Past Events

	Title	Date	Type	Speakers
	Junior Visiting Fellows‘ Conference	Tue, 23.06.2020, 10:00	Conferences and Workshops	Alicja Rybkowska Ayşe Çağlar Biray Kolluoglu Gavin Smith Ivan Vejvoda Mariya Ivancheva Matyáš Křížkovský Stanislas Richard Volha Biziukova Yulia Abibok Adele Blazquez Vlasta Kordová	Junior Visiting Fellows‘ Conference Tue, 23.06.2020, 10:00 Speakers: Alicja Rybkowska Ayşe Çağlar Biray Kolluoglu Gavin Smith Ivan Vejvoda Mariya Ivancheva Matyáš Křížkovský Stanislas Richard Volha Biziukova Yulia Abibok Adele Blazquez Vlasta Kordová Series: Conferences and Workshops Read more

	Notes on Militant Populism in Contemporary France	Mon, 22.06.2020, 16:00	Seminars and Colloquia	Winnie Lem	Notes on Militant Populism in Contemporary France Contextualising the Gilets Jaunes Mon, 22.06.2020, 16:00 Speakers: Winnie Lem Series: Seminars and Colloquia The presentation consisted of notes from the field which reflect on the relationship between the conjunctural forces that prevail in contemporary France and the emergence of the Gilets Jaunes (Yellow Vest) insurgency. As is now well known, this movement has been alternatively claimed by the left as a citizen’s revolution and the right as a patriotic revolution. Met with aggressive repression by the forces of order, this eruption, so some have argued, is the most recent manifestation of the militant tradition of the notoriously contentious French. By asking how the current climate of economic austerity combined with ecological neoliberalism has conditioned the rise of a movement that not only cuts across political and ideological differences but also some social divisions, these notes offer some thoughts on how the Gilets Jaunes (GJ) both continues and breaks with this tradition. Based on observation, but not participation in the mobilisations in Paris in 2019, these reflections focus on how the contradictions in contemporary capitalism are refracted through the disparate political aims of this militancy. Read more
Notes on Militant Populism in Contemporary France Contextualising the Gilets Jaunes Mon, 22.06.2020, 16:00 Speakers: Winnie Lem Series: Seminars and Colloquia The presentation consisted of notes from the field which reflect on the relationship between the conjunctural forces that prevail in contemporary France and the emergence of the Gilets Jaunes (Yellow Vest) insurgency. As is now well known, this movement has been alternatively claimed by the left as a citizen’s revolution and the right as a patriotic revolution. Met with aggressive repression by the forces of order, this eruption, so some have argued, is the most recent manifestation of the militant tradition of the notoriously contentious French. By asking how the current climate of economic austerity combined with ecological neoliberalism has conditioned the rise of a movement that not only cuts across political and ideological differences but also some social divisions, these notes offer some thoughts on how the Gilets Jaunes (GJ) both continues and breaks with this tradition. Based on observation, but not participation in the mobilisations in Paris in 2019, these reflections focus on how the contradictions in contemporary capitalism are refracted through the disparate political aims of this militancy. Read more
	Social and Ecological Movements in “Apocalyptic Times”	Mon, 15.06.2020, 16:00	Seminars and Colloquia	Adam Ramsay Ludger Hagedorn Matyáš Křížkovský	Social and Ecological Movements in “Apocalyptic Times” The Case of Extinction Rebellion Mon, 15.06.2020, 16:00 Speakers: Adam Ramsay Ludger Hagedorn Matyáš Křížkovský Series: Seminars and Colloquia Ecological discourses are in upheaval once again. After the 2018 IPCC report made clear that the timeframe to avoid the worst scenarios is rapidly shrinking, new societal groups have taken the streets. Discerning different strategies for social transformation and their respective relations to utopian/dystopian ecological imaginaries, the paper outlines three ideal types of social movements. This framework is then used to analyse Extinction Rebellion as the best known and most revolutionary newcomer – but also the most controversial, even for many ecological activists. What are the promises and possible dangers of this new attempt to revolutionize ecological issues? Read more
