The Society of Fellows hosts the Thursday Lecture Series (TLS), which runs regularly throughout the academic year. The Fall Semester TLS, our Fellows present their own work, chaired by Columbia faculty.

"Contestations of Salience and the Theory of Everyday Political Conflict"

Lecture by Ege Yumusak
Chaired by David C. Johnston

Conflicts abound in ordinary life. Some conflicts are easy to dissipate, while others require more work to overcome. This talk dispels a common misconception about everyday political conflicts: that political conflict is intractable to the extent to which the opposing sides are entrenched in their positions. This misconception is often rooted in seeing conflict as either a disagreement over facts or a coordination problem arising from divergent interests. Call this assumption the conflict binary. Drawing on negotiation theory and recent work in epistemology, this talk casts doubt on the implicit but widespread endorsements of the conflict binary around us and introduces new epistemological tools to analyze everyday political conflict. It focuses, in particular, on contestations over what’s salient as a kind of conflict that eclipses the conflict binary.

This event also will be recorded. By being electronically present, you consent to the SOF/Heyman using such video for promotional purposes.

Please email [email protected] to request disability accommodations. Advance notice is necessary to arrange for some accessibility needs.

Image credits and source: Untitled, 1945 © 2022 Hannah Höch / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Germanyhttps://www.moma.org/collection/works/33012?artist_id=2675&page=1&sov_referrer=artist