Events / Program: Guests of the Institute

	Title Sort descending	Date	Type	Speakers	Register
	Alien Logic	Tue, 11.05.2021	Lecture	Ayşe Çağlar Martin Burckhardt Timothy Snyder		Alien Logic Tue, 11.05.2021 Speakers: Ayşe Çağlar Martin Burckhardt Timothy Snyder Series: Lecture Bronislaw Malinowski has shown with his ethnological studies that a supposedly primitive society can be of astonishing complexity, as well as why the structure of this order remains obscure to its members. Obviously, modern societies also suffer from system blindness – why else is digitization said to have chiliastic, diabolic, magical powers? In a continuation to his cultural-theoretical investigations on the genealogy and philosophy of the machine, Martin Burckhardt explores the question of how the self-enchantment of rationality can occur, and to what extent the operating system of the attention economy can be read as an outsourced unconscious. This, in turn, leads back to the point of departure: what perspective must a contemporary social anthropologist take in order to read the present? Read more
Alien Logic Tue, 11.05.2021 Speakers: Ayşe Çağlar Martin Burckhardt Timothy Snyder Series: Lecture Bronislaw Malinowski has shown with his ethnological studies that a supposedly primitive society can be of astonishing complexity, as well as why the structure of this order remains obscure to its members. Obviously, modern societies also suffer from system blindness – why else is digitization said to have chiliastic, diabolic, magical powers? In a continuation to his cultural-theoretical investigations on the genealogy and philosophy of the machine, Martin Burckhardt explores the question of how the self-enchantment of rationality can occur, and to what extent the operating system of the attention economy can be read as an outsourced unconscious. This, in turn, leads back to the point of departure: what perspective must a contemporary social anthropologist take in order to read the present? Read more
	Balaton. Novellen	Mon, 03.05.2021	Lecture	Ludger Hagedorn Noémi Kiss	Facebook-Stream	Balaton. Novellen Mon, 03.05.2021 Speakers: Ludger Hagedorn Noémi Kiss Series: Lecture Ungarn in den 1980er-Jahren: Der Balaton, oder Plattensee, ist ein beliebtes Urlaubsziel. Hier liegen Menschen von beiden Seiten des „Eisernen Vorhangs“ einträchtig nebeneinander am Strand, durch den Mauerbau getrennte Familien machen gemeinsam Ferien. Read more
Balaton. Novellen Mon, 03.05.2021 Speakers: Ludger Hagedorn Noémi Kiss Series: Lecture Ungarn in den 1980er-Jahren: Der Balaton, oder Plattensee, ist ein beliebtes Urlaubsziel. Hier liegen Menschen von beiden Seiten des „Eisernen Vorhangs“ einträchtig nebeneinander am Strand, durch den Mauerbau getrennte Familien machen gemeinsam Ferien. Read more
	Behind the Shields of Fantasy: The Populist Aesthetics of Status Loss	Mon, 20.06.2022	Seminars and Colloquia	Adam Sitze Johannes Völz Ludger Hagedorn		Behind the Shields of Fantasy: The Populist Aesthetics of Status Loss Mon, 20.06.2022 Speakers: Adam Sitze Johannes Völz Ludger Hagedorn Series: Seminars and Colloquia The talk explored the potentials of relational sociology for the study of populism and, particularly its aesthetic dimension. In complementary ways, the works of Norbert Elias and Pierre Bourdieu offer a theoretical foundation to further develop existing approaches to populism that focus on aesthetics and performativity. Read more
Behind the Shields of Fantasy: The Populist Aesthetics of Status Loss Mon, 20.06.2022 Speakers: Adam Sitze Johannes Völz Ludger Hagedorn Series: Seminars and Colloquia The talk explored the potentials of relational sociology for the study of populism and, particularly its aesthetic dimension. In complementary ways, the works of Norbert Elias and Pierre Bourdieu offer a theoretical foundation to further develop existing approaches to populism that focus on aesthetics and performativity. Read more
	Beyond the Leader: Looking at Grassroots Reasons for the Rise of Illiberalism	Tue, 14.05.2024	Lecture	Ludger Hagedorn Marlene Laruelle	I want to attend	Beyond the Leader: Looking at Grassroots Reasons for the Rise of Illiberalism Tue, 14.05.2024 Speakers: Ludger Hagedorn Marlene Laruelle Series: Lecture As Europe and the United States prepare themselves to see a rise of far-right and illiberal parties gaining a large share of the votes at the June and November 2024 elections, Marlene Laruelle explores the grassroots reasons for this rise of illiberalism. Read more
