3rd Annual Conference of Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies (HumanDHS) in Paris in 2004
at the
Maison des Sciences de l'Homme

16th – 18th September 2004

Thursday and Friday: Maison des Sciences de l'Homme de l'Homme, Paris, 54, boulevard Raspail (metro Sèvres-Babylone), Room 214, 9.00–19.30

Saturday: Maison Suger, 16-20 rue Suger (metro Odéon/St. Michel), 9.00–17.30


Please click on the picture or here to see more photos
(Important note to our conference particants: During our conference, we asked for your permission to be posted here, however, if you have changed your mind since, either in total or for specific pictures, please let us know! Thank you! Since we wish to walk the talk of dignity, it is very important for us to do our utmost in respecting everybody's privacy. We refrain from gathering written permissions from you during our conferences, since we value the building of mutual trust in relationships, and we also would like to refrain from contributing to an ever more bureaucratic and legalistic society.)

 


•  Please find here our Conference Notes (thanks to Becca!)
•  Please read Newsletter Nr. 1 and Nr. 2, before and after our Paris meeting
•  Please see the pictures of our meeting!
•  Papers
•  Frame
•  Programme (Day One & Day Two & Day Three)

 


Most participants stayed at the Hotel de Senlis, 7 et 9, rue Malesbranche (entre Rue St. Jacques et Boulevard St. Germain), 7505 Paris, hoteldesenlis@wanadoo.fr, Tel. 01 43299310, Fax 01 43290024, reachable by RER from the airport Charles de Gaulles at the Metro RER Luxembourg. The Maison des Sciences de l'Homme is 10 minutes by foot from the hotel, straight through the Jardin du Luxembourg. The Jardin du Luxembourg is probably the most popular park in Paris. It is located in the 6e arrondissement, near the Sorbonne University. The park, 224,500 square meters large, was designed in 1612 in French style. In the 19th century, the private park was opened for the public.

 


 

Papers

The papers will be posted here as they arrive. Please ask the authors for their authorisation if you wish to quote them!

Please find our Meeting Notes here, however, please be aware that they are not yet finished and in the process of being edited.

Evelin Lindner
Please see background reflections by Lindner, 2004, as short summary, and longer paper (not to be cited without author's authorisation). It is important to note, that Lindner's work, even though she convenes this meeting, is designed to stimulate interest and by no means meant to dominate this meeting.

Hroar Klempe
Reflections on ‘Humiliation’ in a Cultural Perspective
Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of Humiliation Studies, Maison des Hommes, Paris, 15th-18th of September, 2004, unpublished draft (not to be cited without author's authorisation), 2004.

Donald C. Klein
Community MetaFunctions and the Humiliation Dynamic
Paper presented at the 2nd Annual Meeting of Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies, Paris, France, September 16-18, 2004, unpublished draft (not to be cited without author's authorization), 2004.

Fangen, Katrine
Please see Humiliation Experienced by Somali Immigrants in Norway, in Journal of Refugee Studies, 19 (1, March), 2006. Katrine developed this article from the paper she presented at the Annual Meeting of Humiliation Studies, Maison des Hommes, Paris, 15th-18th of September, 2004.

 


 

Frame

by Linda Hartling, 2004, Ph.D., Associate Director, Jean Baker Miller Training Institute, Wellesley College, Boston, USA

In our meetings we aim at creating a humiliation-free, collaborative learning environment characterized by mutual respect, mutual empathy, and openness to difference. The perspective of "appreciative enquiry" is a useful frame of our work. Our HumanDHS efforts are not just about the work we do together, but also about HOW WE WORK TOGETHER. At appropriate points during our meetings, for example at the end of each day, we take a moment to reflect on the practices observed that contributed to an appreciative/humiliation-free learning experience.

It is important to emphasize that an appreciative approach is not about expecting people to agree. In fact, differences of opinion enrich the conversation and deepen people's understanding of ideas. Perhaps, this could be conceptualized as "waging good conflict," which means practicing radical respect for differences and being open to a variety of perspectives and engaging others without contempt or rankism. As we have seen in many fields, contempt and rankism drains energy away from the important work that needs to be done. Most people only know "conflict" as a form of war within a win/lose frame. "Waging good conflict," on the other side, is about being empathic and respectful, making room for authenticity, creating clarity, and growth.

