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      Dr Johan Siebers

      ROLE: Associate Professor of Philosophy and Religion
      SCHOOL: Law
      DEPARTMENT: Criminology & Sociology
      TELEPHONE: +44 (0)20 8411 4447
      EMAIL: J.Siebers@mdx.ac.uk
      1. Biography &
        Qualifications
      2. Learning &
        Teaching Interests
      3. Research Outputs &
        Interests
      4. Funded Research &
        Knowledge Exchange Projects
      5. Engagement &
        Impact

      • Biography &
        Qualifications

        I joined the Religious Studies Unit (based in the Department of Criminology and Sociology) at Middlesex University in October 2013. Before coming to Midddlesex I was Reader in Philosophy and Critical Theory in the Department of English Language, Linguistics, Literature and Cultures at the University of Central Lancashire, where I continue to hold an honorary readership. Previously, I was a researcher and lecturer in the Faculty of Philosophy and the Faculty of Arts, Leiden University. I hold an honorary appointment as an Associate Fellow at the Institute of Modern Languages Research, School of Advanced Study, University of London. Previously (since 2005) I was a Visiting Fellow and later an Institute Fellow there. I have been a visiting researcher at the Research Centre for Classical German Philosophy, University of Bochum, Germany and at the Philosophy Department of Memorial University Newfoundland.

        I studied philosophy, linguistics and Dutch language and literature at Radboud University Nijmegen, Leiden University and Leuven University and obtained a doctorate in philosophy at Leiden University, where the Heideggerian philosopher Wouter Oudemans was my supervisor. My thesis dealt with the metaphysics of events and the creative advance in the speculative philosophy of Whitehead. At Nijmegen, Pieter Seuren, the linguist and philosopher of language, supervised my MA dissertation on the semantics and ontology of facts and events in the work of Davidson. Oudemans taught me to "become empirical", as he used to call it, Seuren taught me to appreciate the richness of natural language and the natural mind, systematic and critical theory development, careful observation and the humane and emancipatory mission of scholarship. They shared the fighting spirit which accompanies free thinking and which is almost the opposite of the "debate between irritable professors" that, as Whitehead said, academia so often deteriorates into. As much as I learned from these living teachers, I learned from the study, over many years, of the philosophy of Ernst Bloch, in which I found an alternative to the dogmatic skepticism and prohibition to think that, in my view, characterise so much recent philosophy. The question what it means that we live in an unfinished world, that "something is missing" (Brecht) while on the other hand the ground of being is surplus, communicating relationality and creative freedom, is a central inspiration for me, not only theoretically and scholarly but also practically and ethically. Philosophy not only critically examines general concepts, presuppositions and assumptions, and attempts - no matter how tentatively, mutely or speculatively - to think the absolute, it also aims to enable us to live with "desire in the face of death, it seeks dialogue in the face of dogmatism and it attempts democracy in the face of structures of domination" (Cornel West).

        I am first and foremost a philosopher but I value looking over the boundaries of my field because philosophy often works well in dialogue with other disciplines, practices and questions and its concerns are, in one way or another, everyone's concerns. Both in my research as well as my teaching I explore this dialogue, with religious studies, German studies and intellectual history, art practice as research, questions in communication theory, rhetoric and linguistics, literary criticism, participatory research, critical pedagogy and the exploration of alternative models of knowledge, social work and community art, literacy, Socratic dialogue, sustainability and scenario thinking, cultural theory, psychoanalysis and sociology. This interest is part of a wider concern with new modes of academic writing, research, teaching, critique and knowledge that I seek to explore.

        Philosophy is for me the never-ending struggle against bad philosophy and for the liberation of the mind, without which there can be no practice of hope and freedom, no newness, no world as experiment, at all.


        Languages Spoken

        Fluent in Dutch and German.

      • Learning &
        Teaching Interests

        I convene the Religious Studies Research Colloquium and I am a regular visiting lecturer at institutions in the UK and abroad. My teaching interests are in religious studies, history of philosophy, metaphysics, critical theory, philosophy of communication and rhetoric. In the year 2015-2016 I am teaching SOC2510, Contemporary Social Theory, in the Department of Criminology and Sociology.

      • Research Outputs &
        Interests

        My main research interests are in metaphysics and critical theory. Metaphysics tries to answer the question what it means to be; this question is in a way inconstructable; our understanding of existence is informed by this "inconstructable question" (Bloch). Theory is critical when it aims 'to liberate human beings from the circumstances that enslave them' (Horkheimer). In my work I develop a contemporary form of critical theory that contributes to this aim and takes its starting point from key themes in the philosophy of Ernst Bloch. It is developed along three axes: the ontology of indeterminate being; the unconscious and the body; the critique of ideology. Critical theory needs to be infused with a utopian perspective to be able to address contemporary modes of enslavement and to remain an open practice of questioning.