Social and Ecological Movements in “Apocalyptic Times” The Case of Extinction Rebellion Mon, 15.06.2020, 16:00 Speakers: Adam Ramsay Ludger Hagedorn Matyáš Křížkovský Series: Seminars and Colloquia Ecological discourses are in upheaval once again. After the 2018 IPCC report made clear that the timeframe to avoid the worst scenarios is rapidly shrinking, new societal groups have taken the streets. Discerning different strategies for social transformation and their respective relations to utopian/dystopian ecological imaginaries, the paper outlines three ideal types of social movements. This framework is then used to analyse Extinction Rebellion as the best known and most revolutionary newcomer – but also the most controversial, even for many ecological activists. What are the promises and possible dangers of this new attempt to revolutionize ecological issues? Read more
	The Remains of the Real	Mon, 08.06.2020, 16:00	Seminars and Colloquia	Jan Sowa Ludger Hagedorn	The Remains of the Real Politics after Postmodernism Mon, 08.06.2020, 16:00 Speakers: Jan Sowa Ludger Hagedorn Series: Seminars and Colloquia There was a moment in the 1990’s, in the era of high postmodernism, when it seemed that social reality has had no stable foundations and as such it can be freely and totally transformed by interventions in the registers of symbols and images. Various social, political and economic developments of the last two decades – from 9/11 terrorist attacks to the 2008 financial crisis to the recent populist uprisings on both sides of the Atlantic – blatantly contradict that over-optimist conviction. A lot has been said about what the populists get wrong, what is, however, more puzzling is that they seem to get some things right – as if people had a sort of political blindsight or – to put it in more philosophical terms – as if there was some kind of basic social and political unconcealedness/disclosure (alētheia) where the truth shines through the curtain of lies. Read more
The Remains of the Real Politics after Postmodernism Mon, 08.06.2020, 16:00 Speakers: Jan Sowa Ludger Hagedorn Series: Seminars and Colloquia There was a moment in the 1990’s, in the era of high postmodernism, when it seemed that social reality has had no stable foundations and as such it can be freely and totally transformed by interventions in the registers of symbols and images. Various social, political and economic developments of the last two decades – from 9/11 terrorist attacks to the 2008 financial crisis to the recent populist uprisings on both sides of the Atlantic – blatantly contradict that over-optimist conviction. A lot has been said about what the populists get wrong, what is, however, more puzzling is that they seem to get some things right – as if people had a sort of political blindsight or – to put it in more philosophical terms – as if there was some kind of basic social and political unconcealedness/disclosure (alētheia) where the truth shines through the curtain of lies. Read more
	WhatsApp Israel?	Tue, 02.06.2020, 16:00	Seminars and Colloquia	Avrum Burg Ludger Hagedorn	WhatsApp Israel? Tue, 02.06.2020, 16:00 Speakers: Avrum Burg Ludger Hagedorn Series: Seminars and Colloquia There are not many individuals in the world, who do not know Israel. Who did not hear something, good or bad, about it? Many have strong opinions about what is happening in this small country. The country that was once a model society of equality and liberal democracy is now a partner to more conservative and illiberal regimes around the world. So, who are you Israel of 2020? Read more
WhatsApp Israel? Tue, 02.06.2020, 16:00 Speakers: Avrum Burg Ludger Hagedorn Series: Seminars and Colloquia There are not many individuals in the world, who do not know Israel. Who did not hear something, good or bad, about it? Many have strong opinions about what is happening in this small country. The country that was once a model society of equality and liberal democracy is now a partner to more conservative and illiberal regimes around the world. So, who are you Israel of 2020? Read more
	Parenting and Education	Mon, 25.05.2020, 16:00	Seminars and Colloquia	Biray Kolluoglu Ludger Hagedorn	Parenting and Education Navigating Class, Religiosity and Secularity in Turkey Mon, 25.05.2020, 16:00 Speakers: Biray Kolluoglu Ludger Hagedorn Series: Seminars and Colloquia Middle class parents in reproducing their children’s middle classness face a complex web of paths to navigate towards a future that seems less controllable. Education is the primary means of the reproduction of class positions and hence education is the field that unravels both modern parenting and class inequalities. What happens when class gets entangled with the place of religion in a society that is politically, socially and culturally crackling along the religious and the secular divide? This presentation explored how middle class parents in Istanbul juggle their religiosity and secularity in their anxious saga of giving their children a life like theirs. The presentation invited us to think about the global implications of the relationship between the making of cultural cleavages and the role of class practices through their manifestations in the field of education. Read more
