Lecture Series: Making Sense of our time
The Uppsala Lectures in Making Sense of Our Time is an cross-disciplinary lecture series that gives faculty, doctoral students and undergraduates the opportunity to meet leading international scholars in the humanities and social sciences.
The lectures are organised twice a year and revolve around the overarching theme of how we can meet and understand our contemporary world.
During the upcoming lectures, we will meet leading international scholars in subjects such as history, political science, sociology, philosophy and law. They will share their views on our challenging times. How should we orientate ourselves in a time when hope for the future seems to be replaced by scepticism and concern for the fundamental values of society: democracy, justice, self-determination and peace? As researchers and academics, how should we respond to an era that appears to be increasingly unstable? What historical experiences can we learn from, and how can our disciplines contribute to making sense of a troubling future?
The lecture series is organised by CIRCUS on the initiative of Professor Jenny Andersson, Department of History of Science and Ideas, and Professor Sofia Näsström, Department of Government.
The content is designed by a programme committee:
Jenny Andersson, Professor, Department of History of Science and Ideas
Sofia Näsström, Professor, Department of Government
Christina Kullberg, Professor, Department of Modern Languages
Mohammad Fazlhashemi, Professor, Department of Theology
Previous lectures
Hoping well in dark times
A lecture by Lars Svendsen
Lars Svendsen is the author of several books, including A Philosophy of Evil, A Philosophy of Fear, and the recently published A Philosophy of Hope, which is also the theme of the evening: “Hoping Well in Dark Times.” What is hope, really, and how does it relate to action and change?
Propagande wars
A lecture by Martin Gelin
For six years, Gelin has investigated how soft power, propaganda and information warfare affect our political environment and the global crisis for democracy. Authoritarians today spend more resources on soft power, cultural diplomacy and propaganda than liberal democracies do. To contain the rise of authoritarianism, open societies must also take soft power seriously.
Scorched Earth, Vibrant Milieus
A lecture by Neferti Xina M. Tadiar
Neferti Xina M. Tadiar is a professor of Women´s, Gender and Sexuality Studies at Columbia University and will in this lecture talk about the destructive terraforming role of imperial war in maintaining a dominant global way of life, and the role of shared lifemaking on the part of the dispossessed in creating milieus of vibrant change.
The Challenge of Loss
A lecture by Andreas Reckwitz
In contemporary Western societies, experiences of loss are widespread: From climate change to postindustrial downward mobility, from democratic regressions to the articulation of historic wounds by groups of victims. How can a society that is fixated on progress and the promise of “better” and “more” put itself in a position to deal with loss? In this lecture, Andreas Reckwitz argues that the precarious balance between progress and loss could break down. What are the causes and the consequences?
From the planetary to the global - The role of oilmen
A lecture by Glenda Sluga
"Follow the money!" is a common maxim for those wanting to make sense of the world, and in particular for those interested in new histories of capitalism. In this lecture, Professor Glenda Sluga does precisely that, and it takes her to how the men of oil shifted 1970s debates of a planetary whole towards more limited and linear accounts of "globalisation. In this lecture, Sluga will talk on this topic, and how it matters for the contemporary debate on capitalism and climate.
Democracies Erode from the Top
A lecture by Larry Bartels
Larry Bartels, Professor of Political Science at Vanderbilt University, USA, will talk about his new book: Democracies Erode from the Top (Princeton University Press 2023). In this book, Bartels dismantles the pervasive myth of a populist wave, and explains why leaders, not citizens, are the driving force in Europe’s crisis of democracy.
Free - Coming of Age at the End of History
A lecture by Lea Ypi
Lea Ypi, Professor of Political Theory, London School of Economics, will talk about her much-discussed book Free - Coming of Age at the End of History. A story about growing up in the transition between communism and capitalism.
Contact
Please contact Linda Almgren, Project Coordinator at linda.almgren@circus.uu.se if you have any questions regarding the cross-disciplinary lecture series.