CFP: Forgiveness and Reconciliation

Forgiveness and reconciliation are two separate, yet intertwined
areas of study, analysis, teaching and practice. Each can be
developed alone, but each is more strongly engaged when applied
toward the other. Each is both a personal, and yet also a social,
process of reflection and action.

They have been, or can be, engaged on every level of human
experience. At the trans-national level, there are conflicts between
Israelis and Palestinians, Indians and Pakistanis, in southern Africa
or across the Balkans present ongoing challenges to those who seek to
make peace. Within nations, ongoing struggles between settlers and
Aboriginal peoples (see Australia, Canada, the United States, for
example), or between racial/ethnic and/or religious groups (see, for
example, northern Ireland, South Africa, Rwanda, Timor L’Este). All
provide challenges that may well be reconciled in the spirit of
mutual forgiveness. And, of course, interpersonal relations are often
fraught with the need for forgiveness and, if possible,
reconciliation in order to move forward.

And yet, questions remain. Can forgiveness be granted to those who
have committed terrorist acts? By whom? Upon whose authority? Can
there be reconciliation following mass murder? Is forgiveness
possible? As defined by whom? For whose benefit? Can true
reconciliation be accomplished? On whose terms?

Mahatma Gandhi said that ‘the weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is
an attribute of the strong.’ It is usually held that Forgiveness is a
process (or the result of a process) that involves a change in
emotion and attitude regarding an offender. Some scholars view this
as an intentional and voluntary process, driven by a deliberate
decision to forgive. The process results in decreased motivation to
retaliate or maintain estrangement from an offender despite his or
her actions, and requires a deliberate — or as Gandhi put it,
‘strong’ — letting go of negative emotions toward the offender.
Theorists differ in the extent to which they believe forgiveness also
implies replacing negative emotions with positive attitudes including
benevolence and compassion.

Reconciliation refers to the restoration of fractured relationships
by overcoming grief, pain and anger. This, too, is an attribute of
the strong. It is, as Karen Broenus has written “a societal process
that involves mutual acknowledgment of past suffering and the
changing of destructive attitudes and behaviour into constructive
relationships toward sustainable peace.” The path toward
reconciliation is a lifelong journey going in two directions: inward,
towards discovering and forgiving one’s self, and outwards, toward
recognizing and, hopefully, forgiving others. It is both an
intrapersonal and an interpersonal exercise, each advancing the more
deeply a person discovers the reconciliation possible both within and
without.

Forgiveness may be necessarily a key to post-traumatic
reconciliation: between friends, family members, spouses, neighbors,
races, cultures, nations, etc. More complete reconciliation means
that we engage co-participants honestly and respectfully in the
construction of a newer world through meaningful and faithful
relationships.

This interdisciplinary conference project seeks to investigate and
explore the nature, significance, and practices of forgiveness, and
where applicable, related ideas of reconciliation. Forgiveness and/or
reconciliation raise a variety of questions that touch on a vast
array of academic disciplines — peace and conflict resolution, social
work, anthropology, psychoanalysis, literature, history, philosophy,
psychology, political economy, etc. In cases of significant
transgressions, social tensions, and even international conflicts
there are questions of what counts as forgiveness and how it moves
from the level of individual to community, national and/or
international relationships. This conference will examine full range
of this complexity. To encourage innovative trans-disciplinary
dialogues, we welcome papers from all disciplines, professions, and
vocations. We also invite submissions from people involved in
non-governmental organizations (NGOs) who have been involved with
truth and reconciliation initiatives, forgiveness and peace, hostage
situations and other instances of trauma and abuse. We also seek
participation from people representing civil service/governmental
agencies, legal professionals and people involved with diplomacy.

Proposals, presentations, papers, performances, reports and workshops
are invited on issues on or broadly related to any of the following
themes:

~ Theories of forgiveness/reconciliation and the inter-relationship
  among those concepts: contemporary, historical and cross-cultural
  analyses
~ Working conflict resolution models for issues in the workplace,
  family counselling contexts, bullying, geopolitical disputes, law
  enforcement and criminal courts (such as Victim-Offender
  Reconciliation Programmes, occupational therapy, etc.)
~ Rituals of forgiving and receiving forgiveness/reconciling across
  time and cultures
~ Physiological and scientific research around cognitive processes
  that may facilitate/negate the impulse to forgive

Or any of the following:

1) Questions of Definition
– What is forgiveness? What is reconciliation?
– Are all definitions of forgiveness/reconciliation culturally
  relative? When or – how is it possible to speak of them in universal
  terms?
– Who can grant forgiveness? Can there be meaningful third party
  forgiveness?
– Who benefits from forgiveness and how?
– Can forgiveness be required of someone? Can it ever be wrong to
  offer forgiveness?
– Can we forgive an ongoing evil?

