DUO IV

The focus of "Dialogue Under Occupation" is the ongoing exploration of dialogue and discourse in areas of the world experiencing occupation.

What is Dialogue?  What is Occupation?

Dialogue is presented as a complex concept, requiring 1) the participants; 2) the conditions for dialogue to commence; 3) the goal(s) of the dialogue—pre-established or arrived at through the dialogue itself. First, a minimum of two parties (i.e., individuals or groups of individuals representing a side or perspective) must be present. Second, conditions may include preconditions necessary to bring the parties together, procedures for engaging in dialogue, and a certain degree of mutual respect, without which the dialogue could not proceed and will not lead to any resolutions. Lastly, the dialogue itself must have a purpose—a common, achievable goal that participants can agree upon despite their differing perspectives. Purposeful dialogue has the potential to lead to an outcome that recognizes and respects the needs of the various participants while emerging with an agreement which all parties can abide.

Occupation, however, is a complicating factor which creates a power differential between participants: the occupied and the occupiers. If dialogue under occupation is to be successful, then, the conditions must include 1) the realization that the power differential exists; and 2) the willingness of the powerful to concede their preconceived, often hegemonic, notions of their position. It must also be understood by all parties that engaging in dialogue under occupation does not mean that the less powerful or powerless are accepting the occupation in any form, but that they are willing to confront their occupiers in an effort to be recognized as having equal human rights, including the ability to make autonomous decisions about how they should live and pursue their own definition of happiness.

Final Program for DUO IV (June 1-3, 2010)

Scholars and professionals from various disciplines are invited to submit proposals that address the creation, maintenance, resistance, and resolution or occupation; the agreement to participate indicates willingness not only to present, but also to engage in debate and discussion actively. Work relating to hegemony, power, agency, identity, among others, will be particularly relevant. Conference themes include the following strands:

Enactment: The domains wherein the politics and policies of occupation are enacted, realized through institutions attributed with and exercising power over other institutions and the public (e.g., governments, religious organizations, education departments and agencies).

Transaction: The domains wherein information about policies is transacted—disseminated, endorsed, challenged—in an effort to inform (or misinform) the occupied and the occupiers (e.g., media sources, schools, churches).

Reaction: The domains wherein daily life under occupation occurs (e.g., the community, the workplace), loci where positioning of the “self” vs. the “other”—ingroup, outgroup, and/or intergroup status—transpires, and where historical narratives of occupation are revisited.

Resolution: The locus of peacemakers and peacekeepers, those who would peaceably resist occupation and find ways to resolve conflict, as well as those who advocate resignation, acceptance, and coexistence.