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Conflicts are as ubiquitous as they are timeless phenomena in human history. From the ancient wars of the Trojans, Spartans and Persians, to the Crusades of the Middle Ages, the colonial conquests of the European "explorers" and great revolutions under the banner of liberty and fraternity, to the devastating ideological-political and ethno-territorial clashes of the present day: conflicts, to paraphrase a statement by Ernest Gellner, seem to belong to man like his nose and ears.
They are to be found not only at the international or domestic, but also at the social, family and interpersonal level. Interestingly enough, major international conflicts are often based on the same psychological mechanisms as e.g. family feuds. That is to say, racist or stereotypical devaluation of individuals or groups (dehumanization, othering etc.) play just as much a role for human interaction and thought on any social level as does the conviction of the rightness of one's own view of the world (naive realism, self-whitewashing) and that of one's own group - whether that is one's own family, peer group or nation.
It is these mechanisms that help us understand how ethno-nationalist wars, such as the one waged by Wladimir Putin, are justified to the ingroup, why right-wing populists such as Donald Trump or Marine Le Pen can inspire masses with their powerful narratives and enemy images, or why intractable conflicts such as the one between Israel and Palestine last for decades and are resitant to any form of resolution.
In analysing central concepts such as cognitive-emotional bias, identity, racism, sexism, gender, militarism, discourses and stereotypes, we want to develop a basic understanding of intergroup conflict dynamics. This includes reflecting on the impact of these concepts on our own thought before applying them to selected conflicts around us.
If you join this seminar, you are expected to thoroughly prepare readings, tasks and assignments for every session, and actively participate in self-reflecting group experiments, such as putting yourself into the shoes of a right-wing politician, a white supremacist, or feminist activist (role switch).
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