Centre for Advanced International Theory (CAIT)

Political Struggle and Performative Rights

6-9 April 2016

The Centre for Advanced International Theory is pleased to announce the co-hosting of the Political Struggle and Performative Rights workshop that is being organised by the Centre’s Director, Dr Louiza Odysseos, and Dr Anja Eleveld, Free University Amsterdam.  The workshop will take place under the auspices of the Third European Workshops in International Studies (EWIS), 6-9 April 2016 at the University of Tuebingen, and is financially supported by the BISA Poststructuralist Politics Working Group.

The workshop develops new directions of research in the juncture of rights, performativity and political struggle, by bringing together contributors examining the links between practices of claiming rights and democratic citizenship, rights-based solidarity, and political and ethical performances of contemporary political struggles. The objectives of the workshop are, first, to develop theoretically the concepts of ‘performative rights’ and to enhance our understanding of the intersections between struggle and performativity. Second, it aims to use such theorizations to inform and analyse distinct forms of contemporary political struggles. Finally, it seeks to question the very notion of struggle on the basis of empirical research on historical and ongoing political performances.