Dr Nick Stevenson to Deliver Keynote Presentation on ‘Human Rights, Post-Capitalism and the Right to Be Human’ at the University of Huddersfield

Dr Nick Stevenson, Reader at the University of Nottingham, will headline the Keynote Speakers of the BSA Postgraduate Conference ‘Citizenship in the 21st Century: Sociological, Political and Cultural Perspectives’. This event will be held at the University of Huddersfield on 18 June 2014.

In his future presentation at Huddersfield, Dr Stevenson will present the paper ‘Human Rights, Post-Capitalism and the Right to Be Human‘, document that seeks to explore  different ideas of ‘humanity’ that can be found within discussions of human rights and arguments more recently suggested by alterglobalisation movements. Critical of notions of post-humanism, Dr Stevenson will argue in his intervention that a qualified ‘humanism’ still has a  purchase within contemporary debates. He will look at Kantian ideas of human rights and the idea of anti-politics that developed within the context of the European revolutions of 1989.

He will link in his presentation these ideas to more contemporary debates in respect of post-capitalism. Ideas of human dignity that were originally linked to notions of human rights have taken on a new meaning within these contexts. Resisting more abstract notions of ‘humanity’ Dr Stevenson will look at different ideas that can be drawn from social movements and other post-industrial writers all of whom have sought to outline the damage done to our shared ability to be ‘human’. Finally he will connect these questions to more recent debates in respect of the idea of the struggle for the idea of a global commons and the implicit critique of normative neoliberalism. He will explore the argument that ideas related to ‘humanity’ are being redefined in the context of political and cultural struggle.

Dr Darren Langdridge (The Open University) and Dr Chris Gifford (The University of Huddersfield) are the other confirmed Keynotes Speakers of this conference.

Registration costs £10 for BSA members and £25 for non-members and is handled by the BSA events team http://portal.britsoc.co.uk/public/event/eventBooking.aspx?id=EVT10340; early registration is advised as there are a very limited amount of places.

For all informal enquiries please contact: PGRNetwork@hud.ac.uk