1 faculty – 3 disciplines – 40 years
Published on 22. Oktober 2013, 10:13 h
Bielefeld University’s History, Philosophy, and Theology celebrate their jubilee
From 23–31 October, the Faculty of History, Philosophy, and Theology will be celebrating forty years of research and teaching in its disciplines at Bielefeld University. The jubilee offers an occasion to discuss the trends in topics and methods over the past decades with both international partners and academics from neighbouring disciplines. At the opening ceremony on Wednesday 23 October at 15.30 in Lecture Hall 14, Professor Dr.-Ing. Gerhard Sagerer will greet the visitors. Then the Dean, Professor Dr. Angelika Epple, will look back at the history of the faculty.
All three departments – History, Philosophy, and Theology – were set up to pursue new directions in their disciplines: the Faculty of History, founded in 1973, just as much as the Department of Philosophy that began work in the same year and merged with history to form one faculty in 1980. The Department of Theology also began its experiment with a research-intensive, interdenominational theology forty years ago before finally joining the Faculty in 2002/2003.
The Faculty is celebrating the Jubilee with various public workshops and debates: On Wednesday 23 October at 18.00 in Room T8-200, the topic will be the role and the impact of philosophy today. On Thursday 24 October, the graduates of the Faculty will have their say: from 18.00 onwards, they will be discussing career paths for graduates in the humanities in Room E E0-222 (in the University’s new extension).
International guests from partner institutes will also be travelling to the jubilee. On Wednesday 23 October, starting at 18.00, academics at Bielefeld University will be discussing the topic of ‘Society as a Category of Historical Analysis Today’ with colleagues from Cologne, Sheffield (Great Britain), and Paris (France) in Lecture Hall 14. And on Friday 25 October, a workshop with partners from the Universities of Bologna (Italy), Paris Diderot, and Sheffield will be addressing local and global perspectives on social movements.
The Faculty departments
Right from the start, the History Department placed society at the centre of its research and teaching programme. Since then, its discussions beyond disciplinary and national borders, its theoretical orientation, its pluralism of methods, and its emphasis on the historian’s responsibility to society have lost none of their topicality and urgency.
Although founded only 40 years ago, the study of history at Bielefeld has gained a national and international reputation. This has been shaped strongly by prominent representatives of the department such as the Emeritus Professors Dr. Hans-Ulrich Wehler and Dr. Jürgen Kocka, whose Bielefeld social history introduced a new way of looking at history in relation to society; or the late Professor Dr. Reinhart Koselleck (died 2006) who drew attention to the origins of historical concepts and the way their meanings have changed under the heading ‘Begriffsgeschichte’. Even today, both Bielefeld social history and Begriffsgeschichte form a basis for innovative research in Bielefeld University’s History Department on a range of topics such as historical semantics, political history, or the history of modern societies. In addition, two Collaborative Research Centres (SFBs) funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) have contributed to the renown of the department along with the current Bielefeld Graduate School in History and Sociology (BGHS) funded as part of the Excellence Initiative.
The Philosophy Department places a strong emphasis on analytical philosophy in the sense of a dedication to conceptual clarity and rational argumentation. It focuses on making systematic contributions to contemporary philosophy that are, nonetheless, also based on the interpretation of arguments to be found in the history of philosophy. In the past decades, this practical approach to philosophy has been developed and propagated innovatively by Professor Dr. Ansgar Beckermann, Professor Dr. Rüdiger Bittner, and Professor Dr. Eike von Savigny who have set new standards for philosophical discussion in the fields of Philosophy of Mind, Ethics, and Philosophy of Language. In the Philosophy of Science, the Department has built up a special field of ‘Science and Society’ around the Leibniz Prize winner Professor Dr. Martin Carrier. This has generated interdisciplinary projects on, for example, the role and scope of expert knowledge or the structure and methods of climate research.
The challenges facing the postmodern society have led to a rediscovery of the value of metaphysical questions and the language and knowledge traditions of religions. Theology provides a forum for their reception, discussion, and further development. It contributes to the generation of personal identity through reflection on one’s own religious roots and traditions and through the analysis of religious processes in the present day.
When founding the University, the plan was to set up a theological institute as an interdisciplinary research institute for both Catholic and Protestant doctoral students. The institute should participate flexibly in different university research disciplines. With the integration of the teacher training college in 1980, training religious education teachers became the most important task field for Protestant and Catholic theology at the University. However, over the past ten years, stronger links have been made that go beyond religious education and back to the original research orientation. Interdisciplinary profiles in the fields of psychology of religion, sociology of religion, and the social history of Christian religion in Antiquity along with the integration of religious studies permit a broad networking with other disciplines in the University as well as the acquisition of third-party funding for research on current topics.
