The Future of Objectivity

Notice of a conference at the University of Toronto: Reclaiming the World: The Future of Objectivity.

If you're interested in what people are talking about when they're talking about reclaimig the world and the future of objectivity -- as in, how does one do that exactly? -- you can find the abstracts for the papers here.

The full program is available here.

Here is the overview of the conference itself:

The notion of objectivity has come under severe criticism due to developments in the humanities and in the sciences. These criticisms have profound ramifications for how we understand the world, and for how we understand the nature of our own intellectual work.

How do we move forward? Should we give up looking for understandings of the world that are dispassionate, a-political, and/or neutral? Or is there some other way of achieving detachment and dispassion, for example, that avoids problems inherent in our classical understanding of objectivity? If neither, what should inspire confidence in our accounts of the world?

This interdisciplinary conference will explore the prospects of forging a new and tenable epistemology--one that does justice to the critiques of objectivity, but retains allegiance and accountability to a larger world.

We are pleased to announce that, in conjunction with our co-sponsor the Ontario College of Art and Design, the conference will include a symposium on performance, a related gallery tour, and several international artists.

And here are the big-name speakers, a roster with some real heavyweights (though no Galison or Daston):

KEYNOTE: Bruno Latour

Plenary Speakers:

Karen Barad (UC Santa Cruz)
Rebecca Kukla (USF)
Mark Lance (Georgetown)
Geoffrey Nunberg (UC Berkeley)
Joseph Rouse (Wesleyan University)
Lucy Suchman (Lancaster University)
Brian Cantwell Smith (University of Toronto)