Danielle Celermajer

Room 169 RC Mills Building +612 9351 7641 Director of the Bachelor of Global Studies Director of the Masters of Human Rights

Room 169 RC Mills Building
+612 9351 7641

Current Position: Lecturer

Research interests: Danielle Celermajer's general research area is the question of how to construct socially just political communities in the context of diveristy (religious, racial, economic, ethnic and political) and in the light of historical violations. To this end, she focuses on international human rights law and institutions and their domestic appication, and mechanisms for dealing with violations in the past (truth commissions, apologies, international criminal law). Currently, she is focussing on the rise of religious politics and the implications of this trend for the human rights framework and for political theory and institutions. She is also interested in the role that non-government organizations and movements developing projects on the ground to promote justice and human dignity, (particularly those using religious discurses and frameworks) might have in reshaping our underrstanding of human rights and political order.

Books

The Sins of the Nation and the Rituals of Apology. Cambridge University Press (New York and Cambridge), (forthcoming)

Hannah Arendt and the Dilemmas of Humanism (co-editor). Cambridge Scholars Press (forthcoming))

Refereed Journal Articles

“Hannah Arendt: Looking from Athens to Jerusalem.” Thesis 11 (forthcoming 2009)

“Apology and the possibility of ethical politics.” Journal of Cultural and Religious Theory, Winter 2007, 13-34.

“If Islam is the Other, who are we?” Australian Journal of Social Issues, Autumn, 2007, 103-122.

“Seeing the light and hearing the call: The aesthetics of knowledge and thought.” Journal of Literature and Aesthetics, March 2007, 102-144.

“Cultural annihilation and human rights: The forced removal of Aboriginal children.” Human Rights Dialogue, Series 2, No. 5, Spring 2005, 13-18.

Book chapters

“Jewish streams in the thought of Hannah Arendt.” In Hannah Arendt and the Dilemmas of Humanism (co-editor), Cambridge Scholars Press, (forthcoming 2009)

“Can there be a post-secular education for peace?” In Tonya Huber-Warring (Ed.), Teaching <~> Learning Indigenous, Intercultural Worldviews: International Perspectives on Social Justice and Human Rights (premiere vol. in this series). Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing, 2008, PP.

“A post-secular human rights framework; religions facing the challenge of universalism.” In Toh Swee-Hin and Virginai Carwagas (eds.) Cultivating Wisdom, Harvesting Peace, Griffith University, 2006, 103-123.

“The Apology in Australia: Re-convenanting the National Imaginary.” in Elazar Barkan and Alexander Karn (eds.), Taking Wrongs Seriously: Apologies and Reconciliation, Stanford University Press, 2006, 153-184.

Other journal articles

“Beyond the “God Delusion”: Towards a Complex Engagement of Religion and Human Rights”, Human Rights Defender, Vol. 16, Issue 2, August 2007, 2-6.

“Praying for a Republican Victory.” New Matilda, February 21, 2007.

“US: Rule of Men.” New Matilda, July 5, 2006.

“Are we entering a post human rights era?” Human Rights Defender, Vol. 14, Issue 1, 2005. (Republished in Human Rights Defender 25th Anniversary “Best of” Issue, 2007), 2-7.

“Cultural annihilation and human rights: The forced removal of Aboriginal children.” Human Rights Dialogue, Series 2, No. 5, Spring 2005, 13-18.

Refereed Conference Proceedings

“From the Levinasian Apology to the political apology; reflections on ethical politics.” Refereed paper presented to the Australasian Association of Political Science Conference, September 2006.

Special Issues editor

Guest Editor, Special Edition of Thesis 11 on Athens and Jerusalem, 2009, forthcoming.

“Australian Muslims and Secularism.” (editor) Special edition of the Australian Journal of Social Issues, Vol 42 No. 1, Autumn 2007.

Conference Presentations

“Hannah Arendt; Looking from Athens to Jerusalem.” Australian Jewish Studies Conference, Melbourne, February 2008.

“Inclusion, trust and democracy: Interfaith and faith-secular dialogue as strategies for Muslim Inclusion.” Fulbright Symposium 2007 Muslim Citizens in the West: Promoting Social Inclusion, August 2007.

“The tangled debate over religion and politics” University of Tasmania, Philosophy and Religion, December 2006.

“A Jewish voice in interfaith peace education.” Keynote address, 13th World Conference of the International Council for Curriculum and Instruction, Manila, August 2006.

“Arendt’s Light and Dark: God, reason and politics.” Hannah Arendt colloquium, University of Sydney, June 2006.

“Justice beyond secularism.” Muslims, Secularism and the State, The Centre for the Study of Contemporary Islam; University of Melbourne, November 2005.

“Post secular human rights: The role of the state and religions in re-negotiating their identity and relationships.” Islam and Human Rights Conference, Centre for Muslim States and Societies, University of Western Australia, August 2005

“Can there be a post-secular human rights framework? Religions facing the challenge of universalism.” Cultivating Wisdom, Harvesting Peace, Multi-Faith Centre, Griffith University, Brisbane, Queensland, August, 2005

“Welcome to the Academy: check your religion at the door.” Religion and Multicultural Citizenship International Symposium, University of NSW, July 2005.

Panel on Islam and Secularism in Australia today, filmed for Sydney TV
University of NSW, July 2005.

“Moving beyond secular tolerance: Interfaith Education.” Inaugural conference of the Centre for Intercultural Understanding and partnerships, Bulgaria, April 2005.

“Approaching the interface of religion and human rights”, opening keynote, Columbia University International Colloquium on Religion and Human Rights, New Delhi, November 2004.

“Religion and Human Rights: The challenge to secularism.” Interfaith education symposium;
Parliament of the World’s Religions, Barcelona, July 2004.

“Recreating our stories together: Jewish, Christian and Muslim Women retelling our sacred texts” Religious Orders Partnership Annual Meeting, New York, April 2004.

“Muslim, Christian and Jewish perspectives on stories of women in the sacred texts.” United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, New York, March 2004.

“Women’s stories of inclusion and exclusion from the Abrahamic traditions’ sacred texts: their application to contemporary issues” United Nations, Department of Public Information, 56th NGO Conference, New York, September 2003.

“Novel approaches to transitional justice: the apology’s migration from religion to politics”, Mellon Foundation Transitional Justice Conference, Columbia University, New York, July 2002.

“The Australian Apology.” International Apologies Conference, Clairemont College, California, May 2002.