What does it mean to be a citizen of the world today?
This project considers what it means to be a citizen of the world today. Collaborators come from a variety of backgrounds and disciplines including anthropology, political science, history, English, geography, cultural studies, sociology, and cinema and media studies. Papers developed over the course of a three-year series of workshops will be published in The Oxford Handbook of Cosmopolitanism (2024).
This project seeks to reconceive what it means to be a citizen of the world today—as extractive capitalism and climate change put the planetary environment at risk; electoral democracies are seized by hypernationalism, racism, and xenophobia; revolutions in communications and technology open up new possibilities for innovation and connection, surveillance and abuse; and borders are fastidiously maintained and continuously traversed. Contributors to the project come from a variety of backgrounds and disciplines including anthropology, political science, history, English, geography, cultural studies, sociology, and cinema and media studies, with special emphasis on the Global South. The project will consist of six workshops, each covering a particular theme: (1) histories and concepts, (2) practices and instantiations, (3) communication, connectivities, and infrastructure; (4) crossing borders; (5) globalism, nationalism, and populism; and (6) multiple earths. The project will also conduct informal interviews with contributors, which will be recorded and made available to the public. The papers developed over the course of the workshops will ultimately be published in The Oxford Handbook of Cosmopolitanism, currently under contract with Oxford University Press and due to be published in 2024. The project will culminate in a major public conference and art exhibition at the University of Chicago in Fall 2024.
Reimagining Cosmopolitanism is supported by the Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society, the Franke Institute for the Humanities, Oxford University Press, the University of Chicago Center in Delhi, the University of Chicago Center in Paris, and the Chicago Center for Contemporary Theory (3CT).
Playwright
Mohammad Al Attar is a Syrian playwright and theater maker based in Berlin since 2016. At Damascus University, he completed a degree in English Literature, followed by a degree in Theatrical Studies from the Higher Institute of Dramatic Arts, Damascus. He then completed a master’s degree in...
Professor of History
Centre for Study of Developing Societies
Prathama Banerjee is a historian at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), Delhi. She works at the cusp of political philosophy, philosophies of time, conceptual histories, and aesthetic theory. Her books include The Politics of Time: "Primitives" and History-Writing in a...
Lawrence A. Kimpton Distinguished Service Professor of History, South Asian Languages and Civilizations, and the College
University of Chicago
Dipesh Chakrabarty’s research interests are in modern South Asian history and historiography, in postcolonial theory and its impact on history-writing, and in comparative studies of questions and politics of modernity.
He is a founding member of the editorial collective of...
Professor of Politics and Director of the Centre for Postcolonial Studies
Goldsmiths, University of London
Sanjay Seth is Professor of Politics and Director of the Centre for Postcolonial Studies at Goldsmiths, University of London. He has written extensively on postcolonial theory, social and political theory, and modern Indian history, including Beyond Reason: Postcolonial Theory and the Social...
Mary R. Morton Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science and the College; Co-director, Chicago Center for Contemporary Theory; Associate Faculty in Anthropology
University of Chicago
Lisa Wedeen is the author of three books: Ambiguities of Domination: Politics, Rhetoric, and Symbols in Contemporary Syria (1999; with a new preface, 2015); Peripheral Visions: Publics, Power, and Performance in Yemen (2008); and Authoritarian Apprehensions: Ideology,...
Carousel with 3 slides shown at a time. Use the Previous and Next buttons to navigate, or the slide dot buttons at the end to jump to slides.
This event featured a staged reading of a new play by Mohammad Al Attar, directed by Gabrielle Randle-Bent, followed by a Q&A and reception.
Al Attar discussed his artistic work and reflected on the Syrian past and future.
Participants at this two-day workshop presented and discussed contributions to the forthcoming Oxford Handbook of Cosmopolitanism.
Carousel with 3 slides shown at a time. Use the Previous and Next buttons to navigate, or the slide dot buttons at the end to jump to slides.
This event featured a staged reading of a new play by Mohammad Al Attar, directed by Gabrielle Randle-Bent, followed by a Q&A and reception.
Carousel with 3 slides shown at a time. Use the Previous and Next buttons to navigate, or the slide dot buttons at the end to jump to slides.
Al Attar discussed his artistic work and reflected on the Syrian past and future.
Carousel with 3 slides shown at a time. Use the Previous and Next buttons to navigate, or the slide dot buttons at the end to jump to slides.
Participants at this two-day workshop presented and discussed contributions to the forthcoming Oxford Handbook of Cosmopolitanism.
