'What's the Point of IR?' In celebration of 50 years of International Relations at the University of Sussex
The Department of International Relations is convening a two day conference on the 10thand 11th of December 2015.
Over the past fifty years International Relations has changed strikingly, shifting from a narrow focus on the relations between states to a much more wide-ranging and diffuse concern with a spectrum of inter-societal and global processes. Yet, International Relations faces challenges on at least three fronts: from other social sciences that have eroded International Relations’ one-time comparative advantage as the scholarly endeavour concerned with the ‘international’; internally, as International Relations has become home to multiple theoretical traditions and sub-fields that rub against its academic coherence; and practically, as International Relations faces ever-increasing demands for non-academic—and especially policy—relevance.
With the aim of reflecting on these three inter-linked challenges, the conference asks:
- Is International Relations a coherent and singular discipline? Should this be its aim?
- What distinctive analytical value does International Relations possess today? What, if anything, should its distinctive intellectual purchase be?
- Where does International Relations’ practical importance and value lie? What should International Relations’ practical functions and purposes be?
- Who and what is International Relations for? And whose interests should International Relations serve?
The conference brings together scholars and public intellectuals from within and beyond International Relations to debate these questions. Organised as a single conversation that unfolds over the course of two days, the conference includes a public lecture and six plenary roundtable discussions organised around a set of key questions. The objective is to foster a genuinely organic conversation that speaks to the core aims of the conference while allowing for diversity and enabling useful departures.
For a full list of speakers and to register, please go to http://whatsthepointofir.com/. Registration closes on 1st December. Attendance is free, but numbers are limited.
Please arrive promptly at 09:30 at the Jubilee Lecture Theatre, Jubilee Building, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton, The City of Brighton and Hove BN1 9SL. Metered car parking is available. For a campus map please go to: http://www.sussex.ac.uk/aboutus/findus/.