CharacterA

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RT OF DEFAM

ATION THROUGHOUT THE AGES

INTERNATIONAl COllOqUIUM

21st - 23rd JUlY 2011

characterattack.wordpress.com

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Character assassination – undermining or degrading the status of an opponent through personal attack – is a well-known yet not well-researched phenomenon.

Throughout history, kings and presidents, popes and pro-phets, and countless other public figures have become the victims of slander, mockery and insinuation at the hands of political opponents, journalists and historians; some-times even posthumously.

How does character assassination work? When and why do character ‘assassins’ decide to deploy their fatal weapons of facts and fiction? Why do people fall so easily when they are under character attack? This colloquium will dis-cuss these questions and attempt to reveal the anatomy of character assassination.

characterattack.wordpress.com

Character AssassinationINTERNATIONAl COllOqUIUM | HEIdElbERG | 21. - 23. 7. 2011

THE ART OF DEFAMATION THROUGHOUT THE AGES

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PHIK

CONFERENCE PROGRAM

Thursday, 21st of July 2011

9.00 Welcome and introduction by Prof. Andrea Jördens Self-introduction of the participants

Opening session9.20 Dr. Martijn Icks and Dr. Eric Shiraev How Do We Study Character Assassination and Defamation?

First sessionCharacter Assassination in Roman and Byzantine Times

10.10 Dr. Henriette van der Blom Cicero under Attack: Invective Speech in Roman Republican Oratory11.10 Coffee break

11.30 Dr. Jan Meister | Berichte über das ‘Sexualleben’ der frühen römischen Kaiser – ein Beispiel von Rufmord?

12.30 Lunch and a brief tour around the campus (optional)

Second session | Topic continuedCharacter Assassination in Roman and Byzantine Times

14.00 Dr. Martijn Icks | The Rise of the Tyrant: Character Assassination and Imperial Investiture in Ancient Rome

15.00 Dr. Henning Börm | Strategien des Rufmords in der Spätantike. Das Beispiel Prokop16.00 Coffee break

Third sessionCharacter Assassination in Medieval Times

16.15 Prof. Debra Higgs Strickland | Defaming the Prophet and Islam in Medieval Christian Art and Thought

17.15 Dr. Tracy Adams | Two Victims of the Burgundian Propaganda Machine: Louis of Orleans and Isabeau of Bavaria18.15 Repose

19.00 Dinner

Friday, 22nd of July 2011

Fourth sessionCharacter Assassination in Late Medieval and Early Modern Times

9.00 Dr. Gilles Lecuppre | A Newcomer in Defamatory Propaganda: Youth (Late 14th-Early 15th C.)

10.00 Prof. Charles Walton | Calumniators to the Scaffold! The Problem of Free Speech in the French Revolution11.00 Coffee break

11.30 Dr. Edwina Hagen | Rutger Jan Schimmelpenninck (1761-1825): “awkward and deficient as his wife is amiable and accomplished”12.30 Lunch

Fifth sessionCharacter Assassination in the 19th Century

14.00 Dr. Vincent Viaene Character Assassination of 19th-Century Popes

15.00 Dr. Christoph Jahr Maximilian Harden und die Kunst des Rufmordes16.00 Coffee break

Sixth sessionCharacter Assassination in Modern Politics

16.30 Dr. Andreas Umland | How Dugin Turned Me Into a ‘Pedophile’: A Russian Fascist’s Defamation Campaign in the Context of Post-Soviet Politics

17.30 General discussion of the day Comments from specialists representing different fields18.00 Coffee break

Evening Lecture18.15 Jason Smart Character Assassination in the American Political Context

19. 15 Reception

Saturday, 23rd of July 2011

Seventh session | Topic continuedCharacter Assassination in Modern Politics

9.00 Dr. Martina Klicperová-Baker | Vaclav Havel (1977) and Howard Dean (2004) under Media Attacks: Contrasting Character Assassination Attempts

Eight sessionCharacter Assassination: Political Psychology Perspectives

10.00 Dr. Ursula Jakubowska | Perception of the Female and Male Presidential Candidates: Experimental Study among the Polish Youth

11.00 Coffee break

11.30 Dr. Eric Shiraev | “Destroy the Beast!”: Approaching the Political Psychology of Character Assassination in History and Today

12.30 Prof. Sergei Tsytsarev and Dr. Eric Shiraev | Images of the Enemy: The Use of the Mental Disease Label to Create Animosity toward Political Figures and Social Groups

13.30 Lunch

15.00 Final discussion - Participants are divided into three focus groups to se- parately discuss three questions related to the topic of the seminar: (a) theoretical, (b) related to history, and (c) practical application. After 20 minutes, the parti- cipants join together to compare and discuss their answers. (40 minutes) - Discussion of how the results of the workshop are going to be promoted among students and scholars - Discussion of the workshop publication (an edited volume and a permanent website) - Concluding remarks and farewell