Hannah Arendt Days: The relevance of Hannah Arendt’s thought today

On December 4, 1975, sixty-nine-year-old Hannah Arendt, today one of the most famous and cited political thinkers of the twentieth century, died in her apartment at 370 Riverside Drive in New York. Her writing and unique life story became a source of inspiration for many subsequent generations, as well as many political and philosophical controversies. A sheet of paper with the opening page of the book The Life of the Mind remained in her typewriter, which she unfortunately was unable to finish, just as she never finished her planned book on politics, although this was one of the main themes of her texts. But works such as The Origins of Totalitarianism, Eichmann in Jerusalem, Vita activa or The Human Condition, Lying and Politics, Between Past and Future, and many others, have become indispensable references for critical political thinking and grappling with issues of the Western philosophical and political tradition, the nature of politics and modern governments, human rights, the state and sovereignty, as well as racism, anti-Semitism, imperialism and their consequences.

On the anniversary of Hannah Arendt’s death, we are organizing a conference with which we want to pay tribute to her work and reflect on the relevance of her thought in the 21st century. We invite experts in her work from Germany, Spain, the USA and Slovenia to the conference. The topic of the conference is the relevance of Hannah Arendt’s thought today. We want to discuss questions such as what in her work represents key points for critical political thinking today, which topics are still relevant for us, what it means to “think politically” today, how our circumstances are different from her time, and the like.

Papergivers

Wolfgang Heuer, Docent at the Otto-Suhr-Institute for Political Science, Free University of Berlin and publisher and editor of HannahArendt.net, Journal for Political Thinking, author and editor of numerous books on Hannah Arendt.

Maike Weißpflug is a political theorist who, in her articles and books, engages with Hannah Arendt, societal relations to nature, and the question of how science, politics, culture, and society can better collaborate for a more worthwhile future.

Cristina Sánchez Muñoz, Professor of Philosophy of Law at the Autonomous University of Madrid, co-president of the IAPh, the International Association of Women Philosophers, author of two books and numerous articles on Hannah Arendt, juror of the Hannah Arendt Award for Political Thinking.

Joris Roelofs, musician, composer and clarinetist, head of the clarinet (jazz) department at the Amsterdam Conservatory. He teaches music and philosophy and in his work deals with the political dimension of improvisation, including Hannah Arendt.

Daša Duhaček, Professor of Philosophy at the political science department of Belgrade University, a co-founder of the Belgrade Women’s Studies Center and Gender Research Center, has published books and articles on the l egacy of Hannah Arendt and responsibility judgment in her work.

Vlasta Jalušič, scientific advisor at the Peace Institute and professor of sociology at the Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana, author and editor of books and articles on Hannah Arendt and editor and translator of her works into Slovenian. Corresponding editor of Hannah Arendt net.

Gorazd Kovačič, assistant professor at the Faculty of Arts, Ljubljana, author of a book on the concept of society and social in Hannah Arendt and articles on Hannah Arendt.

Mirt Komel, associate professor of philosophy at the Faculty of Social Sciences and writer, translator and expert on Hannah Arendt, author of several texts on Arendt.

The conference will also be accompanied by addtitional cultural program and sale of Slovenian books by and about Arendt.

Organizers: Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana, Goethe Institute, Peace Institute, Cankar Cultural and Congress Centre, Ljubljana