Critical Perspectives on Human Rights – Manchester Centre for Political Theory (MANCEPT)

by | 24 Apr 2015

Logo1_purple_white_yellow

Workshop convenor: Dr Birgit Schippers (St Mary’s University College Belfast).

Recent work in political theory, in critical legal theory, and in history has challenged human rights’ purported regulatory, disciplinary and exclusionary effects; further, it has highlighted the anthroprocentric assumptions underpinning rights discourse, and it has questioned the alleged privileging of juridical procedures, criticising human rights’ predilection for ‘jurocratic rule’ (Honig) at the expense of democratic practices. In response to these challenges, critical human rights scholarship draws on agonistic, aporetic and performative readings of human rights, and it seeks to excavate those discursive conditions that constitute the human as a bearer of rights.

The aim of this workshop is to present, discuss and consider such critical interventions in human rights scholarship, and to appraise the continued significance of human rights for critical theory and practice. Paper presentations engaging with the following topics and questions are particularly welcome, but proposals that extend beyond these themes will also be considered:

  •  Which thinkers, traditions, and resources enable the articulation of critical perspectives on human rights? What would a critical theory of and/or for human rights look like? What are the benefits of a paradoxical, or aporetic, construal of human rights? How do we conceive of human rights in relation to theories of agonism or performativity?
  •  How does ‘difference’, broadly construed, frame our understanding of human rights? What kind of critical readings emerge from non-western, postcolonial, feminist, queer etc. approaches to human rights? How do practices of cultural translation and vernacularization reshape the human rights debate?
  • What implications for human rights follow from the recent turn to posthumanism? For example, do challenges to the morphological, social and species boundaries of the human require new ways of considering human rights?
  • In what ways do human rights relate to the corporeal and affective dimensions of (human) being, and what are the implications for the future direction of human rights?
  • What should a critical human rights practice look like? Papers might want to consider case studies relating to issues such as immigration, social and economic rights, freedom of speech etc.

If you wish to present a paper at this workshop please send a title and abstract (400 words) on or before 30th May 2015 to b.schippers@smucb.ac.uk

 

4 Comments

  1. Iam an attorney and professor in charge of supervising a law clinic on LGBTTI human rights clinic at the University of Puerto Rico Law School. Iam very much interested in the topic of the paper and would like to keep informed of the event. Thank you
    Nora Vargas- Acosta

    Reply
    • Hi Nora,
      Thanks for your interest in my workshop. I’ll keep you posted about the format of the event.
      Best,
      Birgit

      Reply
  2. Hi Birgit!

    Please keep me informed too

    Bill

    Reply
    • Yes, will do!

      Reply

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

POSTS BY EMAIL

Join 4,802 other subscribers

We respect your privacy.

Fair Access Publisher
(pay what you can, free option available) 

↓ just published

PUBLISH ON CLT

Publish your article with us and get read by the largest community of critical legal scholars, with over 4500 subscribers.