This conference examines the manifold and complex relations between Resonance and Power. For the purpose of this conference, we do not understand power as a force that is exercised by the powerful over the powerless. Rather, we seek to analyze ancient and modern societies and cultures by asking what different forms power takes and what the practices of power are.
Therefore, key questions of the conference are how power creates or thwarts resonance, and how power operates in and through resonant relations. Our basic assumption is that resonant power is neither sovereign nor disciplinary in the first place, but rather governmental and affective. The power of resonance works by endowing those who feel powerless with self-efficacy and by creating a sense of belonging among some people, but also by and through excluding others.
We seek to address the following questions:
- How does resonance among some people interact with the repulsion, exclusion, or oppression of others in ancient and modern societies?
- What are the interdependencies of resonance with gender, race, class, and other categories of difference?
- How are moments of collective resonance triggered in order to achieve certain political, economic, or other aims, e.g. create identification with a certain nation or religion, or enhance economic productivity?
- How do nationalism and racism––for instance the new politics of whiteness––operate through triggering resonant group experiences?
- How does power work in the resonance between ancient and modern cultures?
- How do ancient ritual practices (re)structure or orchestrate power by experiences of resonance?