Nobel Laureate to address York conference on Identity
Posted on 16 May 2007
The Identity, Community and Justice conference will examine a range of issues, such as multi-culturalism and the so-called ‘clash of civilizations’, which are at the heart of public debate both nationally and globally.
Issues relating to identity, community and justice are at the heart of contemporary public debates
Professor Mozaffar Qizilbash
The event marks the launch of the University’s new Graduate School of Politics, Economics and Philosophy (PEP), which takes its first students in October 2007.
The conference on 23 and 24 May will use Professor Sen’s recent book Identity and Violence as a starting point to address topical issues such as identity and multi-culturalism, Islam, gender, community and global justice that are central to a range of public debates.
It will include an exchange between Professor Sen and Lord Bhikhu Parekh, widely regarded as the architect of the British model of multi-culturalism which has recently come under scrutiny and attack.
The conference will include contributions from leading figures in philosophy, politics and economics, as well as junior academics and younger scholars. Conference organiser Professor Mozaffar Qizilbash, who is Director of School of PEP at York, said: "Issues relating to identity, community and justice are at the heart of contemporary public debates. Because of the range of issues involved, a multi-disciplinary conference addressing them might yield insights and solutions that each of these disciplines may not offer in isolation".
As well as Professor Sen, who is Lamont University Professor at Harvard University, speakers will include Professor Akeel Bilgrami (Philosophy, Columbia); Professor Kaushik Basu (Economics, Cornell); Professor David Miller (Political Philosophy, Oxford); Professor Lord Bhikhu Parekh (Politics, Hull and Westminster) and Professor Robert Sugden (Economics, UEA). They will be joined by a number of University of York academics including Professor Haleh Afshar of the Department of Politics and Professor Tom Baldwin of the Department of Philosophy.
Notes to editors:
- More information about the conference is available at www.york.ac.uk/depts/pep/conference/index.htm
- More information about the School of Politics, Economics and Philosophy is available at www.york.ac.uk/depts/pep/