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DANISH SOCIOLOGISTS' CONGRESS 2012: TROUBLED IDENTITIES

CESAU is busy organising Danish Sociologists' Congress 2012, which takes place on January 19-20, 2012. The overall theme of the congress is Troubled Identities – a theme that marks the challenges facing the postmodern subject in connection with identity work. The loss of a stable reference point for creating identity, as well as the appearance on stage of a multitude of new possibilities of identification, leave the individual to continuously deal with and "live up to" the – often contradictory – social and symbolic expectations confronting it. A troubled identity thus arises at the moment in which the individual is no longer able to identify, accommodate, or integrate the normative perspectives of modern society. A current example might be the attempts of the modern career woman to combine a potentially stressful work life with personal and social expectations of motherhood and family life.
We anticipate being able to present a strong field og international as well as Danish researchers. So far, the following keynotes have been confirmed:

• Elisabeth Beck Gernsheim, Dr., Professorin für Soziologie, Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg

• Banu Bargu, Assistant Professor at Department of Political Science, The New School

• Per Mouritzen, professor, Department of Political Science, Aarhus University

• Laura Gilliam, Assistant professor, Department of Education, DPU, Aarhus University

• Renata Salecl, Senior Researcher, Institute of Criminology, University of Ljubljana.

The workshops of the conference will follow two tracks. Some workshops will be organised according to the theme of the conference, while others will cover classical sociological themes. A number of workshops will be held in English, in order to both integrate guest lecturers more strongly into the conference and open up the congress to participants from the neighbouring countries.
All participants are allowed to organise workshops in which the topic may either relate to the theme of the conference or deal with an independently chosen sociological topic. We encourage all those wishing to lead a workshop to contact Kristoffer Stegeager (kristoffer@cesau.au.dk) before September 1, 2011.
At the home page of the conference, profiles of keynote speakers may be found along with information about workshops, practical questions concerning registration, and with many other things.

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CONFERENCE: THE POLITICS OF NATURE – BRUNO LATOUR AND THE ROLE OF NATURE IN POLITICS

On May 6, CESAU will be hosting a conference about Bruno Latour and "the politics of nature". Researchers from Aarhus University will present their takes on Latours approach to environmental politics and to how much progress we have really made in our understanding of the political implications of our relation to nature. The conference presents talks by and discussion with the following four researchers:

• Kristian Hvidtfelt Nielsen (IVS): We have never been political!

  - on Bruno Latour, nonmodernity and political philosophy

• Lars Kjerulf Petersen (DMU): Ecological footprints in European media

• Henning Høgh-Laursen (IFI): Who speaks for the "innumerable masses"?

• - on Latour, Pickering and global warming

• Peter Danholt (IMV): – The politics of nature – whose politics and which nature?

  - on Latour's ’impossible’ programme and its space of possibilities

The conference takes place on Friday, May 6, 2011, at 11-16, Studenternes Hus, Meeting room 2. Participation is free and everybody is welcome.

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PH.D. COURSE IN SOCIOLOGICAL STRATEGIES OF ANALYSIS

In the fall of 2011, CESAU will, once again be offering the Ph.D. course: "Sociological Strategies of Analysis". The course consists of ten days of class with introductions to classical and modern sociological thinkers, guest lectures by AU researchers who make use of sociology in their research, and a Ph.D. workshop with project presentations by participants. This time the course takes place in Emdrup in October and November. For registration or further information, contact Søren Christensen. DPU, socr@dpu.dk or Henrik Jøker Bjerre, IFI, filhjb@hum.au.dk.

TALK BY RICHARD JENKINS MAY 24

Professor of sociology at the University of Sheffield, Richard Jenkins will be visiting Aarhus University May 24 with the lecture: 'Believing, belonging, or what?: religion and secularisation in Denmark'. Religion in the Nordic lands has achieved a significant position in the sociological debate about secularisation, with the development of concepts such as 'belonging without believing' and 'vicarious religion'. Using data from Jenkins own field research in Denmark, supplemented by survey material, he will critique these concepts and propose a new way of looking at the issues. The lecture takes place May 24, 15.00-17.00. Location will be announced later on CESAU's website.

