"It is not because the Indo-Chinese discoved a culture of their own that they revolted. Quite simply this was because it became impossible to breathe, in more than one sense of the word". (Frantz Fanon, 'Black Skin White Masks').

The History of the concept of identity is marked by a fundamental tension: between the individual as subject, and the example of the group; between identity as an inherent or essential nature or specified as a ratified connection. The relation between identity and community, the relational qualities of each, and the content which they encompass has been subject to repeated reformulation throughout history. On the one hand, it has been argued that the subject itself has been constituted in a new way by concrete changes in the way in which we live: by modernism, capitalism, or new technologies. On the other, new examinations of history have drawn into question narratives regarding different nations, classes, genders and cultures.

The identity of individuals, and the aspects of their lives which are to be considered constitutive of that identity, is an issue which is central to a host of complex political and ethical issues. What does it mean to have an identity? To belong to a nation or a continent, to a race, gender or religion? And what is the connection of this belonging and our individual existence and consciousness? During an ongoing refugee crisis, rising nationalism and within an increasingly globalised world, how have the metaphysical and political boundaries of identity shifted?

Art and aesthetics share this tension.The place of the work of art and the individual artist within a genre or movement remains an open question - whether the author is dead - the work a manifestation of the group - whether the ideas behind the artwork are more important than the socio-economic foundation from which it arises. Corollary to this, discussions of art and the political have opened questions concerning the relation of aesthetics to community, and the possible connection of new identities and new forms of, or values within, aesthetics. Does art play a mediating role in the formation of the new community, allow for the expression of a communal voice, or reveal the individual identity then imitated by the mass?

Abstracts are invited for talks lasting approximately twenty minutes on any area of Continental Philosophy that intersects with these questions. Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

The ontology of identity and community

Differences, diversity, oppositions and contradictions in identity

Philosophy of the subject and subjectivation

The history of the concept of identity

Aesthetics and the expression of communal and individual identity

Art, genre, and community

Political movements and their relation to identity

Outsider art and the wider art world.