On Thursday, November 19th, the French American Foundation hosted their Annual Gala to honor those who support the Foundation and have made a great contribution to the French-American relationship. Honorees included Carlos Ghosn, Chairman and CEO of the Renault Nissan Alliance, and Ambassador Arthur A. Hartman, the former United States Ambassador to France and the Soviet Union. Following introductory remarks by Michael E. Patterson (Chairman of the Board of Directors, French-American Foundation) and Antoine G. Treuille (President, French-American Foundation), Claude Grunitzky, along with Roy J. Katzovicz (Chief Legal Office, Pershing Square Capital Management, LP), spoke about the significance of the Young Leaders program.

On November 18th, Claude Grunitzky was invited to speak at the Ad Club Edge Conference at the Harvard Club in Boston, MA. A gathering of the industry’s most creative minds presented their ideas and strategies for advertising in today’s marketplace, and discussed the future of advertising. Past speakers have included executives from The Arnold, The Barbarian Group, COLLINS, Digitas, Forrester Research, Google, Hill Holliday, Isobar, MIT Media Lab, Modernista, YouTube, and many more.

On November 18th, TRACE magazine hosted a cocktail benefit at the New Museum in partnership with Act on 8, a non-profit organization dedicated to the promotion and support of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) through awareness campaigns and social action. Artist Sissel Kardel created and donated eight original artworks, each them pertaining to one of the eight goals. While attendees enjoyed cocktails and food, the feature film “8″ screened in the background. “8″ is a full-length, internationally-acclaimed feature film directed by eight leading directors: Abderrahmane Sissako, Gael Garcia Bernal, Mira Nair, Gus Van Sant, Jan Kounen, Gaspar Noe, Jane Campion and Wim Wenders.
Check out a video and some images from the event below!

All photos courtesy of Ryan Koopmans.

On November 19th and 20th, the second half of the Pioneers program took place in New York City. Pioneers began in April in Amsterdam, and is sponsored by the Dutch Foreign Ministry in association with Humanity in Action. The Pioneers Sessions are a mix of workshops, seminars, and informal conversation. Some of the questions that were raised:

1/ What are the specific qualities of urban life in Amsterdam and New York City that create the conditions in which today’s Pioneers thrive?
2/ How do aspects of history, politics, social traditions, cultural heritage, diversity and demography in Amsterdam and New York City provide both the tensions and inspirations for civic engagement in multicultural cities?
3/ In which ways do global forces-technological change, economic recession, migration patterns, religious expression, and increasing diversity-present challenges and opportunities that today’s Pioneers can act upon at the local level?

Beyond the sessions in Amsterdam and New York City, Pioneers will continue their dialogue through a virtual network and participate in drafting a manifesto, a vision statement for their two cities, based upon insights drawn from their experiences during the sessions. This approach will guarantee a wider and sustained impact of the meetings beyond the individual participants.

“Now in its fourth year, MMF brings together leaders of new and old media for two and a half days of high-level discussions about the future of online, broadcast and print communications. Hosted by HSH Prince Albert II, the invitation-only event focuses on emerging opportunities in technology, distribution and content, along with related developments in marketing and finance.” – Monaco Media Forum
Claude Grunitzky was in attendance when tension heated between Huffington Post co-founder Ariana Huffington and CEO of German publisher Axel Springer, Mathias Döpfner. The debate? Whether or not journalism should be available online for free.

Philosophy has created its own star-system. Everyone is concerned about political issues, especially when it comes to pluralism and diversity: proof is the enthusiastic crowd of students and anonym thinkers who welcomed four of the world’s most famous intellectuals invited to discuss secularism in the Great Hall at Cooper Union on October 22^nd. The first panel showcased Jürgen Habermas, worldwide acclaimed German philosopher known for his works The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere and Dialectics of Secularization, and Charles Taylor, the Canadian theorist of multiculturalism who recently authored A Secular Age. Following their speeches, the no less renowned gender studies initiator Judith Butler and race theorist Cornel West, who provided a lively and passionate debate about violence and alterity.

According to Habermas’ recent dialogue with John Rawls on the role of religion in debating political issues within the public sphere, he questioned the position of religious citizens in constitutional democracy, where competing worldviews and non universal absolutes require the neutrality of the state. The old theorist of communicative reason emphasized the necessity of the “translation proviso”, which allows citizens to formulate their religious beliefs in a universal language “without having to restrict the polyphonic diversity of public voices at its very source.” A diversity underlined by Taylor, who advocated a new conception of “secularism” as “the correct response of the democratic state to diversity” allowing every voice to take part to public debates, beyond narrow atheistic views of secularism embodied by the French “laïcité”.

By criticizing Israeli state violence, Judith Butler tackled the complex issue of building identity through alterity. The worldwide famous author of Gender Trouble emphasized the deep meaning of alterity as non-belonging, based on a conception of human beings as plural; involving Hannah Arendt’s reasoned appropriation of religious tradition, she developed the idea of “co-habitation” as the acceptance and promotion of alterity: against assaults on minorities, she urged the people to “actively preserve the non-chosen character of inclusive and plural co-habitation.” Princeton’s engaged and provocative philosopher Cornel West echoed her appeal to recognition of differences by an inspired and lyrical speech, focusing on the necessity of empathy for the suffering: introducing himself as a “blues man”, the charismatic orator preached “prophetic citizenship” and championed “the need for righteous indignation” about the lack of imaginative empathy and compassion.

In recent times of communitarianism and fundamentalism, the question of secular pluralism is highly controversial. By promoting dialogue and listening among communities, the four thinkers, despite their different and sometimes opposite views, helped to question the complex ontology of identities and alterity, giving hope for the future of a public debate on diversity.

Anne-Sophie Moreau

http://cooper.edu/rethinking-secularism-the-power-of-religion-in-the-public-sphere-2/