996001 Exploring Postsecularism in Contemporary Historical and Political Theory (S) (WiSe 2024/2025)

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 seminar 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 seminar, 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.
The Theory class will include a preliminary briefing on Tuesday the 9th of July from 4:00 to 6:00 p. m., a block session on Friday the 18th of October to discuss key texts on post-secularism, and a workshop on Saturday the 19th of October in which three international experts will contribute to this subject. The Theory class will be held in English.
If you have any questions, please contact Prof. Dr. Lisa Regazzoni (<lisa.regazzoni@uni-bielefeld.de>).