University of Tübingen Hosts Public Lecture Series on Right-Wing Extremism and Muslim Life in Germany
The Studium Generale at the University of Tübingen will start on October 21, 2024 for the winter semester 2024/25 with three public lecture series: Topics include the role of aesthetic practices in different social fields, the view of Muslim life in Germany and the presentation of the new Institute for Research on Right-Wing Extremism.
The events will take place in person in the Kupferbau lecture hall building (Hölderlinstraße 5, 72074 Tübingen). Access is free and no registration is required. The complete program has been published on the University of Tübingen’s website: www.uni-tuebingen.de/studium-generale .
The series Other Aesthetics – Art and Society in Pre-Modernity (Monday, 6:15 p.m., Lecture Hall 25) asks: What is art? What is it allowed to do – and what is it not allowed to do? Is it autonomous or heteronomous, purposeless (perhaps even purposeless?) or does it fulfil tasks and purposes in the everyday world as a social practice? The Tübingen Collaborative Research Centre “Other Aesthetics” is dedicated to the question of what role aesthetic practices play in different social fields. By examining aesthetic phenomena from antiquity through the Middle Ages to the early modern period, the organisers of the series also want to open up a new perspective on contemporary aesthetic practices and discourses.
Muslims have long since become an integral part of German society. According to an estimate from the study “Muslim Life in Germany 2020” commissioned by the German Islam Conference (DIK), between 5.3 and 5.6 million Muslims live in Germany. The Center for Islamic Theology examines Muslim Life in Germany: Legal Framework Conditions, Social Discourses and Muslim Diversity (Tuesday, 6:15 p.m., Lecture Hall 25) together with non-Muslim speakers and alumni of the University of Tübingen. With this series, the Center for Islamic Theology wants to make a contribution to the discourse on Islam and Muslims in Germany and pay particular attention to the plurality and ambiguity of Islamic beliefs and ways of life.
The extreme right poses a serious threat to open society, to the democratic constitutional state and to all people. With the lecture series Right-wing extremism: researching and countering it (Wednesday, 6:15 p.m., Lecture Hall 25), the Institute for Research on Right-Wing Extremism (IRex), newly founded at the University of Tübingen in May 2023, is presenting itself to the interested public. The task of right-wing extremism research is to understand the political, media and social functioning of right-wing extremism and to actively support politics and society in pushing back the extreme right. In this sense, representatives from politics and civil society who are committed to a defensive democracy and to counter right-wing extremism are also involved in the series.