Engaging the present

For the second day of our kick off meeting, we are planning a day of discussion around the momentous world events that are defining our contemporary period and our role as academics in light of these events. The day as a whole will be organised around the theme of 'The Role of Universities in a 'Post-Truth' World' and will be divided into two main sessions:

09:30–11:00 Post-Truth, Fake News, and Democracy
This session will look at the dangers of 'post-truth' and 'fake news' and examine how we, as academics, can contribute to effective politics by engaging in public debates. It will be a general session outlining the issues at hand and thinking through the possibilities for critical engagement in the service of democracy and democratic knowledge and the possible challenges to doing this.

Concurrent truths about Islam, and how to tackle them academically – Jonas Svensson
The Autumn of the Public Intellectual: The concurrent worlds of media and Academia in Sweden 2016 – Stefan Amirell

11:00–11:30 Coffee

11:30–13:00 On the Implications for Academic Work
This session will focus specifically on how we, as academics, are able to argue against the mobilization of lies and untruths. We could look at issues of methods, rigour, critical engagement, evidence, what counts as facts, what counts as claims, the role of emotions / narratives. Etc. What are the issues that we need to address in terms of our own 'tools', that is, methods, that are called into question by the current politics.

Dealing with internet racism during courtroom studies: Methodological challenges to doing research in court cases attracting attention from both traditional and social media – Torun Elsrud
On the necessity of evidence-based argumentation – Gurminder K Bhambra

13:00–14:00 Lunch

14:00-15:00 Summary and ways forward