University of Tasmania, Australia

Venue: Room 586, Social Sciences Building, Sandy Bay campus

All welcome - No RSVP required
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Religious anti-discrimination legislation in Victoria, Australia, constructively facilitates the nonviolent resolution of religious conflict through legislation and litigation.  The paper demonstrates this argument through two detailed case studies of the 2002 complaint by the Islamic Council of Victoria against Catch the Fire Ministries, an evangelical Christian group, and the 2003 complaints by the Pagan Awareness Network and Olivia Watts, an Australian Witch.  I draw on Judith Butler's Levinasian analysis of policy responses to conflict to argue that the ethical moment of discourse is inherently violent as the other both threatens me and potentially transforms me.  Ethics is how we live in that moment of vulnerability.

Speaker
Douglas Ezzy is an Associate Professor in Sociology.  His research is driven by a fascination with how people make meaningful and dignified lives. His books include Qualitative Analysis (2002), and Teenage Witches (2007) with Helen Berger.