COV&R 2017 – Identity and Rivalry
The processes of identity formation may follow different paths. These processes might pursue a narrative, ritualistic, mythological, or political trail, among others. Nationalisms, indigenisms, religious revivals, political and economic protests, movements of masses. Dynamics of identity are today becoming increasingly more complex. Spain has been a country of cultural clashes or encounters, rivalries, conflicts and fratricidal wars. At the same time, it has been the homeland of great artists such as Cervantes, Velázquez, Calderón de la Barca, Goya, García Lorca or Picasso. Their contributions to the understanding of t human nature have been revolutionary and Girard’s predilection for Cervantes is well known. We like to believe that Spain constitutes a privileged vantage point from which one can evaluate the possibilities and limits of identity construction processes in our world.
In COV&R 2017 in Madrid, we would like to invite scholars to explore the roots of identity; the ways rivalry survives and rises over the centuries as a force of destruction and foundation. Jean-Michel Oughourlian (University of Paris), Cesáreo Bandera (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), Charles Powell (Elcano Royal Institute), Jon Juaristi (Alcalá de Henares University), Roland Hsu (University of Stanford), or Carlos Mendoza-Álvarez (Iberoamerican University of Mexico) have already confirmed their participation as keynote speakers and we are waiting for others to accept our invitation.
Some reviews have been published online about the COV&R 2017.
http://violenceandreligion.com/publications/bulletin-53-aug-2017/#Conference