Todorov, Tzvetan. La conquête de l'Amérique : la question de l'autre. Paris: Seuil, 1982. In this book, Tzvetan Todorov, renowned Franco-Bulgarian writer and director of research at the Centre National de Recherches (CNRS) in Paris, investigates the Spanish conquest of Central America (the Caribbean and Mexico) during the sixteenth century. His research topic is the... Continue Reading →
In Vienna I have been living in a student hall of residence for two years. Not all rooms are rented to students. Some are also rented to Iranian refugees of Armenian decent -- the most important Christian minority in Iran. The manager of the house is Armenian himself. But apparently there is no philanthropy there,... Continue Reading →
I am fairly new to the blogosphere, and I found a cool blog for academics, especially in the humanities, advising on the latest NICTs for educational purpose--academhack, which is listed in my blog links on the right navigation bar. There's a post about some interesting research tools. Among them, a link to "the state of... Continue Reading →
Senator Barck Obama was Thursday 24 July 2008 in Berlin where he delivered his much anticipated speech in front of a massive crowd. Of course the reference to "ich bin ein Berliner" was obvious and too easy to mention. He opened his speech toning down expectations, stating he was there as a simple US citizen, and a "citizen of the world." Rhetorically he is leaving it up to the media coverage to make the link: "ich bin ein Weltbürger." To my knowledge, this must be one of the very first time a politician declares so openly a cosmopolitan ideal to be his. There is certainly much to celebrate for a cosmopolitan in this speech, but I would like to present a few remarks as to the alleged cosmopolitan nature of his commitment.
Personally I do not understand at all where most of the people who write about Foucault or use Foucault in their studies (particularly in the fields of sociology and philosophy) get their interpretation of Foucault from. When I started to get interested in Foucault I had an odd reflex of getting my hand on secondary... Continue Reading →
I have now finished writing my thesis, which only needs a very last light-editing touch. As a teaser, I publish here the abstract: Cosmopolitanism is not a well-known entity in political theory. Therefore, a history of this political doctrine is needed. However, such epistemological enquiry faces an ontological conundrum. Not only is it difficult to... Continue Reading →
Frank Ejby Poulsen 