Concepts have long lost their innocence, not least due to post-modern and post-colonial critique. In the heydays of modernity, researchers tended to presume the universalism of key analytical concepts: every society was thought to have some form of state, some version of religion, art, literature, or science. All of those supposedly universal concepts have been…

“Islamophobia and the Muslim question: historical questions, contemporary representations” In contemporary public debates, Islam is often associated with issues such as violence, women’s oppression or antisemitism. One can, of course, criticise such stereotypes as failing to do justice to the depth and diversity of Islam. Yet, from an academic point of view, a more interesting…

On 8 December 2024, the regime of Bashar al-Asad, the president of Syria whose dictatorial rule had been in place for decades (and, before that, his father Hafiz al-Asad’s), ended for good when he was overthrown through a revolution. To commemorate and reflect on this event and its possible implications for the future of Syria,…

This Winter School revolves on the theme of “commensality”, the prospect of coming together at the same table -or not-, with literal and metaphorical implications for respecting differences among those who share a meal.  As a field of growing research in the arena of public health, scholars now connect commensality and sociability to individual and communal well-being. In this Winter School, we propose…