Parenting and Education Navigating Class, Religiosity and Secularity in Turkey Mon, 25.05.2020, 16:00 Speakers: Biray Kolluoglu Ludger Hagedorn Series: Seminars and Colloquia Middle class parents in reproducing their children’s middle classness face a complex web of paths to navigate towards a future that seems less controllable. Education is the primary means of the reproduction of class positions and hence education is the field that unravels both modern parenting and class inequalities. What happens when class gets entangled with the place of religion in a society that is politically, socially and culturally crackling along the religious and the secular divide? This presentation explored how middle class parents in Istanbul juggle their religiosity and secularity in their anxious saga of giving their children a life like theirs. The presentation invited us to think about the global implications of the relationship between the making of cultural cleavages and the role of class practices through their manifestations in the field of education. Read more
	Kidnapped from Nazism, or the Greek Tragedy of Central Europe	Mon, 18.05.2020, 16:00	Seminars and Colloquia	Aspen Brinton Ludger Hagedorn Tomáš Korda Vlasta Kordová	Kidnapped from Nazism, or the Greek Tragedy of Central Europe Mon, 18.05.2020, 16:00 Speakers: Aspen Brinton Ludger Hagedorn Tomáš Korda Vlasta Kordová Series: Seminars and Colloquia The paper recalls the essay The Tragedy of Central Europe, written by the Czech novelist Milan Kundera. Vlasta Kordova and Tomas Korda criticize the unhistorical cold-war image of the West that Kundera employs. In his reading, the Second World War just did not take place. They do not mean this objection as an external critique. Since why should someone be interested in Kundera’s omission, after all. They mean their criticism as immanent in the sense that ignoring the WWII, as the “truth” and result of the severe nationalism that was then spread across the continent, precludes the very possibility to apprehend the moral equality or equal legitimacy of the “socialist” East and the “capitalist” West. Since a tragic collision of two powers is set up only by their equal essentiality, Kundera cannot grasp the tragical dimension of the Cold War, and Central Europe respectively. Underpinned by the WWII and thereby elevated into the genuine Greek tragedy, the Cold War cannot know any victors, losers or pure victims and, moreover, both powers of equal essentiality must experience their own respective demise. Read more
Kidnapped from Nazism, or the Greek Tragedy of Central Europe Mon, 18.05.2020, 16:00 Speakers: Aspen Brinton Ludger Hagedorn Tomáš Korda Vlasta Kordová Series: Seminars and Colloquia The paper recalls the essay The Tragedy of Central Europe, written by the Czech novelist Milan Kundera. Vlasta Kordova and Tomas Korda criticize the unhistorical cold-war image of the West that Kundera employs. In his reading, the Second World War just did not take place. They do not mean this objection as an external critique. Since why should someone be interested in Kundera’s omission, after all. They mean their criticism as immanent in the sense that ignoring the WWII, as the “truth” and result of the severe nationalism that was then spread across the continent, precludes the very possibility to apprehend the moral equality or equal legitimacy of the “socialist” East and the “capitalist” West. Since a tragic collision of two powers is set up only by their equal essentiality, Kundera cannot grasp the tragical dimension of the Cold War, and Central Europe respectively. Underpinned by the WWII and thereby elevated into the genuine Greek tragedy, the Cold War cannot know any victors, losers or pure victims and, moreover, both powers of equal essentiality must experience their own respective demise. Read more
	Leben im – und Wege aus dem – „Corona-Camp“	Mon, 11.05.2020, 16:00	Seminars and Colloquia	Bernd Marin Ludger HagedornAugust Ruhs	Leben im – und Wege aus dem – „Corona-Camp“ Mon, 11.05.2020, 16:00 Speakers: Bernd Marin Ludger HagedornAugust Ruhs Series: Seminars and Colloquia Der renommierte österreichische Sozialwissenschaftler Bernd Marin hat in zwei Interviews (beide in voller Länge nachzulesen im Corona Blog des IWM) das Leben im „Corona-Camp” (6. April; eine vielbeachtete Kurzfassung erschien am 12. April in der Ostersonntagsausgabe des KURIER) sowie Post-Quarantimes: Wege aus dem „Corona-Camp“ (29. April) kritisch reflektiert. Im Rahmen des virtuellen IWM-Kolloquiums stellte sich Bernd Marin öffentlich den Fragen zu seinen beiden Interviews (hier eine mögliche Auswahl) und diskutierte mit dem bekannten Psychiater August Ruhs. Read more
