DemCP colloquium - PABLO VALDIVIA & FLORIAN LIPPERT: "Constructions of Cultural Normalcy in Times of Crisis"

In our presentations, we will discuss the status of two case studies relating to the framework of cultural normalcy construction in crisis contexts. Dr Florian Lippert will present a work-in-progress project on the notorious notion of a “European Way of Life” as a concept of cultural exclusion in contemporary discourses on migration. His project explores how this concept evolved in political rhetorics about migration in the past decade, and how this development correlates with other recent culture-related shifts, such as the ‘culturalization of citizenship’ at national levels or the backlash against ‘cultural change’. Professor Pablo Valdivia will present a work-in-progress project on scientific challenges for developing an AI system for automatically detecting metaphor in natural language processing and how metaphoricity informs and orientates decision-making and behavior. Valdivia will pay special attention to the metaphorical enactment of the notions of crisis, war and enemy within the context of cultural narratives about migration and Covid-19.

About the speakers

Professor Pablo Valdivia is Full Professor and Chair of European Culture and Literature (University of Groningen), Associate in Applied Physics at the Harvard Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (Harvard University), Fellow in University Innovation (Laspau-affiliated with Harvard University), Academic Director of the Netherlands Research School for Literary Studies (OSL), Expert Scientific Advisor of the Netherlands Institute of Advanced Studies in Social Sciences and Humanities and the Netherlands Royal Academy of Arts and Sciences (NIAS-KNAW) and Pablo Valdivia Chair in Communication, Humanities and Technology (UFRO-UACH). His research deals primarily with the "Humanities", "Reading Science", "Cultural Analytics" and "Technology", and the notions of "Culture, Literature and Crisis" from an interdisciplinary transnational perspective. He is an expert on "Cultural Narratives" and "Conceptual Metaphors". He carries out multidisciplinary research with special emphasis in the fields of Cultural Analytics, Artificial Intelligence, Reading Science, University Innovation, Data Science, Applied Physics, Social Sciences and Cognitive Sciences.

Dr Florian Lippert is Associate Professor for European Culture and Literature at the University of Groningen, Expert Evaluator for the European Commission, and currently a member of the H2020 Europe for Citizens Project rEUnify: A comparative study of national perceptions regarding German reunification. Lippert is the author of Selbstreferenz in Literatur und Wissenschaft. Kronauer, Grünbein, Maturana, Luhmann (Fink, 2013), editor of Self-Reflection in Literature (Brill/Rodopi 2020, with M. Schmid) and has recently co-edited the Special Issue “European Crises” (Journal of European Studies 49 (3-4), together with P. Valdivia, L. Rensmann, A. Godioli and V. Alexander). He has published on cultural theory, Discourse Theory, Social Systems Theory, the European "migrant crisis", digital communication, and modern and contemporary literature and film. Most recent: “La memeificación de la comunicación política en Twitter” (with T. Gaete and C. del Valle), in: Política y Sociedad, vol. 57, 2, 2020 (forthcoming), and “Public Self-reflection in the Context of the European Migrant Crisis: Towards a new transdisciplinary Model of Discourse Analysis in Politics, Media and the Arts”, in: Journal of European Studies, vol. 49, 3-4, 2019, 336–353. He had lecturer positions at King's College London, Sungshin University Seoul and the University of Fine Arts, Karlsruhe, and was guest lecturer at the German Department of Harvard University and at the Pontifica Universidad Católica del Perú.

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