In this era of global disorientation, marked by unfolding ecological crises, ongoing wars fueled by technological competition, the idea of dialogical engagement and even more so the idea of cross-cultural thinking, feels like a nostalgic dream. In the wake of the international order’s dismantling and the ruinous acceleration of techno-capitalism, social discontent has been channeled into extreme nationalisms that promise a ‘homecoming’ at the expense of outsiders, immigrants, refugees. Adding to these woes, intellectual efforts to challenge the ‘dogmatic images’ of thinking that have ruled by elevating particular epistemologies to the level of ‘global thought,’ are being increasingly stymied by capitulant institutions. Yet, it is precisely in such precarious times that cross-cultural thinking seems more necessary than ever, not least as an antidote to the ongoing segregation of knowledges and thought-systems currently underway.

This conference is part of a series of events organized under the Geophilosophies initiative. As a project Geophilosophies not only calls attention to thought-systems that continue to be erased, discredited, or ignored by dominant cultures, but more importantly, encourages the kind of deep conceptual encounter between different traditions of thought with the capacity to effect real psychic, social and ecological change. We define cross-cultural thinking as the kind of engagement that strives for maximum communication, unlike the concept of ‘border crossing’ which we see as a vestige of nation-state sovereignty. Thus defined, cross-cultural thinking is transversal and ecosophical by nature, inasmuch as it strives for modes of thinking grounded in lived practices and experiences that effortlessly bring incompatible concepts and entities into new associations characterized by their mutual self-transformation. On this note, we invite presentations that re-examine unexplored avenues in cross-cultural philosophical thinking, aiming to repair fractured connections between self, society and world amid today’s global turmoil. We are particularly interested in experimental methodologies that explore: (i) the nature of contact zones between concepts, praxes, and worldviews; (ii) the co-imbrication of one’s subjectivity in cross-cultural encounters. We encourage risk-taking, for example, by resisting the kind of knowledge specializations that may prevent genuine engagement between differences and that work through two or more traditions of thought to create an ‘in-between’ idiom that is at home in its homelessness.

Pursued in collaboration with the Uberoi Foundation, an organization that is dedicated to cross-cultural exchange and expanding awareness of diverse traditions, this conference promises to break new ground in the development of ways of thinking that simultaneously draw upon ancient human wisdoms while also being informed by the urgency of the present global moment, bringing a diasporic consciousness to a world seduced by the alluring false comfort of restrictive nationalisms.