•  Please kindly note that...
• There is no registration fee for our conferences. To cover our expenses, we always summarise the costs during the conference and invite participants to contribute according to their ability. This collaborative approach to financing allows us to keep the conference affordable for all.
• We like to get to know participants prior to our conferences and workshops, and prior to issuing an invitation.
• All our gatherings are by invitation only, please approach us so that we can include you and register you. Only our Public Events are open to everybody without registration.
• The Non-Public Parts of our gatherings have limited enrollment.
• Participants are encouraged to find their own sources of funding or economic support to participate in our conferences. We offer our nurturing work as our gift of love and care to you, and we would like to lovingly invite everybody to contribute to this gift economy. If you need funding for your travels and housing, please inquire in your country and your university about possibilities. See, among others, for the US, www.supportcenter.org and www.foundationscenter.org. The Weinstein International Fellowship program, inaugurated in 2008, provides opportunities for individuals from outside the United States to visit the U.S. to learn more about dispute resolution processes and practices and to pursue a project of their own design that serves to advance the resolution of disputes in their home countries.
• Participants in our conferences are kindly asked to handle all of their travel arrangements and required documentation, including requests for visas, on their side. HumanDHS is a volunteer initiative and does not have the staff or resources to assist with visa requests.

 


 

Programme


Day One, Thursday, 17th September 2004

Maison des Sciences de l'Homme, 54, boulevard Raspail, Paris

 

9.00 Welcoming All Participants

Donald Klein and Linda Hartling set the frame of our meeting within "Appreciative Inquiry" and we create a list of agreed upon norms having to do with the nature and tone of our discussion together.
Don explained (August 2004): "The term Appreciative Inquiry and the approach to organizational consulting and inquiry was developed by David Cooperrider at Case Western Reserve University. The approach is gaining wide usage among people doing organizational consulting. My work overlaps with David's approach. I'm using the term 'Appreciative Being' to describe a way of relating to life events via our human inherent capacity for experiencing awe and wonderment at being part of the universe."

9.15 Participants Presented Themselves

 

10.00 Joint presentation giving an insight into the previous annual meeting in Paris (September 2003) and how everybody fared since

Evelin Lindner (please see background reflections by Lindner, 2004, as short summary, short table, executive summary, and longer paper). See also Newsletter Nr. 1 (Founding Issue), describing the timeline for HumanDHS until September 2004.

Eric van Grasdorff, Freie Universität Berlin

Donald Klein
, Union Institute and University, USA

Linda Hartling
, Wellesley College, USA

Rebecca Klein
, USA

Judit Révész
, NY

Donald Klein had framed the spirit of this joint presentation as follows: "The joint presentations focus on where each presenter was left as a result of the meeting and each one's hopes and expectations regarding the 2nd annual meeting."

11.00 Pause

 

11.30 The Participants Were Welcomed by Hinnerk Bruhns, Directeur de recherche au CNRS, Adjoint à l'Administrateur de la Maison des Sciences de l'Homme

 

12.30 Lunch

 

13.00 Somebodies and Nobodies: Overcoming the Abuse of Rank

Presentation by Robert Fuller, author of Somebodies and Nobodies: Overcoming the Abuse of Rank, 2003

14.30 Humiliation and Human Rights in Diverse Societies:  A Cross-Cultural Perspective

presentation by Dharm P. S. Bhawuk, Professor of Management and Industrial Relations, College of Business Administration, University of Hawaii at Manoa

15.30 Pause

 

16.00 Short Individual Papers and Discussion

Humiliation in Relation to Cultures, Societies, Communities

16.00-16.45 The Role of the Humiliator

Linda Hartling, Wellesley College, USA, lead a collaborative discussion that focused on the following topic: What are the individual and collective motivations as well as situational contexts within which individuals and groups are moved to attack others' dignity and inflict humiliation on target individuals or groups?

16.45-17.25 Metafunctions of Community

Presentation by Donald Klein, Union Institute and University, USA, focussing on the following question: What can be done to create the safety, personal and collective significance, ready exchange of needed resources, and opportunities for celebration that, we presume, would reduce if not eliminate the potential for humiliation to occur between individuals and groups?

17.25 Pause

17.35-18.15 Somalis in Exile: Do Somali Immigrants in Norway Feel Humiliated in Their Meeting with Norwegian Society?

