Power, Inequality, and Citizenship in the Global South

A Dissertation Workshop 

Sponsored by University of Copenhagen, University of Amsterdam, New York University

This is two-day, multi-disciplinary workshop brings together doctoral candidates from Europe and the US whose work pertains to the theme of “Power, Inequality, and Citizenship in the Global South.” The workshop meets for two days. We discuss two dissertation projects each morning, and two, each afternoon. Everyone reads everyone’s work. Students lead discussions of each other’s work. The faculty members provide additional perspectives. 

The theme has been chosen to facilitate conversations across disciplines, focused on the Global South, concerning pressing problems in our world, glaring in daily headlines. What are the inclusionary possibilities of citizenship in a world of nations riddled with inequity, ruptured by struggles to overcome and enforce inequality, and woven together ever more tightly by globalization? Do national borders and state institutions form viable territorial frames for the production of equitable citizenship? Do global or international frames hold more promise, or do their inequities further compound national problems with inclusionary citizenship? Do “empire” and “nation” remain viable units of analysis? How do gender, class, religion, race, language, and ethnicity shape power relations of inequality at various levels of spatial scale? Are there path-dependent trajectories for nations, peoples, or world regions; or do future possibilities remain open-ended? These are some of questions that could stimulate discussion during our workshop.   

We invite applications from doctoral students who have completed substantial dissertation research on any aspect of our theme, in any discipline. The deadline for applications is 15 April 2016, but we will consider later applications. 

Applicants should send (1) a letter describing their research and reasons for joining the workshop along with (2) a curriculum vita and (3) a short writing sample (drawn from their dissertation), combined into one PDF email attachment, to David Ludden (New York University) del5@nyu.edu,  Ravinder Kaur (University of Copenhagen), rkaur@hum.ku.dk, and Barak Kalir (University of Amsterdam) B.Kalir@uva.nl, by 25 April. We will then make selections and send emails to explain workshop logistics as soon as possible.