Beyond the Leader: Looking at Grassroots Reasons for the Rise of Illiberalism Tue, 14.05.2024 Speakers: Ludger Hagedorn Marlene Laruelle Series: Lecture As Europe and the United States prepare themselves to see a rise of far-right and illiberal parties gaining a large share of the votes at the June and November 2024 elections, Marlene Laruelle explores the grassroots reasons for this rise of illiberalism. Read more
	Bringing Beauty into Life: How Soviet Workers Discovered Aesthetics after Stalin	Mon, 22.05.2023	Seminars and Colloquia	Clemena Antonova Serguei OushakineFranz Graf		Bringing Beauty into Life: How Soviet Workers Discovered Aesthetics after Stalin Mon, 22.05.2023 Speakers: Clemena Antonova Serguei OushakineFranz Graf Series: Seminars and Colloquia In his talk, Oushakine focused on one aspect of late Soviet materiality: by reading closely materials published in the 1960s–1970s, he showed how Soviet sociologists, urbanists, and designers tried (though ultimately failed) to transform new mass apartments into an effectively constructed material ecosystem. Material aesthetics - not ideology - was seen as a major force that could productively shape the perceptions and demands of the Soviet individual. Read more
Bringing Beauty into Life: How Soviet Workers Discovered Aesthetics after Stalin Mon, 22.05.2023 Speakers: Clemena Antonova Serguei OushakineFranz Graf Series: Seminars and Colloquia In his talk, Oushakine focused on one aspect of late Soviet materiality: by reading closely materials published in the 1960s–1970s, he showed how Soviet sociologists, urbanists, and designers tried (though ultimately failed) to transform new mass apartments into an effectively constructed material ecosystem. Material aesthetics - not ideology - was seen as a major force that could productively shape the perceptions and demands of the Soviet individual. Read more
	Can Beauty Save the World? On Historical Injustice, Reconciliation and the Role of Aesthetic Education	Tue, 09.04.2024	Lecture	Lea Ypi Misha Glenny		Can Beauty Save the World? On Historical Injustice, Reconciliation and the Role of Aesthetic Education Tue, 09.04.2024 Speakers: Lea Ypi Misha Glenny Series: Lecture “Beautiful world! Where hast thou gone?" asks Friedrich Schiller in his famous poem “The Gods of Greece.” He laments the loss of harmony in a world divided by injustice both past and present. In this lecture, Lea Ypi read from her forthcoming book on human dignity. Read more
Can Beauty Save the World? On Historical Injustice, Reconciliation and the Role of Aesthetic Education Tue, 09.04.2024 Speakers: Lea Ypi Misha Glenny Series: Lecture “Beautiful world! Where hast thou gone?" asks Friedrich Schiller in his famous poem “The Gods of Greece.” He laments the loss of harmony in a world divided by injustice both past and present. In this lecture, Lea Ypi read from her forthcoming book on human dignity. Read more
	Christ the Savior – Orthodoxy’s Ground Zero	Mon, 27.03.2023	Seminars and Colloquia	Lucy Ash Misha Glenny		Christ the Savior – Orthodoxy’s Ground Zero Mon, 27.03.2023 Speakers: Lucy Ash Misha Glenny Series: Seminars and Colloquia Using stories of individual priests, individual churches and individual cities, Ash traced the story of the Russian Orthodox Church back to its roots one thousand years ago and to show that, whatever the violent and extreme changes of political power, those at the top of the church have done whatever it takes to curry favor. Read more
Christ the Savior – Orthodoxy’s Ground Zero Mon, 27.03.2023 Speakers: Lucy Ash Misha Glenny Series: Seminars and Colloquia Using stories of individual priests, individual churches and individual cities, Ash traced the story of the Russian Orthodox Church back to its roots one thousand years ago and to show that, whatever the violent and extreme changes of political power, those at the top of the church have done whatever it takes to curry favor. Read more