Leben im – und Wege aus dem – „Corona-Camp“ Mon, 11.05.2020, 16:00 Speakers: Bernd Marin Ludger HagedornAugust Ruhs Series: Seminars and Colloquia Der renommierte österreichische Sozialwissenschaftler Bernd Marin hat in zwei Interviews (beide in voller Länge nachzulesen im Corona Blog des IWM) das Leben im „Corona-Camp” (6. April; eine vielbeachtete Kurzfassung erschien am 12. April in der Ostersonntagsausgabe des KURIER) sowie Post-Quarantimes: Wege aus dem „Corona-Camp“ (29. April) kritisch reflektiert. Im Rahmen des virtuellen IWM-Kolloquiums stellte sich Bernd Marin öffentlich den Fragen zu seinen beiden Interviews (hier eine mögliche Auswahl) und diskutierte mit dem bekannten Psychiater August Ruhs. Read more
	Religion and Power Between Empires and Publics	Mon, 04.05.2020, 16:00	Seminars and Colloquia	Katherine Younger Laura Engelstein	Religion and Power Between Empires and Publics The Case of the Greek Catholic/Uniate Church Mon, 04.05.2020, 16:00 Speakers: Katherine Younger Laura Engelstein Series: Seminars and Colloquia In the 19th century, the Greek Catholic/Uniate Church, an Eastern rite Catholic Church on the territory of modern-day Ukraine, Belarus, and Poland, served as a proving ground for evolving approaches to negotiating religion within states and between them. Straddling a political border between the Habsburg and Russian empires and a confessional boundary between Catholicism and Orthodoxy, the church became a major object of the ambitions and anxieties of empires and their subjects. The project explores two main questions: How did the role of religion change over the course of the 19th century with regards to imperial governance and international politics? And how did these changes shape the ways power was exercised in those same two arenas? The case of the Greek Catholic/Uniate Church helps us to trace confession’s evolution as a crucial element in the logic of empire, as well as how policies of coercion came to be complemented by tools of attraction given the growing range of actors with domestic and international political influence and power. Read more
Religion and Power Between Empires and Publics The Case of the Greek Catholic/Uniate Church Mon, 04.05.2020, 16:00 Speakers: Katherine Younger Laura Engelstein Series: Seminars and Colloquia In the 19th century, the Greek Catholic/Uniate Church, an Eastern rite Catholic Church on the territory of modern-day Ukraine, Belarus, and Poland, served as a proving ground for evolving approaches to negotiating religion within states and between them. Straddling a political border between the Habsburg and Russian empires and a confessional boundary between Catholicism and Orthodoxy, the church became a major object of the ambitions and anxieties of empires and their subjects. The project explores two main questions: How did the role of religion change over the course of the 19th century with regards to imperial governance and international politics? And how did these changes shape the ways power was exercised in those same two arenas? The case of the Greek Catholic/Uniate Church helps us to trace confession’s evolution as a crucial element in the logic of empire, as well as how policies of coercion came to be complemented by tools of attraction given the growing range of actors with domestic and international political influence and power. Read more
	Europe After the Pandemic	Wed, 22.04.2020, 18:30	Panels and Discussions	Ivan KrastevJordi Vaquer	Europe After the Pandemic Wed, 22.04.2020, 18:30 Speakers: Ivan KrastevJordi Vaquer Series: Panels and Discussions The political scientist Ivan Krastev, chairman of the Centre of Liberal Strategies in Sofia and Permanent Fellow of the Institute for Human Sciences (IWM), and the political analyst and co-director of the Open Society Initiative for Europe, Jordi Vaquer, discussed the future of Europe after the COVID-19 crisis. Read more
Europe After the Pandemic Wed, 22.04.2020, 18:30 Speakers: Ivan KrastevJordi Vaquer Series: Panels and Discussions The political scientist Ivan Krastev, chairman of the Centre of Liberal Strategies in Sofia and Permanent Fellow of the Institute for Human Sciences (IWM), and the political analyst and co-director of the Open Society Initiative for Europe, Jordi Vaquer, discussed the future of Europe after the COVID-19 crisis. Read more

Past Events

Current Fellows' research