        This approach is applied to a number of areas: Metaphysics and its history; spirituality in world religions; utopian and future studies; historiography and commentary on the thought of Ernst Bloch; atheism in Christianity; the contemporary faces of religion and religious experience; the origins of ideology; history of 19th and 20th century German thought; communication theory, cultural theory and literary studies; community, time and temporality; wisdom; research methodology of (arts) practice as research.

        I am happy to supervise dissertation and thesis projects in these areas.

        Personal homepage: https://sas.academia.edu/JohanSiebers

        Click here for the schedule of the London German Philosophy Seminar, which I have been running since 2008 at the IMLR.

        Twitter: @doctaspes

        Publication Feed

        "Die Welt gut im Gang": der Friedenstopos in Blochs Philosophie

        Siebers, Johan (2016) "Die Welt gut im Gang": der Friedenstopos in Blochs Philosophie. In: Jahrbuch der Ernst Bloch Gesellschaft 2016. BJB (20). Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg. (Accepted/In press)

        Bij Shell werd ik de Marxist die ik nu ben

        Siebers, Johan and Akkerman, Stevo (2016) Bij Shell werd ik de Marxist die ik nu ben. Trouw, Amsterdam.

        Johan Siebers on Bloch, hope and Utopia

        Siebers, Johan and Barron, Nathaniel (2014) Johan Siebers on Bloch, hope and Utopia. Nyx, A Noctournal .

        Why drawing, now?

        Douglas, Anne and Ravetz, Amanda and Genever, Kate and Siebers, Johan (2014) Why drawing, now? Journal of Art & Communities, 6 . pp. 119-131. ISSN 1757-1936

        The Use of the Pen: A Philosophical Improvisation

        Siebers, Johan (2014) The Use of the Pen: A Philosophical Improvisation. Critical Muslim, 12 . pp. 141-149. ISSN 2048-8475

        View more publications

      • Funded Research &
        Knowledge Exchange Projects

        2012- : Bloch Bibliothek: A series of translations with commentaries of the works of Ernst Bloch, and monographs on Bloch's philosophy. General Editor. Contract with Brill Publishers (Historical Materialism Book Series). First volume planned for 2014 (Ernst Bloch, Subjekt-Objekt. Erläuterungen zu Hegel, Leverhulme Foundation, £17,000 translation and text research grant for Catherine Moir). Partner institutions: Ernst Bloch Study Centre, University of Sheffield, Senate House Library, University of London and Department of German, Sydney University. Each translation and book project will be funded separately.

        2011-2013: Critique of materialist reason. The utopian philosophy of Ernst Bloch. IGRS fellowship project and Uclan Livesey Award (research leave 2012). £12,000.

        2012-2015: The meaning of work through the lens of Ernst Jünger's Der Arbeiter: translation and commentary. IGRS. With Laurence Hemming (IGRS) and Bogdan Costea (University of Lancaster).

        2013-2014: Communicating wisdom. AHRC grant AH/K006479/1. PI. Partners: Department of English and Department of Education, University of Sheffield. £40,000. 2013-2014: Ways of knowing in collaborative research. AHRC grant AH/K006568/1. Co-I. Partners: PI Helen Graham, School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies, University of Leeds; University of Manchester; University of Sheffield. £40,000.

        2013-2014: Philosophy and religious practice research project. Member of Steering Committee (University of Liverpool and University of Chester, £40,000).

        2013-2014: In conversation with more-than-human communities. AHRC grant AH/K006517/1. Project Partner. Lead: University of Manchester. 7 partner institutions. £40,000.

        2012-2013: The time of the clock and the time of encounter: pathfinders for connection. AHRC grant AH/J006637/1. PI. Partners: Prof Anne Douglas, Gray School of Fine Art, Robert Gordon University; Dr Michelle Bastian, CRESC University of Manchester; Dr Chris Speed, University of Edinburgh. £100,000.

        2012-2013: Temporal belongings. AHRC grant AH/J006653/1. Co-I. Partners: PI Michelle Bastian, University of Manchester. Co-I Prof Graham Crow, University of Southampton. £40,000.

        2011-2012: A philosophical exploration of the relation between the concepts of 'community' and 'future'. AHRC grant AH/I00670X/1. PI. £20,300.

        2008-2011: Social dialogue: researcher on work packages 9 and 10 of Science, ethics and technological responsibility in developing and emerging countries, EU 7th Framework Programme, call SiS-2007-1.2.2.4. 11 partners in EU and Asia. Uclan element: £30,000.

        2009-2011: The return of religion. AHRC funded research network. Member. Lead: Ernst Bloch Study Centre, University of Sheffield.

        2006-2008: Freud in translation. AHRC funded research network. Member. Lead: IGRS.

        1993-1998: Event ontology in 20th century philosophy. Dept. of Philosophy, Leiden University, university-funded doctoral research project.

      • Engagement &
        Impact

        Positions:

        Impact:

        Previous:

        From 1999 to 2006, Dr Siebers was a contributor to the Shell future scenarios, where he worked on socio-cultural and political futures.

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