Collaboration on Love & Justice

On Friday 22 April 2016, our CoE collaborated with the CoPassion project and the Social Ethics Forum in organizing a one-day seminar on the themes of love and justice, which are also highly relevant research topics from a recognition-theoretical perspective.

Anna Salonen, Anne-Birgitta Pessi and Risto Saarinen

participated in a panel discussion

Heikki Haara, Joona Salminen, Tii Syrjänen, Anna Seppänen, and Taina Kalliokoski

- the organizers of the event

Anna-Liisa Tolonen and Marjaana Toiviainen engaged in group work

 

Love in action

After the opening panel discussion, we heard various presentations by Jaana Hallamaa, Anne Birgitta Pessi & Henrietta Grönlund, myself, Risto Saarinen, Pauli Kettunen, and Ville Päivänsalo.

Henrietta Grönlund

Between the presentations, the participants worked in groups, discussing themes related to the overall topics of the event and the talks of the individual speakers.

Jaana Hallamaa

Pauli Kettunen

Ville Päivänsalo

On the whole, the day was both interesting and inspiring in various ways. It was also nice to see that so many of our CoE members contributed to the event in the roles of organizers, speakers, and participants.

Recognition Retreat II

Our Centre of Excellence held its second Recognition Retreat at Hvittorp in Kirkkonummi during 7-8 April 2016. The official programme started with lunch on Thursday and concluded with another one on Friday.

A group photo of the participants

The programme included four sessions, three of which took place on Thursday and one on Friday morning. During the first session, Jari Kaukua's and Hanne Appelqvist's successful project applications were duly recognized. After this, the CoE members reported on some interesting conference activities that they had participated in during the last year or so.

Hvittorp's course facilities

In the second session, Risto Saarinen presented information on the Academy of Finland procedures and practicalities of the second half of the CoE during 2017-2019. There was also an opportunity to discuss various related issues and raise questions that came to mind.

The third and final session of Thursday began with Antti Ruotsala's presentation of his studies of Mongol and other Asian cultures. After the talk, we heard musical presentations by Panu-Matti Pöykkö on the guitar, and by Aku Visala on the piano.

Our evening musicians Panu-Matti Pöykkö & Ismo Dunderberg

After the final session of the first day, we proceeded to enjoy some evening snack together with free conversation and more music.

The Friday morning session then consisted in some group work towards the application required for the latter part of the CoE period. In the early Friday afternoon, after lunch and the official conclusion, the board held its meeting while some other CoE members participated in a guided tour of the Villa Hvittorp.

Reflections on Recognition 26-28 May 2016

Reflections on Recognition is an international conference organized by the Centre of Excellence Reason and Religious Recognition at the University of Helsinki, 26-28 May 2016. The conference focuses on systematic and historical studies of the concepts and phenomena of recognition, and its themes are based on an international scholarly volume edited by Maijastina Kahlos, Heikki J. Koskinen and Ritva Palmén.

The programme of the event can be found under THIS LINK.

Among many others, the authors of these three

recognition volumes will be attending the Reflections conference

Right before the conference, 24-25 May, there is a workshop with the title Social Pathologies and Mutual Recognition, organized at the University of Jyväskylä. More information and the programme of the event can be found under THIS LINK.

Extended Session in AAR Annual Meeting in Atlanta

A team of our Centre of Excellence's researchers got an extended session into the programme of the American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting in Atlanta, 21-24 November 2015.



The overall title of our session was 'From Tolerance to Recognition: Recognition and the Acceptance of Otherness'. The session included eight presentations with the contributions of Olli-Pekka Vainio & Aku Visala, Panu-Matti Pöykkö, Minna Hietamäki, Elina Hellqvist, Ritva Palmén & Heikki J. Koskinen, Anna-Liisa Tolonen, Joona Salminen, and Tim Riggs.

 

Cornel West in Atlanta

The session was presided by our CoE leader Risto Saarinen. We also had the honour and pleasure of having Robert Orsi and Vitor Westhelle as our distinguished commentators.

