This conference is sponsored by the Coach House Institute at the University of Toronto, and co-sponsored by SSHRC, the Faculty of Information Studies, and the Ontario College of Art and Design.

The notion of objectivity has come under severe criticism due to developments in the humanities and in the sciences. These criticisms have profound ramifications for how we understand the world, and for how we understand the nature of our own intellectual work.

How do we move forward? Should we give up looking for understandings of the world that are dispassionate, a-political, and/or neutral? Or is there some other way of achieving detachment and dispassion, for example, that avoids problems inherent in our classical understanding of objectivity? If neither, what should inspire confidence in our accounts of the world?

This interdisciplinary conference will explore the prospects of forging a new and tenable epistemology—one that does justice to the critiques of objectivity, but retains allegiance and accountability to a larger world. Graduate students and post-doctoral fellows are particularly encouraged to submit proposals.

We are pleased to announce that, in conjunction with our co-sponsor the Ontario College of Art and Design, the conference will include a symposium on performance, a related gallery tour, and several international artists.

Commentary on Latour by Ian Hacking (Toronto)

Adrian Cussins

(Universidad Nacional, Bogota)

Rebecca Kukla

(University of South Florida)

Mark Lance

(Georgetown University)