Organising Institutions
Institute of Polish Philology University of Zielona Góra, PolandChair of Polish Philology at Institute of Philology, Taras Shevchenko Kyiv National University, Kyiv, Ukraine
In collaboration with: Research Institute of Modern Art of the National Academy of Art of Ukraine (MARI), Kyiv, Ukraine; Polish-Ukrainian Centre for Humanistic Studies (Zielona Góra-Kiev)
Conference aims and scope
One of the most important challenges of the modern world is still war, not only as a mechanism for solving political problems, or rather, as Carl von Clausewitz stated, "the continuation of politics". Contemporary war conflicts bring challenges not only to specialists in military technology or the experts of battlefield itself. Increasingly, they are also becoming the domain of active social communication or high digital technology specialists. Contemporary war has not only a hybrid dimension, but unfortunately still increasingly often a radically military one. At the same time it affects humans in many aspects. Technology makes it possible to kill from a distance, creating the illusion of anonymity of the victim and the attacker, which seems to blurre subjective references to the horror of war. The transition between strategic subterfuge and self-deception, or the impossibility of indicating a direct threat, modifies the theater of war, raising questions about the trauma of war for civilians and soldiers alike, but also pointing to the mechanism of contemporary mythologies intended to sanction bestial and inhumane actions with a variety of rationales, both on an individual and systemic level. By seeking widespread social acceptance on the side of the aggressor, by limiting access to information from the battlefield, and by strategically accepting war crimes. Victory brings not only glory, but unfortunately increasingly also questions about the price, which often seems to exclude the glory of the victors. Human in the midst of war is no longer just a politician, strategist or soldier, but increasingly often a civilian victim. Defenseless, alone and deprived of hope of survival, and often bestially abused.
The problems of modern warfare are problems which can affect every citizen of our globe. Just as the sources and conditions which are the overt or covert cause of military events may be present in the domain of politics, mass communication or culture, but the consequences bring additional legal and moral aspects at both the community and individual level.
The main question is not so much why and with what result war gives birth to bestiality and heroism, but rather the question of what of these two antagonistic attitudes remains permanently in the communities fighting each other, for what reason and with what result.
We invite anthropologists, cultural studies scholars, philologists, political scientists, art theoreticians and historians, philosophers, sociologists and media experts to participate in the conference.
The conference will focus on the following issues:
TERMS OF PARTICIPATION
APPLICATIONS
LANGUAGES: All Slavic languages and English
PUBLICATION OF WORKS
Credits:
Created with images by Kateryna - "Online video conference. Computer monitor view with multiracial successful business colleagues, and businesswoman shows them a graph" • BullRun - "Side view of successful office worker sitting at table desktop in office company interior and using modern netbook for searching trade information, happy Caucasian male investor checking website news" • H_Ko - "Silver pen lying on opened notebook sheet closeup"