Exploring Contradictions beyond Contradiction

Recap of the 1st International Conference on Contradiction Studies

Poster of the ECBC 2025 conference

From February 11 to 14, 2025, the Research Training Group 2686—funded by the German Research Foundation—hosted the 1st International Conference on Contradiction Studies at the University of Bremen titled “Exploring Contradictions beyond Contradiction.”

The conference featured a series of engaging keynote lectures, panels, and discussions, aimed at exploring the many facets of contradiction/s across disciplines. We were delighted to have a distinguished group of scholars and researchers join us for this groundbreaking exchange. The diverse perspectives and lively debates have undoubtedly enriched our understanding of contradictions and opened new avenues for future research.

We extend our heartfelt gratitude to all participants, especially to our Fellows and Mercator Fellows, for their invaluable contributions that made this conference a resounding success. 

For those who were unable to attend or wish to revisit the discussions, the conference program and book of abstracts are available for download on our conference website, and video recordings of the keynote lectures can be accessed here.

We look forward to continuing this important dialogue and fostering further collaborations in the field of Contradiction Studies.

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diversity and plurality

“Join us to create more diversity and plurality in knowledge production.”

Gisela Febel
space

“According to Niklas Luhmann, space is a ‘special facility to negate contradictions’”.

Julia Lossau
Is contradiction eurocentric?

“Is contradiction a eurocentric concept, operational phenomenon, and instrument of power?”

Kerstin Knopf
Afterlife of colonialism

“Contradiction comes in many different forms. None is so debilitating than when the coloniser transitions, textually not politically, to decoloniality without taking the responsibility for the afterlife of colonialism, which they continue to benefit from. Self-examination and self-interrogation of the relations of coloniality, a necessity, seem nearly impossible for the coloniser who continues to act as beneficiary, masked in the new-found language of White fragility, devoid of an ethical responsibility of the very system of White domination they claim to be against.” (Black Consciousness and the Politics of the Flesh)

Rozena Maart
decolonial scholarship

“Creating decentralizing and decolonizing scholarship on contradiction, contradictory phenomena, and contradicting processes is a challenging task.”

Kerstin Knopf