VOLUME ONE OF CESAU'S NEW BOOK SERIES:
WE MAY LEARN FROM THE CARTOON CRISIS

On April 5, CESAU inaugurated the book series Sociologiske Studier (sociological studies) with wine, peanuts, and presentations by authors and editors of the three new books that initiate the series. Carsten Stage's Tegningekrisen - som mediebegivenhed og danskhedskamp (The cartoon crisis - as media event and struggle for "Danishness") is the first volume of the series. CESAU have had a talk with the author about the cartoon crisis, Danish identity, and chaos-generating visual communication. And, last but not least, about which experiences we may take with us after the cartoon crisis.

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REMEMBER: TALK BY MITCHELL DEAN ON MAY 9

A reminder that Mitchell Dean, professor of sociology at University of Newcastle will be visiting AU on May 9 and giving the talk: ”Civil Society and the genealogy of the social”. In his production, Mitchell Dean has primarily been concerned with political and historical sociology, social and political thought, and the governing methods of liberal democracies. In his talk, Dean will expound Michel Foucault's concept of governmentality, hereafter discussing the significance and necessity of the social in liberal democracies.

• Read more about the talk here.

CESAU PRESENTATIONS NOW AS PODCASTS

We have recently published a number of podcasts from various events in connection with CESAU. Therefore, it is now possible to listen to presentations from the Sandbjerg seminar held on February 24-25, 2011. Among other things, listen to Gorm Harste's tour-de-force through system theory and Egon Noe's presentation on structural linkage in agricultural systems . Other available Sandbjerg presentations are Anne Jensen's introduction to the session on materiality in sociology as well as Signe Svalgaard Nielsen's presentation on the choreography of the olive tree, based on a case study of olive trees and humans in a Spanish village. Finally, it is now possible to podcast both audio and video from the CESAU mini conference "Food production and food consumption - disconnection and reconnections", held on March 31, 2011. See more here.

Also remember that it is possible to subscribe to news from the CESAU blog via RSS – use the link http://blog.cesau.au.dk/?feed=rss2

A BRIEF LOOK AT THE RESEARCH GROUP: ”RET, RELIGION OG STATENS SOCIOLOGI”

"My affiliation with the research group gives me three things, quite concretely. Firstly, it provides me with an exciting and different break from teaching. Another, and more important, thing is that in the discussions in the research group, I am given an array of different and new perspectives concerning this area of interest. This provides a very good collection of examples, arguments, and ideas that I can bring with me into teaching. Thirdly, the group also participates in providing a network which, over time, will be useful in various connections".

This month, we take a look at the research group: ”Ret, religion og statens sociologi” (Law, religion, and the sociology of state). The above is an excerpt from CESAU's interview with group coordinator Henrik Reintoft Christensen. Take a brief look at the work of the group and the opportunities it opens up here.

CESAU’S STUDENT GROUP
NEW STUDY CIRCLE AND SOCIOLOGICAL EXCURSION

The student group is currently busy putting together a syllabus and finding guest lecturers for a study circle which is expected to open in early September. The study circle is open for everyone interested, and it will concentrate around the reading of (excerpts from) a number of main sociological works . If you are interested in participating, or if you have questions or suggestions concerning literature, you are very welcome to contact student worker Birgitte Gade: bg@cesau.au.dk. Furthermore, the student group is working on organising a sociology excursion to Gellerup. The excursion is expected to take place in late September. More information will follow.

CESAU’S WEBSITE

In this newsletter and the following, we will briefly mention some of the opportunities afforded by CESAU's website. This time, we will focus on CESAU's calendars. CESAU has several different calendars, which have just been updated with a large number of relevant events. Firstly, CESAU has a calendar showing all the coming events of the centre. These events also form part of a larger and expanded calendar, where significant Danish and international events are included.
If you are a Ph.D. student, you may benefit from using CESAU's Ph.D. calendar, which provides an overview of courses with sociological content in Denmark

• Ph.d calendar

CALENDAR