Abt. Geschichtswissenschaft

19.10.2024 Workshop: Exploring Postsecularism in Contemporary Historical and Political Theory

Organizers: Ewa Domańska, Lisa Regazzoni

Over the past two decades, the humanities have undergone significant transformations through various paradigmatic “turns.” Among these, the post-secular turn emerged visibly in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001, quickly gathering attention in the works of sociologists, political theorists, philosophers, scholars of religious studies, art, and literary studies (Giorgio Agamben, Talal Asad, Alain Badiou, Rosi Braidotti, Judith Butler, Jacques Derrida, Jürgen Habermas, Charles Taylor, and Slavoj Žižek). This workshop seeks to interrogate the implications of the post-secular turn on historical theory, posing critical inquiries into the validity of a “return of religion.” How might such a resurgence be conceptualized within a historical framework? We aim to explore the conditions, causes, manifestations, and consequences of this phenomenon, posing whether it is justifiable to discuss the transition from a secular regime of knowledge to a post- secular one.

During the workshop, we aim to explore the limitations inherent in the secular approach to historical knowledge, as well as potential reconfigurations within the field prompted by the post-secular turn and its manifestations. Our interests span concepts, methods, theories, and structures of historical thought. This issue should be examined not merely in terms of the “turns” and “shifts” occurring in contemporary humanities, but also through the analysis of the past of historical reflection, which, after centuries of prolonged tensions, ultimately introduced the secular “science” of history into the academic world.

Program:

Saturday October 19th 2024 – Room X B2-103

10:00-10:30 Welcome and introduction by Ewa Domańska (Stanford/ Poznań) and Lisa Regazzoni (Bielefeld)

10.30-12.00 Willem Styfhals (KU Leuven),Postsecular Eschatology.

12:00-1:00 Lunch

1:00-2:30 Sabine Grenz (Vienna), How to Widen the Scope. The Potential of Research on Women in the Religious Rights.

2:30-2:45 Coffee break

2:45-4:15 Tomasz Wiśniewski (Poznań), Postsecular Event. Making Politics and Constructing History Through the Smolensk Air Disaster.

4:15-5:00 Final remarks and discussion

Zur Anmeldung richten Sie sich bitte an folgende E-Mail-Adresse:

theoriezentrale-geschichte@uni-bielefeld.de