36.3924, Confs: The Power and Norms of Critique (Germany)

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-36-3924. Mon Dec 22 2025. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 36.3924, Confs: The Power and Norms of Critique (Germany)

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Date: 19-Dec-2025
From: Isabel Mehl [isabel.mehl at fu-berlin.de]
Subject: The Power and Norms of Critique


The Power and Norms of Critique

Date: 11-Feb-2026 - 13-Feb-2026
Location: Berlin, Germany
Meeting URL:
https://www.normativitaet-kritik-wandel.de/Events/Tagung-2026/index.html

Linguistic Field(s): General Linguistics; Philosophy of Language;
Psycholinguistics; Semantics; Writing Systems

"The Power and Norms of Critique“, Uferstudios Berlin, 11–13 February
2026
International and interdisciplinary conference organized by the
Graduiertenkolleg „Normativity, Critique, Change“ in Berlin on
February 12th and 13th 2026 with an opening reception on February 11th
2026.
Critical impulses play a central role in the development of society
while they are tied, in their turn, to the normative frameworks
established within social contexts. In this respect, critique is
always in tension with prevailing norms; however, it may also depend
on normative foundations that can go beyond what is given in a
society. Against the background of this tension, the conference aims
to investigate the scope and the (normative) foundations of critique,
focusing on four contexts: firstly, the narrative foundations of
normative critique, secondly, the interpersonal forms of relationship
relevant to the realization of critique, thirdly, physicality and
materiality in the emergence of resistance and fourthly, the
positionality of critique.
Day One – 12 February 2026
Panel 1: Challenging Narratives
Narratives are the starting point for every form of change, at the
same time they provide an essential basis for maintaining normative
structures. An ever-increasing number of competing narratives are
complicating the understanding not only of the so-called present, but
also of the past(s) and possible futures. These sometimes challenging
(in the sense of contradictory) narratives of the world open up the
possibility as well as the necessity of rethinking one's own
narratives along with their underlying situatedness and mediality,
especially in mutual exchange. How are image and text constellated in
order to challenge narratives that affirm norms (canon critique,
colonialism, etc.)? The panel will focus on the plasticity of memory
and the access to images that constitute or question it.
Speakers: Andrea Geier, Martina Bengert, Judith-Frederike Popp
Panel 2: Relationalities
The panel has its focus on the in-between: on our orientations
towards/to/from others as well as the relations of care in which we
stand or want to stand in. How do artworks and technological
developments determine and change our view of care work? What role do
narratives representing alternative forms of relationships play in
changing our actual understanding of them (e. g., Sophie Lewis'
“Abolish the Family”)? How can relationships and orientations not only
be understood as objects of critique, but themselves become effective
as critique? To what extent can they be understood not only as guided
by normative structures, but also as a nucleus of their change or
suspension? How is the conflictual nature of care work to be
understood?
Speakers: Jordan Troeller, Liza Mattutat, Anna Lena Göttsche
Day Two – 13 February 2026
Panel 3: Movement & Resistance
The panel deals with the role concrete physicality plays in the
realization of critique, not least from the perspective of minoritized
bodies. How do more or less conditioned and abled bodies unite as a
movement? How can critique be understood as embodied between
collective action and resistance, rejection, passivity and depression?
Particularly with regard to an increasingly mediated, mirror-like form
of experiencing the self, the question of interruptions and withdrawal
takes on a new turn. What role do cultural narratives play in the
construction of norms and, in particular, fantasies of a healthy body?
In contrast, can a critique of this construction be produced by
adaptation or disruption?
Speakers: Quill Kukla, Priya S. Gupta, Filipa César
Panel 4: Critical Positioning
The panel brings into view strategies of positioning, as they are
located, for instance, in the way of writing, in the access to
canonical sources or in the deliberate staging of polyphony. Following
on from discourses on situatedness, identity politics and relevance in
the face of austerity measures, we will examine the position from
which knowledge emerges. How do these manoeuvres of positioning relate
to existing norms of expression in science and art and to what extent
can they be understood as critical? Do these strategies address a
different audience, and if so, do they reach it? What is the
relationship of these speaking positions to history, and how do they
locate themselves in the present?
Speakers: Ruth Sonderegger, Thomas Richard Hilder, Chris Tedjasukmana



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