Ulrike Auga (Hamburg): „Culture“, „Religion“ and the identity trap – epistemological questions

The lecture critically examines the question of “culture” and “identity”, especially with regard to religious affiliations. The starting point is Samuel P. Huntington’s remarks in “The Clash of Civilizations” (1996), with which he not only fell into the identity trap (Amartya Sen), but rushed into it.

To avoid epistemic violence, one should rather speak of fluid affiliations. Also Huntington’s view of history is criticized. The lecture traces the emergence of the concept of identity, its entrenchment in right-wing as well as left-wing discourses, and shows a way out in the conceptualization of the intersectional categories “gender”, “race”, “nation”, “class”, etc., as well as “religion” – not as identity categories but as discursive, intersectional, performative categories of knowledge production (DIP) (Ulrike E. Auga). To this end, knowledge-critical approaches (José Esteban Muñoz) will be brought into conversation with post- and decolonial voices (Tomoko Masuzawa, Saba Mahmood). The lecture presents alternatives to the concept of identity in the shape of subject formation, agency and “human flourishing” beyond identity also in the context of religion.

Universitätsbibliothek der TU und UDK Berlin
Fasanenstraße 88
Raum Bib 014