P R O G R A M
ENGLISH
Crises of
the Nation-state. Alternative modes of thinking
1906-2006
One Hundred Years after Hannah Arendt’s Birth
Paris, 16-18 November 2006
In the context of the World Philosophy Day, under the
patronage of the UNESCO
« The decline of the Nation-state and the end of human
rights » is the chapter Arendt put at the turning
point between the second and the third parts of The origins
of totalitarianism. In Paris, Arendt watched how this
political form, often described as Nation-state à la
française, was incapable of answering in an appropriate way
the influx of refugees and stateless persons who applied
for asylum. Arendt’s analysis of such incapacity
paved the way for the questioning of sovereignty as a
fundamental principle of modern politics. The idea of the
Nation-state is supported by the principle of sovereignty,
people’s sovereignty first, then nation’s.
However, by means of a very original analysis of the
concept of political freedom, challenging the assertion
that took for granted the equation of political power with
the exercise of sovereignty, Arendt demonstrates the
incompatibility between the principle of sovereignty and
the principle of freedom. The extraordinary reach of such a
critique, born from examining the concept of Nation-state
but exceeding the mere dimension of the latter in order to
invite us to think anew the concept of the political as
such, is still underestimated.
This is the reason why the question of the Nation-state has
been chosen for the Paris conference. And with it, the
question of exile, statelessness and minorities, but also
the question of the alternatives and specifically the
European one that Arendt, right after the end of the Second
World War, conceived of as the only viable political answer
to the negative deterritorialization induced by the
reaffirmation of the principle of sovereignty that was
lodged at the core of the Minorities Treatises and was one
of the main sources of the destabilization of Central
Europe after the demolition of the Austro-Hungarian Empire
in 1918.
The Paris organization board : Anne Kupiec, Martine
Leibovici, Etienne Tassin, Géraldine Muhlman
Morning
9:00
Presentation by
Anne Kupiec (Université de Paris X /CSPRP)
10:00-12 :30
Chairman: Françoise Collin
Hannah Arendt in Paris : The exile milieu
1934-1940
Katja Tenenbaum (Università di Roma La Sapienza, Italia)
Nationality : refugee. Hannah Arendt’s exile in
Paris
Helgard Mahrdt (University of Oslo, Norway)
Continuity and break: Hannah Arendt’s meetings with
Paris intellectual milieu
The French theater of anti-Semitism
Martine Leibovici (University Paris VII /CSPRP)
Making distinctions into anti-Semitism ?
Pierre Vidal-Naquet (EHESS, Paris)
Hannah Arendt and the Dreyfus Affair
Afternoon
14:30-18:00
Chairman: Anne Kupiec (University of Paris X)
To the limits of the Nation-state
Christian Ferrié (Professeur en Lettres supérieures,
Reims),
Popular sovereignty : between nation and fédération
Valérie Gérard (University of Lille III)
Exceptionality
Dana Villa (University of Notre-Dame, USA)
Arendt, the State and Statelessness (in English)
Vlasta Jalusic (Mirovni Institut, Lubjliana, Slovenia)
Organized Innocence and Exclusion
(« Nation-states » after the War and Collective
Crimes)(in English)
Friday, 17 November, Amphi 24, Jussieu
Morning
9:30-12:30
Chairman: Marie-Claire Caloz-Tschopp (Universities of
Genève and Lausanne)
The failure of imperialim
Anne Amiel (Professeure en Lettres supérieures, Marseille),
Imperialism and modern power
Sonia Dayan-Herzbrun (University Paris VII-Denis Diderot,
CSPRP)
Àfrica : Phantom World and Shadow Show
Minorities, statelessnesses and refugees, from one century
to another
Danièle Lochak (University Paris X-Nanterre)
The non national: Hannah Arendt today
Wolfgang Heuer (Freie Universität, Berlin),
The politicization of minorities
Paula Banerjee (University of Calcutta, India)
Forced migration, women and the nation state in south asia
(in English)
Afternoon
14: 30-18:00
Chairman: Jean-Claude Eslin (Revue Esprit)
Zionism : a problematical transposition of the Nation-state
Jacqueline Rose (Queen Mary Universsity, London),
Love of self/love of people'. Arendt on Zionism's
Discontents
Idith Zertal (University of Basel, Switzerland)
The Jewish Nation-state on trial
Le destin européen du national
Marie-Luise Knott (Journalist, Publisher, Editor of the
Monde diplomatique in Berlin)
Europe viewed from America. The first years in New York
Nicole Gabriel (University Paris VII,/CSPRP)
Being a German after 1945 ?
Jean-Claude Poizat (Professeur de philosophie, Taverny)
The invention of a non sovereign policy : Arendt and the
European hope
Saturday, 18 November, Amphi 24, Jussieu
The critique of sovereignty
Morning
10:00-12:30
Chairman: Géraldine Muhlmann (University Paris II/CSPRP)
Jerome Kohn (New School for Social Research, New York)
et
Elizabeth Young-Bruehl (NewYork)
A dialogue on Hannah Arendt’s concept of sovereignty
(in English)
Afternoon
14:30-17:00
Présidente de séance : Corinne Enaudeau (CIPh)
Etienne Tassin (University Paris VII/CSPRP)
The people does not want
Geraldine Muhlmann (University Paris II/ CSPRP),
Hannah Arendt and the liberal tradtion : legacy and
differences
Miguel Abensour (University Paris VII/CSPRP),
Against the sovereignty of political philosophy upon
politics. The arendtian interpretation of the myth of the
cave
This conference is organized by the CSPRP (Centre de
Sociologie des Pratiques et des Représentations Politiques)
of the’University Paris 7-Denis-Diderot and directed
by Anne Kupiec, Martine Leibovici, Geraldine Muhlmann and
Etienne Tassin
with the support of the Fondation la Ferthé and the
Fondation Iagolnitzer.
The activities of 16 November will take place in the
context of the World Philosophy Day, under the patronage of
the UNESCO.
In partnership with that conference, two other events will
also take place to celebrate the centenary of Hannah
Arendt’s birth:
The Bibliothèque publique d’information of the Centre
Pompidou is organizing a conference about « Hannah
Arendt today : does politics still have sense?»,
on 24 and 25 November.
At the Musée d’art et d’histoire du Judaïsme,
on 26 November, a round table will be held, entitled
« Hannah Arendt, the life of a German Jewess».
More information at
http://www.centrepompidou.fr/ and
http://www.mahj.org/
Université de Paris 7 :
http://www.sigu7.jussieu.fr/