Presentation by Katrine Fangen, Department of Sociology, University of Oslo, of her work on Somali immigrants in Norway

18.15-19.00 Humiliation and Confrontation

Presentation by Patricia Rodriguez Mosquera of a study on the cultural meaning of confrontation in emotional episodes of disrespect and humiliation

19:00 We Wrapped up the Day

 

19.30 End of Day One

 




Day Two, Friday, 17th September 2004
(Maison des Sciences de l'Homme, 54, boulevard Raspail, Paris)

9.00 Saying Good-Morning to Each Other

In our annual meeting in 2003, we felt that there was too little time for unstructured discussions. Therefore we decided to have Day Two in our 2004 meeting as a more unstructured day, not entirely filled with presentations. Therefore we had only a few short presentations in the beginning of Day Two and the rest of the day to our free disposition.

10.00 Short Presentations and Discussion

Reflections on Humiliation in a Cultural Perspective

Presentation by Hroar Klempe, Professor of Psychology and Dean of the Department of Psychology at the University of Trondheim

The Experience of Northern Ireland and Its Relevance to Humiliation

Presentation by Paul Stokes, University of Dublin, Ireland

12.30 Lunch

 

14.00 "Open Space" on Future Directions of Our Work
(interrupted by small pauses, facilitated by Donald Klein, following advice from Alan Klein)

Donald Klein explained the Open Space design as follows: "It would involve creating a kind of 'marketplace' of possibilities based on topics nominated by participants. The only requirement is that whoever nominates the topic acts as the convener of the discussion of the topic and takes responsibility for having notes taken, and a report made about the essence of what was discussed, including any conclusions or recommendations, at a plenary session following the topic groups.
The Open Space design has the advantage of focussing on whatever is of greatest interest to participants at the moment. It allows for parallel discussion of multiple topics, followed by a period of sharing and general discussion. I believe it would be more productive than having 30 people engage in a round table discussion."

18.00 End of Day Two



 

 

Day Three, Saturday, 18th September 2004
(Maison Suger, 16-20 rue Suger (metro Odéon/St. Michel)

 

Coordinator: Dharm P. S. Bhawuk

 

9.00 Saying Good-Morning to Each Other

 

9.15 Humiliation and Retributive Peace-Building: Experiences from Iraq

Presentation by Victoria Firmo-Fontan, Visiting Assistant Professor of Peace Studies at Colgate University, NY, earlier Sabanci University, Turkey

10.15 Films that Illustrate Humiliation

Presentation by Dharm P. S. Bhawuk, University of Hawaii, including the viewing of one hour of an Indian film. This film demonstrated how humiliation was played out in an Indian film, and how films are good tools in capturing them

12.00 Lunch

 

13.00 TV a Powerful Medium But for What Purpose?

Presentation by Gerd Inger Polden, investigative journalist at the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation NRK.
•  How does TV present humiliation?
•  Reality shows - humiliation of participants
•  Victims of humiliation - how are they presented?
•  Report from wars
•  Report from building peace
•  Report from stopping the humiliation

The Dream of Knowledge

Presentation by Gerd Inger Polden of UNICEF's and Tostan's work, against female genital mutilation in Senegal. Molly Melching is the Director of Tostan.

Viewing of NRK documentary: The Dream of Knowledge – with power to make changes (30 min.)

14.00 Film by Naheed Awwad

The International Association of Women in Radio and Television is a forum for personal contact and professional development among women broadcasters, worldwide. Through this network Gerd Inger Polden has met the Palestinian journalist Naheed Awwad. Gerd Inger Polden showed one of Naheed's films on humiliation of the Palestinians on the west bank.

15.00 - 17.30 We Wrapped up Our Conference

 

18.00 End of Day Three



 

Conveners

 

Evelin Gerda Lindner, M.D., Ph.D. (Dr. med.), Ph.D. (Dr. psychol.)

