Conference: “THE ARTS IN THE POST-MODERN ACADEMY AND SOCIETY”

SCHOOL OF ARTS,

UNIVERSITY OF GHANA

Call for Abstracts

SCHOOL OF ARTS CONFERENCE 2017

“THE ARTS IN THE POST-MODERN ACADEMY AND SOCIETY”

University of Ghana, May 3-4, 2017

Background:

The narrow emphasis of modern thought on the scientific method in academic inquiry as that which is quantitative and generating rationally quantifiable data and results, has always been philosophically debated in the academy. The consequence of this narrow definition of academic enquiry is the questioning of the scientific nature of the arts and the trivialization of its place within the walls of the modern academy and its relevance for the modern society on its forward match to ‘progress’. This is because values, belief systems and the meanings and explanations that societies and peoples give to existential situations tend to be trivialized within modern intelligibility. This, indeed, also has implications for the funding of research and study of the arts, especially in the public university, where the use of state funds are contingent on economic cost-benefit analyses which require the direct fiscal benefits of research and its policy implications for quantitative model of development. The challenges that this emphasis on scientific rationality posed to the arts, if they would be regarded as science or scientific enough and correspondingly justify their place in the modern academy, are the re-casting of research and study of the disciplines in the arts in the scientific mode, with an emphasis on the quantitative method. The post-modern turn in contemporary academy and society has evoked a new culture of thought and a return to the place of values, meanings and cultural symbols in our understanding of reality, the place of humans in the world and the kind of future and society we want. This turn questions the all-encompassing nature of the modernist ethic and the culture of rationality, verification and falsification as enduring hallmarks of knowledge production and determination of truth (science).

With an emphasis on unpacking and interrogating the concept of “postmodernity” and/or the “post-modern turn” and its implication for research and study of the arts, we welcome abstracts that explore the main theme of the conference in relation to one or more of the following sub-themes:

• The arts as science: meanings, debates and implications.
• The arts, truth and falsifiability.
• Whither the values and priorities of the post-modern university and society.
• Positioning the arts in the post-modern academy.
• Qualitative research, the post-modern academy and development.
• The arts as the philosophical foundation for scientific research.
• The foundational nature of the arts in the post-modern academy and society.
• Beliefs, traditions and norms in the post-modern academic research and society.
• The arts, values and the post-modern academy.
• Archaeological research and scientific enquiry.
• Indigenous knowledge, value research and development

For more information, see the full Call for Papers.