightenment – wholeheartedly embraced the promises of a globalising economy, yet has remained oblivious to, and even complicit with, capitalist exploitation, slavery, and colonialism. Yet should we abandon the cosmopolitan idea because of this corrupt history? Or should it rather be reviewed and rethought in the face of rising nationalism? What are alternative traditions and practices of the cosmopolitan from across the globe? In lectures, films, and performances, Arjun Appadurai, Mario Bellatin, Manthia Diawara, Julian Henriques, Anaya Kabir, Michelle Wright, and other participants will explore these questions and experiment with ideas and practices of doing, undoing and redoing the cosmopolitan.

One highlight of the program is the film An Opera of the World by Manthia Diawara, recently shown at documenta 14 that will be presented on Saturday, December 8, 7pm.

Detailed program at www.uni-potsdam.de/minorcosmopolitanweekend

A program by the Research Training Group minor cosmopolitanisms, supported by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, in cooperation with Haus der Kulturen der Welt