Risto Saarinen presiding

Robert Orsi giving his comments (photo by Elina Hellqvist)

While in Atlanta, we also took time to visit The Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change.

At the King Center

The struggle (for recognition) continues!

Anna-Liisa & Panu-Matti at the Centennial Olympic Park

The Georgia Aquarium



Publishing Projects on Recognition

The first Centre of Excellence gathering during the fall term was held on Tuesday 29 September. This time, the whole CoE met together, and there were no separate team meetings. Three different book projects on the themes of recognition and identity politics were presented and discussed in the Faculty Hall.

Elina Hellqvist presenting

In the first talk by Maijastina Kahlos and myself, an international book project with the working title Reflections on Recognition: Contemporary and Historical Studies was discussed. Along with a host of international contributors, the volume also includes a group of writers from the CoE. There will be a conference organized around this book project at the University of Helsinki in May 26-28 2016. The book will be edited and the conference organized by Kahlos, Ritva Palmén, and myself.

The second presentation by Elina Hellqvist and Minna Hietamäki dealt with a Finnish book that has, at the time of writing this, just come out from the press. In addition to Hellqvist and Hietamäki, the editors of the volume on Religion and Identity Politics (original title: Uskonto ja identiteettipolitiikka) include also Panu Pihkala. This book published by the Finnish Theological Literature Society (STKS) is based on both Risto Saarinen's Academy of Finland project and his Centre of Excellence, also funded by the Academy. [A link to the report on the symposium can be found here.]

The third presentation was given by Ritva Palmén and Heikki Haara, who are editing another Finnish volume on recognition. This book has its origins in the teaching modules provided by various members of the CoE under the Master's Degree Programme Religion, Conflict and Dialogue [link here]. Its team of authors is strengthened by an addition of further important contributors. During the discussions, one of the topics that came up was the challenge of translating theoretical terminology from German and English into ordinary-language Finnish.

Saarinen and Pihlström to Academia Europaea

Professors Risto Saarinen, the Director of our Centre of Excellence, and Sami Pihlström, the Leader of our CoE Team 3, have been invited to membership in the Academia Europaea. The meeting of the Council of the Academy was held in Darmstadt on 6 September 2015.

The object of Academia Europaea is the advancement and propagation of excellence in scholarship in the humanities, law, the economic, social, and political sciences, mathematics, medicine, and all branches of natural and technological sciences anywhere in the world for the public benefit and for the advancement of the education of the public of all ages in the aforesaid subjects in Europe.

Academia Europaea is a European, non-governmental association acting as an Academy. The members are scientists and scholars who collectively aim to promote learning, education and research. Founded in 1988, with about 3000 members which includes leading experts from the physical sciences and technology, biological sciences and medicine, mathematics, the letters and humanities, social and cognitive sciences, economics and the law.

Pragmatism in Paris

The Second European Pragmatism Conference was organized in Paris in September 9-11 2015. Our Centre of Excellence was represented by Sami Pihlström and myself. The participants included also other Finnish philosophers involved in the study of pragmatism. This second conference was considerably larger than the first one in Rome three years ago, so it would seem that pragmatism is a growing trend. The next conference in the series will be organized in Helsinki in 2018.

The opening of the conference

The CoE's research themes of recognition resonated quite nicely with the programme and with the participants of the conference. There was, for example, an interesting session on democracy, and a presentation dealing with Axel Honneth's work. I got to give my talk titled "Mediated Recognition and Brandom's Analysis" in a Nordic Pragmatism Network Invited Panel on normativity. The Finns Henrik Rydenfelt and Mats Bergman also gave their presentations in the same session.

The Eiffel Tower

During the days in Paris, I enjoyed having many good discussions as well as meeting old friends and making new ones. Here is a link to the conference's official pages. Below are a couple more photos.

Notre Dame

Jardin du Luxembourg