THE POLITICAL THEORY WORKSHOP PRESENTS

Bandung against Bandung: Muslim Democracy as Realistic Utopia

Arash Davari, Politics, Whitman College
with commentary by Justin Theodra, Political Science, UConn
February 12th, 12:20–2:00p.m. via Zoom

At the end of the Cold War, Iranian “religious intellectuals” increasingly concerned with democratic politics and disillusioned with the revolutionary postures of an Islamic Republic rejected the third worldism long associated with the Asian-Africa Conference held in Bandung in 1955. Ali Shariati’s legacy played a prominent role in these debates. Many dismissed utopian aspirations altogether, announcing their differences with him. Others cordoned off the parts of Shariati’s oeuvre that invoked Bandung from the essence of his ideas, claiming the former expressed support for statist authoritarianism. This article draws on recent scholarship to reassesses Shariati’s utopian political theory. It shows how Shariati’s “middle doctrine” [maktab-i vāseteh] bears affinities with Plato’s arguments in favor of democracy in the Republic. The consequent utopian vision predicates democracy and realism on Islam, not against it, providing for a “Bandung spirit” equipped to answer the challenges posed by today’s positivist critics.

With generous support from the UConn Humanities Institute.

Questions? Email jane.gordon@uconn.edu

Download the poster.

Upcoming Events

Apr 17 A Site of Conscience: The ‘Haunting’ Legacy at the Mansfield Training School (UConn’s Depot Campus) 3:30pm

A Site of Conscience: The ‘Haunting’ Legacy at the Mansfield Training School (UConn’s Depot Campus)

Wednesday, April 17th, 2024

03:30 PM - 05:00 PM

Homer Babbidge Library

Presentation by Dr. Brenda Brueggemann (English, UConn), Jess Gallagher (M.A. in Human Rights Studies, Columbia University) and the Mansfield Training School undergraduate research group:
Madison Bigelow, English
Collin Lamontagne, Political Science
Ally LeMaster, English & Journalism
Paula Mock, Sociology & WGSS
Ashten Vassar, Human Rights, Psychology, American Studies
The presentation will be followed by a light reception and feature a poster exhibit on “Disability Institutionalization in the U.S.” by students in AMST / ENGL 2274W, “Disability in American Literature and Culture.”
The Mansfield Training School Memorial and Museum project explores the 133-year history of the Mansfield Training School (MTS) while also focusing on its ties to the University of Connecticut (UConn). Located less than 4 miles from UConn’s main campus, the former MTS, now called the UConn Depot Campus,” spans 350 acres but has been neglected for 30 years, resulting in boarded-up buildings covered in graffiti and ivy, vandalism, and frequent trespassing violations. Based on two years of archival and collaborative work thus far, this restorative inquiry and justice initiative aims to excavate the institutionalization of disabled lives and to educate community members about MTS’s history while promoting community and institutional accountability. The project poses the central question: What are the obligations of institutions and communities to address the legacies of disability institutionalization through mutual restorative inquiry? This interactive program will: offer highlights from the MTS timeline; share a few of the traveling exhibit poster boards under construction; explore some of the MTS-UConn cross-institutional connections; and feature brief snapshots from the UConn student research team’s satellite projects growing out of their work on the MTS project overall.
Brenda Jo Brueggemann is the Project Director for the Mansfield Training School Memorial & Museum @ UConn. She is a Professor of English, American Studies, and Women’s, Gender, Sexuality Studies (WGSS) at the University of Connecticut where she also serves as the Aetna Endowed Chair of Writing.
Jess Gallagher is the Project Co-Director for the Mansfield Training School Memorial & Museum @ UConn. Jess received their BA (Honors, English) at the University of Connecticut and MA in Human Rights at Columbia University. Jess intends to work as a disability oral historian.
Madison Bigelow is a senior at the University of Connecticut studying English with a concentration in Creative Writing. Madison hopes to pursue a career in legal advocacy and public interest with a specific focus on disability rights.
Paula Mock is a senior at UConn studying both Sociology & Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Paula hopes to attend graduate school for a master’s degree in either social work or early childhood education.
Collin Lamontagne is a junior Political Science major at the University of Connecticut. His research interests center around politics, law, and policy.
Ally LeMaster is a senior English and journalism major at the University of Connecticut. Ally works as a legislative reporting intern at the Connecticut Mirror and is also currently editor-in-chief of Long River Review, UConn’s undergraduate-run literary magazine.
Ashten Vassar is a UConn senior majoring in Psychological Sciences and Human Rights with a minor in American Studies. Outside of the university, Ashten works with a grassroots coalition of institutional abuse survivors focusing on restoring agency through testimony and bringing public awareness.
Access note
If you require accommodation to attend this event, please contact us at uchi@uconn.edu or by phone (860) 486-9057. The event will include ASL interpretation, both in person and for the livestream. The livestream will also include computer assisted real-time transcription.

