truth & testimony A WORKSHOP ON THE ONTOLOGY OF A WITNESS AFTER WAR OCTOBER 2 & 3, 2015 Department of Humanities and Social Sciences. Mustaq Gurmani School of Humanities and Social Sciences, LUMS MADIHA TAHIR is a PhD candidate at Columbia University researching media and war, and an independent journalist [email protected] MANAN AHMED is a historian of Islam in South Asia at Columbia University. [email protected] “One testiﬁes only when one has lived longer than what has come to pass.” wrote Derrida in his commentary on Maurice Blanchot’s "L'Instant de ma mort” (1994, The Instant of My Death). Yet, what does it mean to listen to that testimony? What of those asked to bear witness? This workshop tackles a set of theoretical concerns about being, about being witness to, about testifying for, and about recognizing ‘truth’. These theoretical concerns underpin our contemporary lives for they govern how we reconcile victims of wars—legal or covert— and their claims to justice. The workshop will be a two day seminar-style meeting with a short reading list of ethnographic works dealing with issues of testimony, and truth. The reading list includes Maurice Blanchot’s The Instant of My Death, Hannah Arendt’s Eichmann in Jerusalem, Heonik Kwon’s Ghosts of War in Vietnam, and Veena Das’s Life and Words: Violence and the Descent into the Ordinary. We ask that interested students and faculty write a brief one page statement of interest, with their intellectual proﬁle, and submit to [email protected] by September 16, 2015. Please include your full name, the name of your university or college and your academic status (whether you are a BA, MA or PhD student or faculty and in which discipline). Tell us why this course interests you. We aim to select 10 participants. Selected participants will be expected to read all of the assigned texts before the workshop, prepare a 2-page memo on the readings and come prepared to discuss and engage. The workshop will consist of four two hour sessions on the afternoon of October 2nd and October 3rd, 2015 at LUMS.

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truth & testimony A WORKSHOP ON THE ONTOLOGY OF A WITNESS AFTER WAR

OCTOBER 2 & 3, 2015

Department of Humanities and Social Sciences.Mustaq Gurman i Schoo l o f Humanities and Social Sciences, LUMS

MADIHA TAHIR is a PhD candidate at Columbia University researching media and war, and an independent journalist [email protected]

MANAN AHMED is a historian of Islam in South Asia at Columbia University. [email protected]

“One testifies only when one has lived longer than what has come to pass.” wrote Derrida in his commentary on Maurice Blanchot’s "L'Instant de ma mort” (1994, The Instant of My Death). Yet, what does it mean to listen to that testimony? What of those asked to bear witness? This workshop tackles a set of theoretical concerns about being, about being witness to, about testifying for, and about recognizing ‘truth’. These theoretical concerns underpin our contemporary lives for they govern how we reconcile victims of wars—legal or covert— and their claims to justice.

The workshop will be a two day seminar-style meeting with a short reading list of ethnographic works dealing with issues of testimony, and truth. The reading list includes Maurice Blanchot’s The Instant of My Death, Hannah Arendt’s Eichmann in Jerusalem, Heonik Kwon’s Ghosts of War in Vietnam, and Veena Das’s Life and Words: Violence and the Descent into the Ordinary.

We ask that interested students and faculty write a brief one page statement of interest, with their intellectual profile, and submit to [email protected] by September 16, 2015. Please include your full name, the name of your university or college and your academic status (whether you are a BA, MA or PhD student or faculty and in which discipline). Tell us why this course interests you. We aim to select 10 participants.

Selected participants will be expected to read all of the assigned texts before the workshop, prepare a 2-page memo on the readings and come prepared to discuss and engage. The workshop will consist of four two hour sessions on the afternoon of October 2nd and October 3rd, 2015 at LUMS.

mailto:[email protected]