Mignolo Event Info
Friday, February 5th, 12-3 pm at the Art Annex 107
This event is cosponsored by the Social Science Research Council
Walter Mignolo: “What Does It Mean to Be Human in Western Civilization: A Decolonial Take”
Thousands of pages have been written on Human Rights. Most if not all of them focus on Rights. Starting from two previous articles (“Who speaks for the Human in Human Rights?” and “From Human ‘Rights’ to ‘Life’ Rights”) I will further query the concept of Human and Life, and who are endowed with Rights. I will argue that the discourse on “Rights” has put the cart in front of the horse. To advance in what Human and Life Rights intend to do it is necessary to put the horse in front of the cart: Human and Life come first, Rights second. The question is then what do we (whomever the we is) understand by Human and Life? Human and Life are epistemic fictions rather than ontological entities. To advance the conversation it is here necessary to focus on the enunciation of the (fictional) entities that are endowed with rights. That is what I mean by putting the horse in front of the cart or changing the terms of the conversation. I will conclude by suggesting that changing the terms of the conversation requires a complementary move: to shift from the priority of reasoning: arguing for Rights to the priority of motioning: decolonizing the ideas of Human and Life.
Engin Isin: “Doing Global Justice: How Activists Perform Rights Across Borders”
The rise of non-state, non-institutional transnational actors has dramatically altered the ways in which rights claims are made, global justice is sought and power is exercised in contemporary global politics. Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries the nation-state was arguably the exclusive authority for claiming and administering justice, with its inviolable sovereignty, indivisible territory and unified people. The 20th century witnessed the first challenges to the nation-state’s claim to sovereignty over its territory and people. The 21st century now appears a watershed moment in the decentring of the nation-state, at least as the locus of justice. Whether nation-state borders are disappearing or reappearing is not quite the question. Drawing on theories of performativity and acts, I examine how in and by performing rights across international borders and multiple legal orders activists have reconfigured how global justice is done.