Contact Information:
uchi@uconn.edu

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Apr 18 Artificial Intelligence and Artistic Endeavor: Pushing the Boundaries of Collaboration and Creativity 3:00pm

Artificial Intelligence and Artistic Endeavor: Pushing the Boundaries of Collaboration and Creativity

Thursday, April 18th, 2024

03:00 PM - 04:30 PM

Homer Babbidge Library

Join us for an engaging discussion with Austin Choi-Fitzpatrick, human rights expert and member of an artists’ collective; Kyle Booten, co-founder of a literary journal dedicated to human-AI co-authored works; and Sue Huang, a visual artist who collaborates with AI. Together, they will explore how AI challenges us to reassess and redefine the concepts of collaboration and creativity.
“Smooth and Jagged Substrates of Thought,” Kyle Booten
In this talk, I’ll suggest that we should care less about whether or not computer-generated text can be “creative” and more about what sorts of human creativity can grow on top of it, on its surface—much the way lichen grows on bark. Sharing examples of my own work designing algorithmic writing assistants, I will suggest that AI-generated text is often unfortunately “smooth,” and I will share some tactics that I used in my recent book (Salon des Fantômes, Inside the Castle, 2024) to try make it more “jagged” and, perhaps, better for cultivating interestingly-shaped thoughts upon.
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“AI, Ecological Intimacies, and the Disappearing Landscape,” Sue Huang
Huang will present recent research which uses AI, scientific “found data” and natural language processing methods for exploring ecological intimacies between humans and nonhumans. In particular, she will speak about her current project Total Archive, a sci-fi performance and installation piece that explores a series of speculative government reports and “strange” objects found in a time capsule from the future. Prepared by an intern working at a government agency, these documents and artifacts reveal an ecological system in its final throes. The project presents poetry written in part by a fine-tuned AI that processes materials from digitized Smithsonian scientific field books and Internet-found amateur written erotica stories. Visuals in the video installation are derived from text-to-image AI and recombinatory methods that hybridize creatures from over 45,000 species listed in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species database.
Kyle Booten is an assistant professor of English at the University of Connecticut, Storrs. His research explores the ways that small-scale, personalized algorithmic systems may be designed to care for one’s own mind. He is the author of Salon des Fantômes (Inside the Castle, 2014), a book that documents a philosophical salon he attended with a cast of AI-fabricated characters, and the creator of Nightingale, a web extension that re-distracts the user with contextually-relevant excerpts from the poetry of John Keats (available in the Chrome Web Store). His poetry written with algorithmic feedback and interference has been published in Fence, Lana Turner, and Blackbox Manifold; his scholarly writing has recently appeared or is forthcoming in electronic book review, Critical AI, and xCoAx ’23.
Austin Choi-Fitzpatrick is an author, educator, and speaker. His work focuses on politics, culture, technology, and social change. His recent books include Wicked Problems (Oxford, 2022), The Good Drone (MIT Press, 2020) and What Slaveholders Think (Columbia, 2017), and his commentary includes articles in Slate, Al Jazeera, and the Guardian and appearances on BBC, NBC, and Fox News. Austin lives in California and holds academic appointments at the University of San Diego and the University of Nottingham.
Sue Huang is a new media artist whose work addresses collective experience. Her research explores ecological intimacies, human/nonhuman relations, and speculative futures. She is currently working on the project Total Archive, a performance work about a time capsule from the future. This project is supported by the Culture Council of the Emerson Collective and Leonardo @ Djerassi for 2024. Huang has exhibited nationally and internationally, including at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Los Angeles; the Contemporary Arts Center (CAC) in Cincinnati; Philadelphia Contemporary; ISEA in Montreal; and Ars Electronica in Linz, Austria; among others. She has previously been an artist-in-residence at LMCC on Governors Island, Creative Science at NEW INC, and the Studios at MASS MoCA. Huang has received funding and project support from Science Sandbox, Rhizome, the James Irvine Foundation (MOCA, Los Angeles), and Creative Scotland (NEoN), the UConn Humanities Institute, among others.She received her MFA in Media Arts at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and her BS in Science, Technology, and International Affairs from the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. She is an assistant professor of Digital Media and Design at the University of Connecticut.
Access note
If you require accommodation to attend this event, please contact us at uchi@uconn.edu or by phone (860) 486-9057. We can request ASL interpretation, computer-assisted real time transcription, and other accommodations offered by the Center for Students with Disabilities.

Contact Information:
uchi@uconn.edu

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Oct 4 ELM2 Conference All Day

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aliyar.ozercan@uconn.edu

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Humanities Institute

The Political Theory Workshop Presents: Arash Davari

THE POLITICAL THEORY WORKSHOP PRESENTS

Bandung against Bandung: Muslim Democracy as Realistic Utopia

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