Looking back on the Law's pluralities conference in Giessen
From 6 to 9 May the Law's pluralities conference was held at the Justus-Liebig-University in Giessen. Highly interdisciplinary in the areas of literature, art and law.
From 6 to 9 May the Law's pluralities conference was held at the Justus-Liebig-University in Giessen. Highly interdisciplinary in the areas of literature, art and law.
Frans Willem Korsten reports.
Successful LUCAS panel
At this conference, an entire LUCAS panel presented itself. It consisted of Thomas Bragdon,
Gerlov van Engelenhoven and
Tessa de Zeeuw, who organized their panel under the theme "the monstrosity of the law." All three conducted a beautiful presentation both in form and content. The panel impressed – it immediately inspired conversations and contacts, Gerlov and Thomas were asked to give a brief reflection at the end of the conference, and an important figure like Peter Goodrich spoke extensively with them during a long afternoon walk.
Leiden and Giessen
During the conference, Leiden and Giessen also agreed to a closer collaboration, so that conversations about literature and law can achieve a broader international framework.
Apart from all that, the conference provided some valuable lessons:
- It is a work more consistently with LUCAS panels at international conferences. During the conference, it became clear that the PhD students had practiced their presentation among each other and also changed their presentation content. This was one of the reasons their presentation was so strong (apart from good preparation of course).
- Panels usually consist of somewhat randomly selected people and you never no whether it will be a good panel or not. Now, the panel members were more in control, they had a strong formula and their individual talks resonated with one another, which led to high quality discussions afterwards.
- You can’t present much better as Leiden or LUCAS if the name of the institute is named three times in a row, each time very positively. You are not just thanked with "this was a fine Dutch panel,” but it also makes people curious to know what really goes on “over there.”
A Chance...
Giessen City is about five hours from Leiden (located slightly above Frankfurt), the Justus-Liebig-Universität has, after a nationwide competition, been selected for the second time in a row by the government to form a spearhead in the field of cultural studies. The university therefore has about 13 PhD positions, an international network for so-called ‘cotutelles‘ (where PhD programs are completed at two universities) and a very generous exchange program. The university is in need of international expansion and what Leiden is offering in the field of literature and art is in high demand. A chance.