2) Psychological Perspectives
– The emotional effect of victimization and the role forgiveness can
  play in either exacerbating or mitigating such feelings
– The nature of self-forgiveness
– Barriers to people’s ability to forgive transgressors
– How a willingness (or unwillingness) to forgive can be a measure of
  self-worth or self-respect
– What happens after the forgiveness is granted?

3) Legal and Political Perspectives
– Forgiveness for past crimes of individuals — rehabilitation, second
  chances, and pardons
– How forgiveness can play a role in criminal legal proceedings
– Is there is Marxist notion of Forgiveness? Of Reconciliation?
– Forgiveness as a part of social reconstruction following civil wars
  or systematic social injustices
– How forgiveness can be required or granted in relationships between
  nations
– Seeking forgiveness on behalf of others: righting historic wrongs
– Difficulties connected with political forgiveness: collectiveness,
  performative meaning of forgiveness declarations, etc.

4) Social, Cultural and Literary Perspectives
– The roles forgiveness plays in different cultures
– Differences in perceptions of the importance of forgiveness and/or
  reconciliation in different societies
– Forgiveness ceremonies as important cultural practices
– How questions of forgiveness and/or reconciliation are used in
  literature
– Forgiveness in cinema, film, TV, radio and theatre
– The role of the arts as catalyst or hindrance for actual cases of
  forgiveness and/or reconciliation
– Forgiveness and/or reconciliation and media

5) Religion and Forgiveness
– Distinctions between secular and religious notions of forgiveness
– The roles of forgiveness and/or reconciliation in religious
  practices
– How religious beliefs can promote or hinder forgiveness
– Rituals of forgiveness and their importance

6) Issues, Connections and Relations
– The relationship between forgiveness and reconciliation
– The relationship between forgiveness and compassion, mercy or pity
– The relationship between forgiveness, reconciliation and restitution
– The relationship between forgiveness and personal growth

The Steering Group welcomes the submission of proposals for short
workshops, practitioner-based activities, best practice showcases,
how-to sessions, live demonstrations, performances, and pre-formed
panels. We particularly welcome short film screenings; photographic
essays; installations; interactive talks and alternative presentation
styles that encourage engagement.

What to Send:
300 word proposals should be submitted by Friday 30th January 2015.
All submissions are at least double blind peer reviewed. Proposals
should be submitted simultaneously to the Organising Chairs;
abstracts may be in Word or RTF formats with the following
information and in this order:

a) author(s), b) affiliation as you would like it to appear in
programme, c) email address, d) title of proposal, e) body of
proposal, f) up to 10 keywords. E-mails should be entitled: FOR8
Proposal Submission.

All abstracts will be at least double blind peer reviewed. Please use
plain text (Times Roman 12) and abstain from using footnotes and any
special formatting, characters or emphasis (such as bold, italics or
underline). We acknowledge receipt and answer to all proposals
submitted. If you do not receive a reply from us in a week you should
assume we did not receive your proposal; it might be lost in
cyberspace! We suggest, then, to look for an alternative electronic
route or resend.

Joint Organising Chairs:
John Hochheimer: [email protected]
Rob Fisher: [email protected]

The conference is part of the Probing the Boundaries programme of
research projects. It aims to bring together people from different
areas and interests to share ideas and explore various discussions
which are innovative and exciting. All proposals accepted for and
presented at the conference must be in English and will be eligible
for publication in an ISBN eBook. Selected proposals may be developed
for publication in a themed hard copy volume(s). All publications
from the conference will require editors, to be chosen from
interested delegates from the conference.

Inter-Disciplinary.Net believes it is a mark of personal courtesy and
professional respect to your colleagues that all delegates should
attend for the full duration of the meeting. If you are unable to
make this commitment, please do not submit an abstract for
presentation.

For further details of the conference, please visit:
http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/probing-the-boundaries/persons/forgiveness/call-for-papers/