The last ten years a series of events at international scale has challenged the way we see the relationship between Europe and the Middle East, this applies in particular in the humanitarian field. In her keynote at the Herrenhausen Conference, historian and researcher at the Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient (ZMO) in Berlin, Nora Lafi examines how its very notion has been redefined, its ambigitues have been partially disclosed and the way we perceive the past has been deconstructed. What does this mean for the present and future of humanitarianism?
Herrenhausen Conference
The Herrenhausen Conference "Governing Humanitarianism: The Past, Present, and Future of Global Equity and Social Justice" interrogates present issues and future directions for global humanitarian governance in relation to its pasts, highlighting lessons to be learned from historical events and practices. It asks if humanitarian expansion has come at the expense of core values and effective intervention, and how the pursuit of global equity and social justice can, and has been pursued through shifting global and local power structures. The Herrenhausen Conference seeks to bridge the various gaps between disciplines, scholarship and practice as well as the national, international and global spheres of analysis. It actively involves early career scholars and established academics with leading members from the field of international action in the debate on the past, present, and future of global humanitarian governance.
"Governing Humanitarianism: Past, Present and Future" is part of the Herrenhausen Conference Series initiated by the Volkswagen Foundation. The Herrenhausen Conferences focus on scientific topics of high social impact that are of particular relevance to the present and future. The Herrenhausen Conferences address unanswered questions and unsolved problems and their relevance for society. They provide international experts as well as junior researchers with a platform for an intense interdisciplinary dialogue on exciting new areas of research and innovative methodological approaches.
Organizers: University of Oxford, University of Exeter, University of Cologne, Leibniz-Institute of European History Mainz, Volkswagen Foundation