	Decolonial Desires: Thinking through Discipline and Difference	Mon, 13.06.2022	Seminars and Colloquia	Clemena Antonova Saurabh DubeJulian Strube		Decolonial Desires: Thinking through Discipline and Difference Mon, 13.06.2022 Speakers: Clemena Antonova Saurabh DubeJulian Strube Series: Seminars and Colloquia This presentation derived from a larger project that attends to distinct registers and divergent claims of decolonize/decolonial/decoloniality, in order to carefully unravel these notions and practices as prescient optics unto contemporary worlds. Read more
Decolonial Desires: Thinking through Discipline and Difference Mon, 13.06.2022 Speakers: Clemena Antonova Saurabh DubeJulian Strube Series: Seminars and Colloquia This presentation derived from a larger project that attends to distinct registers and divergent claims of decolonize/decolonial/decoloniality, in order to carefully unravel these notions and practices as prescient optics unto contemporary worlds. Read more
	Democracy - A Fragile Way of Life	Tue, 15.06.2021	Lecture	Shalini Randeria Till van Rahden		Democracy - A Fragile Way of Life Tue, 15.06.2021 Speakers: Shalini Randeria Till van Rahden Series: Lecture After the Cold War ended, liberal democracy was taken for granted. Now it is in crisis: citizens distrust parliamentary politics, the people’s parties are losing members and votes, and social media are crowding out public debates. Challenging the sense of despair that informs recent studies on how democracy dies, Till van Rahden argued that it might prove more useful to explore what keeps it alive. A fruitful point of departure is the insight that democracy is not only a matter of elections and political parties, constitutions and parliaments, but is grounded in democratic experiences. The attention is less on how democratic government works, but on what equality, freedom, and justice feel like. A focus on democratic forms and aesthetics allows us to revisit the cultural and social foundations of democracy. No matter how stable a democracy may seem, it will wither and perish without ways of life that allow for and encourage democratic experiences. Read more
Democracy - A Fragile Way of Life Tue, 15.06.2021 Speakers: Shalini Randeria Till van Rahden Series: Lecture After the Cold War ended, liberal democracy was taken for granted. Now it is in crisis: citizens distrust parliamentary politics, the people’s parties are losing members and votes, and social media are crowding out public debates. Challenging the sense of despair that informs recent studies on how democracy dies, Till van Rahden argued that it might prove more useful to explore what keeps it alive. A fruitful point of departure is the insight that democracy is not only a matter of elections and political parties, constitutions and parliaments, but is grounded in democratic experiences. The attention is less on how democratic government works, but on what equality, freedom, and justice feel like. A focus on democratic forms and aesthetics allows us to revisit the cultural and social foundations of democracy. No matter how stable a democracy may seem, it will wither and perish without ways of life that allow for and encourage democratic experiences. Read more
	Destroying Democracy by Law	Tue, 25.04.2023	Lecture	Kim Scheppele Misha Glenny		Destroying Democracy by Law Tue, 25.04.2023 Speakers: Kim Scheppele Misha Glenny Series: Lecture Until 2005, the number of democracies in the world had been steadily increasing; however, since that date, the number has declined. Even robust democracies are now showing signs of weakness and some have turned into hybrid regimes suspended between democracy and autocracy. What is killing off the world’s democracies, and what can be done about it? Read more
Destroying Democracy by Law Tue, 25.04.2023 Speakers: Kim Scheppele Misha Glenny Series: Lecture Until 2005, the number of democracies in the world had been steadily increasing; however, since that date, the number has declined. Even robust democracies are now showing signs of weakness and some have turned into hybrid regimes suspended between democracy and autocracy. What is killing off the world’s democracies, and what can be done about it? Read more