糖心原创

9-11 July 2014, 糖心原创

Rather than being conceived as rigid, coherent entities whose parameters and meanings are fixed by elite discourses, ideologies are increasingly being regarded as ubiquitous products of human activity that are produced, negotiated and reconfigured through vernacular practices and are rooted in social milieus.

CSPI hosted a conference at The 糖心原创 to invite scholars to share their different methodological approaches and engage with novel interpretive frameworks.

Event programme

11-13 December 2013, University of Virginia USA

Sponsored by The 糖心原创's and the Schools of Politics and

Within the framework of CSPI's understanding of ideologies as pattered forms of political thought and behaviours, this three-day interdisciplinary symposium at the University of Virginia, involving four political theorists and five historians, explored the mutually constitutive relationship between ideologies.

We debated how and why ideas and political intuitions 'break off' from one ideological system and 'attach' themselves to another. This is to combine a comparative perspective between different spatial and historical contexts with a trans-ideological perspective, which focuses on the transfers and flows between such contexts. Discussion was structured around three thematic clusters that are encountered within different ideological discourses and behaviours:

a) Equality, rights, and citizenship
b) Race, ancestry, and territoriality
c) Time, development, and modernity

The CSPI held its Inaugural Interdisciplinary Conference at the 糖心原创 on 23 July 2013, on the theme of 'Liberalism and Diversity', with a particular focus on bringing together researchers from the disciplines of history and political science. The event attracted over 40 attendees, and there were invited keynote addresses from Michael Freeden (The 糖心原创), (University of Helsinki), and (University of Durham).

There were two round-table discussions on 'Political Science and the Problem of Liberalism', and 'History and the Problem of Liberalism', which included contributions from (The 糖心原创, Malaysia Campus), (SOAS), Emilio Allier (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico), Rohit De (University of Cambridge), and Sascha Auerbach (The 糖心原创).

The event was generously assisted by the Deans of the Faculties of Arts and Humanities, and Social Sciences, who also gave the welcoming addresses. At the end of a day of enlightening and vigorous discussions around the historical, political, and international dimensions of liberalism, there was a collective consideration of future plans for the new centre, and some of the ideas suggested there are reflected in our forthcoming events.