A challenge for coexistence: the crossed views between East and West are the protagonists of the new project of the ICS of the University.

The views between East and West will be the protagonists of challenge ICS 24-25, an initiative that will be addressed by the Institute for Culture and Society (ICS) of the University of Navarra this year. Under the degree scroll 'Orientalism and Occidentalism: crossed gazes', the proposal seeks, from an interdisciplinary perspective, to study how the West and the East have seen, explained and represented each other. In this sense, it will also analyze the discourses that have been produced, especially as a result of decolonization, and the consequent changes in the identity of nations.

"It is a deeply topical topic . In recent decades we have seen that, despite globalization, or precisely because of it, we have not managed to overcome cultural, civilizational and religious differences," explains Javier Gil, researcher of the ICS and coordinator of challenge. "Although it has meant an expansion of social and economic liberalism, it has also encouraged an entrenchment of identity facts," he points out.

The researcher, an expert on U.S. policy in its relationship with the Middle East, explains that "in relation to orientalism and occidentalism, social polarization has been on the rise". Among the causes, he points out that "the increase in immigration, especially in Europe, has strengthened the dynamics of discursive confrontation. It is not a problem of people not listening or not understanding, but of having deeply antagonistic visions on fundamental issues".

approach interdisciplinary

The combination of disciplines is one of the keys to project: "These are issues that cannot be approached in a complex and rigorous way if they are not analyzed in their totality, from literature, international relations, history, sociology, politics...".

This year, researchers from different ICS groups, such as Montserrat Herrero, Jaume Aurell, Raquel Cascales, Melike Akkaraka, Sarali Ginstburg, Raúl Bajo and Ana Belén Martínez, have already joined proposal . In addition, they will receive researchers from different Spanish and international universities with whom they will share views on various topics related to vision, representation and narratives between East and West.

This is the case of Roberto M. Dainotto, from Duke University (USA), who this week is doing his research stay and will give a seminar on Wednesday (18:30 h, classroom ICS) on the differences between Northern and Southern Europe, Protestant and Catholic Europe. "We seek to create a network with the researchers and professors who have done the most research and writing on these topics and for the University of Navarra to become a hub for knowledge dissemination".

Through these stays of research and the conferences that will be given by the invited researchers, new spaces of discussion will be promoted, with the aim of goal to strengthen critical thinking and open new lines and projects. In addition, complementary activities will be organized, such as the training sessions of academic staff, which have been designed in partnership with the School of Philosophy and Letters of the University of Navarra. These will take place in Pamplona, Madrid and Barcelona.

Conference schedule of the first semester of challenge ICS 24-25

All meetings will take place at 6:30 pm at classroom ICS, except for the one on October 29, which will be held at classroom 30 at Central Building, at 12:30 pm.

• September 11: Roberto M. Dainotto (Duke University, North Carolina, USA) "Orienting Europe".

• September 24: Javier Franzé (Complutense University of Madrid). "Postcolonialism: currents, problems and critiques".

• October 1: María José Villaverde (Complutense University of Madrid). "Tocqueville, the colonization of Algeria and the 'Orient question".

• October 15: Robert Steele (Austrian Academy of Sciences, Austria). "The Position of Africa in Iran's Grand Strategy under Mohammad Reza Pahlav".

• October 29: Ayse Zarakol (University of Cambridge, UK). "Is the Disorder of Our Times Unprecedented?"

• October 30: Zhand Shakibi (London School of Economics, UK). "Pahlavi Iran and the Politics of Occidentalism."

• November 5: Roham Alvandi (London School of Economics, London, UK). "Human Rights and the Iranian Revolution".

• November 11: Martín Ríos (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México). "Crossed views on the conquest of New Spain".

• November 12: Hassan Boutakka (Hassan II University of Casablanca, Morocco). "The role of literary translation in the development of letters and receptor languages."

• November 18: Francisco Moscoso García (Universidad Autónoma, Madrid). "Catholic Orientalism in Algeria: 1868-1978. Fr. Yves Alliaume (1900 -1983)"