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Reframing the Relationship between War and Politics with 20th Century Women Thinkers.

Project description

Shining a light on 20th century women philosophers

In the realm of political thought, women’s voices have often been sidelined, overshadowed by male counterparts. Despite the ongoing rediscovery of women’s contributions across various fields, their presence remains notably sparse in the historical narrative of political philosophy. Politics, traditionally perceived as a male domain, has perpetuated this marginalisation. Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) programme, the POLEM-WO project aims to explore and elevate the contributions of women philosophers to twentieth-century political discourse. Through a blend of political theory, gender studies, and digital humanities, POLEM-WO seeks to unearth fresh perspectives on crucial concepts such as politics, war, and democracy. Its goal is to foster inclusivity and diversity within European intellectual history.

Objective

The aim of this project is to explore the contribution of women philosophers to twentieth-century political thought. While women’s work is currently being rediscovered in all fields of knowledge, they are still marginalized in the history of political thought, since politics has traditionally been considered a male domain. POLEM-WO: “Reframing the Relationship between War and Politics with 20th Century Women Thinkers” aims to fill this gap in European intellectual history by examining the relationship between war and politics – 'polemos' and 'polis' – in the work of major European thinkers, namely, Hannah Arendt, Simone Weil, María Zambrano, and Rachel Bespaloff. The project will draw on their writings on the most pressing issues of their time – the rise of totalitarianism, the role of Europe, Jewish identity, the reconstruction of a democratic future – to perform a critique of the traditional bond between politics and violence. The result will be an original examination of the European tradition with the aim of producing a renewed political lexicon – one based on hospitality, friendship, vulnerability, plurality, 'xenophilia' – as a conceptual resource for confronting a present challenged by war, the global shift to populist politics and the refugee’s crisis. Using the methods of political theory, gender studies, archival research, and digital humanities, POLEM-WO has a twofold objective: on the one hand, it will point out the gendered nature of traditional political notions, while enlarging the semantical spectrum of politics; on the other hand, it will produce a non-canonical understanding of key categories such as politics, war, peace, and democracy. The project will make its results available to scholars and the public, thus contributing to the strengthening of a diverse and inclusive imaginary within the framework of a shared European identity.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. This project's classification has been validated by the project's team.

Coordinator

ALMA MATER STUDIORUM - UNIVERSITA DI BOLOGNA
Net EU contribution
€ 265 099,20
Address
VIA ZAMBONI 33
40126 Bologna
Italy

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Region
Nord-Est Emilia-Romagna Bologna
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Links
Total cost
No data

Partners (1)