The aim of the summer academy is an in-depth analysis which reaches back to the 19th century and deals with the discourses, strategies, and practices of ethnic minority policies.
In July 2010, the massacre of Srebrenica was commemorated for the fifteenth time. Once more the commemoration ceremony showed that – even in Europe – ethnic violence is by no means a relic of a faraway past, overcome by civilization, but is still of unwaning timeliness at the beginning of the 21st century. Although violence against minorities is not a specification of modern times, the legitimizing strategies and forms of expression of current violent minority politics are relatively recent phenomena whose emergence is closely linked with the emergence of nation-state concepts of the 19th century. The ideal of an ethnically homogeneous national community which became more and more attractive in late 19th-century Europe has become one of the most important ideological mobilization doctrines against “alien” minorities. In the course of the 20th century, violence against ethnic minorities has developed into a quite common instrument of state-run domestic and foreign policies in Europe and all over the world. Again and again, methods of resolution for ethnic conflicts have been radicalized to the extent of violent attacks – in some cases to the point of genocide. In view of the violent policies of the Ottoman Empire, the Soviet Union, the NS regime or the successor states of Yugoslavia, it is becoming clear that reflection about ethnically motivated violence is central to the understanding of twentieth-century European history. Hence, the summer academy Minority Issues and Violence wants to investigate the topic from historical, sociological and political perspectives. Furthermore, it will also be important to delve into various historical and contemporary concepts of the non-violent treatment of social, ethnic and religious subgroups. It is only on the basis of such analogies that methods how to resolve ongoing conflicts can be discussed.
http://www.summeracademy.phil.uni-hannover.de/
Posted on February 11, 2011 by elisseiatesen
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