The Doha Institute for Graduate Studies (DI), in co-operation with the Free University of Berlin, has held a three-day seminar titled ‘Critical Concepts in the Humanities and Social Sciences’.
The seminar, which concluded yesterday, brought together prominent social scientists from Germany and the Arab world.
In his welcoming speech, DI acting president and vice-president for Academic Affairs Dr Yasir Suleiman Malley said “the interdisciplinarity aspect of the social sciences and humanities uniquely allows for the study of everything related to human beings, society and their respective histories”.
The opening session chaired by Dr Abdelwahab El-Affendi, dean of the School of Social Sciences and Humanities at the DI, opened with a lecture on ‘Travelling Concepts: The Ethical Dimension of Scholarly Pursuits’ by Dr Islam Dayeh, professor of Arabic Studies at the Free University of Berlin.
In his lecture, Dr Dayeh discussed the significance of critical concepts in humanities and social sciences and proceeded to tackle some of the issues that frame and direct the intended approach – both theoretically and practically – such as the possibility of translating concepts through languages and disciplinary fields and counterbalancing between the international and local.
The second lecture was delivered by Dr Ayman El-Desouky, professor of Modern Arabic Literature and Comparative Literature at the DI.
In his paper, ‘The Afterlife of Concepts: Untranslatable or Philosophemes’, he discussed the importance of the critique of concepts not only when it comes to the social sciences and interdisciplinary studies, but also in terms of understanding the specificities of cultural, historical and social differences as phenomena resisting the systematic imposition of meanings.
The seminar in progress.
