End time scenarios like the ongoing COVID-19 crisis or the flood disaster and heat waves due to anthropogenic climate change are just the most recent examples of experiences that act as apocalyptic catalysts and inspire apocalyptic thinking. It is a joint lecture series of the Centre for Apocalyptic and Post-Apocalyptic Studies (CAPAS) and the project “Epochal Life Worlds: Man, nature and technology in narratives of crisis and change” of the Joint Centre for Advanced Studies “Worldmaking from a Global Perspective: A Dialogue with China”. It undertakes the task of exploring imaginaries and experiences of catastrophic and (post-)apocalyptic events from an interdisciplinary perspective. The summer semester of 2022 is dedicated to imaginaries and experiences of (post-)apocalyptic and catastrophic events with a special focus on Asia. Read the full program of the lecture series here.

Both centres are advanced research centres which host internationally renowned fellows. With this format, the research at the Centres is made accessible to all members of Heidelberg University. Lectures are going to be held in English.

Venue:

The lectures will be held at HS 14, Neue Universität, Universitätsplatz 1, 69117 Heidelberg (the respective current pandemic regulations apply). Due to the ongoing pandemic, the lectures will be streamed digitally as well.

June Program

Tuesdays 6:15 PM – 7:45 PM

7.6. “Immanent Apocalypse: Reading Art as Philosophy”

Yi Chen (CAPAS Fellow)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxyZuY6vyNA

14.6. “Playing the End of the World As We Know It: Tabletop Role-Playing Games as (Post-)Apocalyptic Story Engines”

Adrian Hermann (University of Bonn & CAPAS Fellow)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yF2sBE8nr78

21.6. “Self-Portraits at the Edge. Devices for Studying Apocalyptic Imaginations in the Anthropocene”

Christine Hentschel (University of Hamburg & CAPAS Fellow)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ru3mCtuNn1c

28.6. “Apocalyptic and Anti-apocalyptic Cosmologies in Modern Hinduism”

Richard Weiss (Victoria University of Wellington & CAPAS Fellow)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8N-HfhmzRg

Video recordings of all lectures are available on YouTube.