Reimagining the democratic potentials of silence

This two-day symposium reexamines democracy and citizenship by treating silence as an integral, rather than oppositional, feature of democratic culture. Silence can disrupt, slow down, knit communities together, reveal limits, and induce reflection. The symposium, part of the Democracy of Silence research project, reexamines logocentric concepts – voice, participation, freedom of speech – by attending to the political potential of silence (e.g. withdrawal, breaks, gaps, hesitations, disconnections, void, quitetude, disaffection) to interrupt the status quo, create openings and make new things…