The CRIC Annual Conference will be a hybrid event again this year with some colleagues returning to Harris Manchester College and others coming in on-line. In 2021, as we gradually made our way out of COVID lockdown, many were unable to travel, but those who could were very keen to get together, face-to-face. The event was very successful and feedback from colleagues at the time, and since, was very positive about the hybrid format, so this year we will do it again.
Last year, we were looking beyond COVID and enquiring whether it would result in a new solidarity or in fragmentation. The 24th February 2022 saw a dramatic shift in geo-politics with the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. Almost over-night the world changed. The post-war rules-based international order was thrown into disarray as two of the United Nations Security Council P5 showed total disregard for the rule of law and for human rights. Are we swinging back to a deeply divided world or are we spinning into a third global conflict with all the chaos that portends?
The motif for this year’s CRIC Annual Conference features Apollo and Dionysus – Apollo representing harmony, progress, clarity, logic and the principle of individuation, and Dionysus representing disorder, intoxication, emotion, ecstasy, and the unity that obscures individuality. Our colleagues have done much in recent years to show how these two ways of thinking both have their place in mental functioning. An underlying question for us at this time is whether there must be a struggle between rationality and passion until one wins out, or whether a fusion of these elements can lead us to finding a new paradigm for global relations.
We will have all the usual exchange of information about the research and publications that CRIC colleagues have engaged in over the past year, but we will also be asking a number of colleagues to help us see what stands on the other side of paradox. As the great Irish poet, Seamus Heaney said in ‘The Cure at Troy’, reflecting on the work of the Greek dramatist, Sophocles –
“So hope for a great sea-change on the far side of revenge. Believe that a farther shore is reachable from here. Believe in miracles and cures and healing wells……once in a lifetime that justice can rise up and hope and history rhyme.”
Whether you wish to book to stay in College, come as a day participant, or only join us on-line, please register as soon as possible at the Eventbrite booking page: https://tinyurl.com/cric2022
The prices for the face-to-face meetings are almost entirely the costs charged by the College and Eventbrite. You will also note that there are different prices for the on-line bookings – please give what you can to support our work – the organization operates on a voluntary basis.
If you would like to remind yourself of the richness of previous CRIC Conferences, you can view videos from last two years on the CRIC YouTube Channel – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3aqUTafyHT5TYypL6WNzXg
