Istanbul Seminars

What are the Istanbul Seminars?

"Close encounters across all divides": Every spring independent minds from different civilizational backgrounds discuss and debate the prospects for democracy, human rights and religion across all divides in a week-long meeting. Something in between a summer school and a think tank, the Istanbul Seminars have established themselves as a remarkable cultural appointment for a recognizable community of scholars and students. Through this film, ResetDoc wants to share some of the Seminars' most exciting moments from the past editions with its readers.

ResetDoc Seminars are willing to promote and consolidate a network of cultural, intellectual and academic relationships among senior and junior scholars and PHD candidates in the social sciences, political theory, sociology, legal and religious studies.
Our goal is to activate mutual understanding and interaction between democratic intellectuals and opinion makers belonging to different geo-political and cultural areas of the "East" and the "West": ResetDoc promotes dialogue and respect instead of conflict and contempt.

In the past few years, the Seminars have discussed  topics such as 1.Postsecularism (2008), 2.Religion, Human rights and Multicultural Jurisdictions (2009), 3. Realigning Liberalism: Pluralism, Integration, Identities (2010) and 4.Overcoming the Trap of resentment (2011).

The fifth edition of the Istanbul Seminars titled "The Promises of Democracy in Troubled Times" is scheduled May 19-24 at Istanbul Bilgi University.

The proceedings of Istanbul Seminars are published by the journal Philosophy& Social Criticism, Sage publications.

Check out the Istanbul Seminars 2012 page