Evelin G. Lindner is the Founding Director and President of Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies (HumanDHS). She is a transdisciplinary social scientist, affiliated with the Columbia University Conflict Resolution Network, New York, the University of Oslo, Norway, Department of Psychology (folk.uio.no/evelinl/), and the Maison des Sciences de l'Homme, Paris. Lindner teaches globally, including in South East Asia, the Middle East, Australia, Africa, and other places globally. [read more]

Our host, the Maison des Sciences de l'Homme is being represented by

Hinnerk Bruhns

Hinnerk Bruhns is Directeur de recherche au CNRS, Adjoint à l'Administrateur de la Maison des Sciences de l'Homme

Caroline zum Kolk

Maison des Sciences de l'Homme, Programme Allemagne, Autriche, Suisse, Caroline zum Kolk manages the secretariat of Hinnerk Bruhns

Anne Laurent

Maison des Sciences de l'Homme, Direction scientifique & Laboratoire européen de psychologie, Anne Laurent is responsible for the secretariat of Serge Moscovici

The Norwegian MSH group is being represented by:

Saphinaz-Amal Naguib

Professor at the University of Oslo, and Directeur du Centre de Coopération Franco-Norvégienne en Sciences Sociales et Humaines, Maison des Sciences de l'Homme

Per Buvik

Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of Bergen, and Directeur du Centre de Coopération Franco-Norvégienne en Sciences Sociales et Humaines, Maison des Sciences de l'Homme

Kirstin B. Skjelstad

Centre de Coopération Franco-Norvégienne en Sciences Sociales et Humaines, Maison des Sciences de l'Homme

 

Participants

 

Donald Klein

Professor at the Union Institute and University, USA, Member of the HumanDHS Advisory Board and Core Team

Rebecca Klein

Member of the HumanDHS Core Team, Manager of the HumanDHS Internal Database, Washington

Linda Hartling

Ph.D., Associate Director, Jean Baker Miller Training Institute, Wellesley College, Boston, USA, Member of the HumanDHS Advisory Board and Core Team

Rick Slaven

Ph.D. in Educational Administration, Administrator of the Martin Fisher School of Physics at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, Member of the HumanDHS Advisory Board

Victoria Firmo-Fontan

Visiting Assistant Professor of Peace Studies at Colgate University, New York, formerly Sabanci University, Turkey, Member of the HumanDHS Core Team

Eric van Grasdorff

M.A., Researcher, Freie Universität Berlin, Member of the HumanDHS Core Team, Content Manager of www.humiliationstudies.org

Véronique Lingfeld

Freie Universität Berlin, Member of the HumanDHS Core Team, Manager of By-events to Paris Meeting

Judit Révész

Lawyer, Researcher, Director of HumanDHS in New York, Member of the HumanDHS Core Team

Robert Fuller

Researcher, Educator, Writer, author of Somebodies and Nobodies: Overcoming the Abuse of Rank, 2003, CA, USA, Member of the HumanDHS Advisory Board (he will also attend our NY conference in November)

Dharm P. S. Bhawuk & Poonam

Professor of Management and Industrial Relations, College of Business Administration, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Member of the HumanDHS Core Team and Advisory Board, Director of the World Films for Equal Dignity project

Katrine Fangen

Ph.D., Researcher, Department of Sociology, University of Oslo, Norway, Member of the HumanDHS Core Team and Research Team

Patricia Rodriguez Mosquera

Ph.D., Researcher, Brunel University, UK, Member of the HumanDHS Core Team and Research Team

Roos Knap

Writing her master thesis on shame at University of Amsterdam

Samir Sanad Basta

ScD., Former UNICEF director for Europe and former UNICEF Representative to the Sudan, author or Culture, Conflict & Children, University Press of America, 2000

Hroar Klempe

Professor in Musicology, Associate Professor and Dean, Department of Psychology, University of Trondheim, Norway, Member of the HumanDHS Advisory Board

Paul Stokes

Lecturer in the Department of Sociology at the National University of Ireland, Dublin, Ireland

Gerd Inger Polden & Ulf

Journalist, TV documentaries on human rights-related issues, NRK, Oslo, Norway, Member of the HumanDHS Advisory Board and World Films for Equal Dignity project

Elisabeth Scheper

Doctoral Researcher, Practitioner, Director of Program Development of the World Conference of Religions for Peace, New York, Member of the HumanDHS Advisory Board and Core Team

Stephanie Heuer

Educator, Activist, Member of the HumanDHS Core Team and Discussion Forum, CA, USA

Olivier du Merle

Educator, Corporate Sector, Member of the HumanDHS Advisory Board, Paris