CFP: The People and its Enemies: Classical and Contemporary Perspectives on the Logics of Exclusion

Today’s political world is increasingly defined by polarization, antagonism, and populist rhetoric, targeting the values of liberal democracy. In that regard, who are included and excluded by the “the people” is a capital question for democracy which, by definition, indicates political power vested in the people, the very concept stemming from the Greek terms of demos and kratos. Nevertheless, interpreting the concept of the enemy in philosophical and political thought is not such a straightforward task.

Albeit in a different sense, from considering the enemy, one can arrive at the concept of otherness, both working as mirrors through which identities, political and otherwise, are constructed. As a concept, the enemy does not solely refer to dynamics of inclusion and exclusion in a political community, but also to the relationship that exists between the members of said polity, often embedded in antagonism. It provides a particular understanding of politics that considers hostility as a fundamental occurrence.

The ever-rising polarization in almost every societal sphere, including academia, is at its very core political. In this conference, we suggest that looking back at antiquity might open useful perspectives for analyzing and facing such challenges. We are interested in investigating how ancient debates can help us understand logics of inclusion and exclusion, in history and today. We invite contributions on:

· Ancient philosophy, rhetoric, history, and literature (broadly construed)

· Present-day oriented approaches stemming, for instance, from the fields of philosophy or political sciences

· Scholarship that applies concepts, theories, or topics from antiquity to current concerns, or explores the contemporary relevance of classical texts

Kindly submit proposals (up to 150-word abstracts and contact details) before Friday, 19 September 2025, both to Malin Grahn-Wilder (malin.gw.grahn-wilder(a)jyu.fi) and Tomás Pacheco-Bethencourt (tpbethencourt(a)uma.es).

This in-person event will be held at the University of Málaga, Spain.

Keynote speakers:

Prof. Andreas Føllesdal (University of Oslo)

Docent Antti Lampinen (Turku Institute for Advanced Studies, University of Turku)

Organisers::Research Project Origins of Racializing Thought (funded by the Kone Foundation), University of Jyväskylä; Area of Moral and Political Philosophy, University of Málaga

Convenors: Malin Grahn-Wilder (University of Jyväskylä) and Tomás Pacheco-Bethencourt (University of Málaga)