Further information on the Jubilee programme is available online at:
www.uni-bielefeld.de/geschichte/abteilung/40_Jahre_Flyer.pdf
Contact:
Dr. Bettina Brandt, Bielefeld University
School for Historical Research, Academic management
Telephone: 0521 106-3238
Email: bettina.brandt@uni-bielefeld.de
From 23–31 October, the Faculty of History, Philosophy, and Theology will be celebrating forty years of research and teaching in its disciplines at Bielefeld University. The jubilee offers an occasion to discuss the trends in topics and methods over the past decades with both international partners and academics from neighbouring disciplines. At the opening ceremony on Wednesday 23 October at 15.30 in Lecture Hall 14, Professor Dr.-Ing. Gerhard Sagerer will greet the visitors. Then the Dean, Professor Dr. Angelika Epple, will look back at the history of the faculty.
All three departments – History, Philosophy, and Theology – were set up to pursue new directions in their disciplines: the Faculty of History, founded in 1973, just as much as the Department of Philosophy that began work in the same year and merged with history to form one faculty in 1980. The Department of Theology also began its experiment with a research-intensive, interdenominational theology forty years ago before finally joining the Faculty in 2002/2003.
The Faculty is celebrating the Jubilee with various public workshops and debates: On Wednesday 23 October at 18.00 in Room T8-200, the topic will be the role and the impact of philosophy today. On Thursday 24 October, the graduates of the Faculty will have their say: from 18.00 onwards, they will be discussing career paths for graduates in the humanities in Room E E0-222 (in the University’s new extension).
International guests from partner institutes will also be travelling to the jubilee. On Wednesday 23 October, starting at 18.00, academics at Bielefeld University will be discussing the topic of ‘Society as a Category of Historical Analysis Today’ with colleagues from Cologne, Sheffield (Great Britain), and Paris (France) in Lecture Hall 14. And on Friday 25 October, a workshop with partners from the Universities of Bologna (Italy), Paris Diderot, and Sheffield will be addressing local and global perspectives on social movements.
The Faculty departments
Right from the start, the History Department placed society at the centre of its research and teaching programme. Since then, its discussions beyond disciplinary and national borders, its theoretical orientation, its pluralism of methods, and its emphasis on the historian’s responsibility to society have lost none of their topicality and urgency.
Although founded only 40 years ago, the study of history at Bielefeld has gained a national and international reputation. This has been shaped strongly by prominent representatives of the department such as the Emeritus Professors Dr. Hans-Ulrich Wehler and Dr. Jürgen Kocka, whose Bielefeld social history introduced a new way of looking at history in relation to society; or the late Professor Dr. Reinhart Koselleck (died 2006) who drew attention to the origins of historical concepts and the way their meanings have changed under the heading ‘Begriffsgeschichte’. Even today, both Bielefeld social history and Begriffsgeschichte form a basis for innovative research in Bielefeld University’s History Department on a range of topics such as historical semantics, political history, or the history of modern societies. In addition, two Collaborative Research Centres (SFBs) funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) have contributed to the renown of the department along with the current Bielefeld Graduate School in History and Sociology (BGHS) funded as part of the Excellence Initiative.
The Philosophy Department places a strong emphasis on analytical philosophy in the sense of a dedication to conceptual clarity and rational argumentation. It focuses on making systematic contributions to contemporary philosophy that are, nonetheless, also based on the interpretation of arguments to be found in the history of philosophy. In the past decades, this practical approach to philosophy has been developed and propagated innovatively by Professor Dr. Ansgar Beckermann, Professor Dr. Rüdiger Bittner, and Professor Dr. Eike von Savigny who have set new standards for philosophical discussion in the fields of Philosophy of Mind, Ethics, and Philosophy of Language. In the Philosophy of Science, the Department has built up a special field of ‘Science and Society’ around the Leibniz Prize winner Professor Dr. Martin Carrier. This has generated interdisciplinary projects on, for example, the role and scope of expert knowledge or the structure and methods of climate research.
The challenges facing the postmodern society have led to a rediscovery of the value of metaphysical questions and the language and knowledge traditions of religions. Theology provides a forum for their reception, discussion, and further development. It contributes to the generation of personal identity through reflection on one’s own religious roots and traditions and through the analysis of religious processes in the present day.
When founding the University, the plan was to set up a theological institute as an interdisciplinary research institute for both Catholic and Protestant doctoral students. The institute should participate flexibly in different university research disciplines. With the integration of the teacher training college in 1980, training religious education teachers became the most important task field for Protestant and Catholic theology at the University. However, over the past ten years, stronger links have been made that go beyond religious education and back to the original research orientation. Interdisciplinary profiles in the fields of psychology of religion, sociology of religion, and the social history of Christian religion in Antiquity along with the integration of religious studies permit a broad networking with other disciplines in the University as well as the acquisition of third-party funding for research on current topics.
Further information on the Jubilee programme is available online at:
www.uni-bielefeld.de/geschichte/abteilung/40_Jahre_Flyer.pdf
Contact:
Dr. Bettina Brandt, Bielefeld University
School for Historical Research, Academic management
Telephone: 0521 106-3238
Email: bettina.brandt@uni-bielefeld.de
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