The project explores the remarkable philosophical, theological, and literary developments that took place within the Jewish intellectual culture of the Baltic Sea region in the first half of the 20th century. We examine how the encounter between Rabbinic-Hassidic thought and German Enlightenment philosophy gave rise to unique intellectual experiments, by combining religious and philosophical traditions into new forms of thought and expression, what one of its leading representatives, Franz Rosenzweig in 1926 called a “new thinking”. The aim of the project is to trace, describe, connect, and explain these accomplishments, as they arise from the tension between margin and centre, minority and majority, national belonging and diaspora. Drawing from disciplines such as Philosophy, The Study of Religions, Theology, Jewish Studies, Narrative Theory, Literature, and Memory Studies, an international research team consisting of senior researchers and doctoral candidates applies a comprehensive theoretical and methodological approach to the study of Central and Eastern European Jewish intellectual traditions, including their afterlife in a post-Holocaust.
Experimenting with Traditions is funded by The Foundation for Baltic and East European Studies (Östersjöstiftelsen). Read more about the project here.
Ulrika Björk, PI, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Södertörn University
Hans Ruin, Professor of Philosophy, Södertörn University
Fanny Söderbäck, Professor of Philosophy, Södertörn University
Lena Roos, Professor of The Study of Religions, Södertörn University
Agata Bielik-Robson, Professor of Jewish Studies, Warsaw Academy of Sciences, (PAN)
Elad Lapidot, Professor of Hebraic Studies, University of Lille
Sophie Bäärnhielm Pousette, PhD Candidate in Philosophy, Södertörn University
Malin Norrby, PhD Candidate in The Study of Religions, Södertörn University
David Biale, Professor Emeritus of Jewish History at University of California, Davis († 2024)
Peter Gordon, Professor of History, Germanic Languages, and Philosophy, Harvard University
Annabelle Herzog, Professor of Political Theory, University of Haifa
Dana Hollander, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, McMaster University
Benjamin Pollock, Professor of Jewish Philosophy at the Hebrew University Jerusalem, Chair of the Department of Jewish Thought, and Director of Franz Rosenzweig Minerva Center
Allison Schachter, Professor of Jewish Studies and English, Vanderbilt University
Johan Sehlberg, PhD in Philosophy, Södertörn University, Project Assistant
Anna Sjöberg, PhD in Systematic Theology, Uppsala University
Bat Chen Laila Seri, PhD in Philosophy of Religion, Lund University
Hedda Lindstedt Grahn, PhD Candidate in The Study of Religions, Södertörn University
Hanna Kinnunen, PhD Candidate in Systematic Theology, Uppsala University
The Berlin Center for Intellectual Diaspora (Katholische Akademie Berlin)
At the End of the World: A Transdisciplinary Approach to the Apocalyptic Imaginary in the Past and Present (Lund University)
Paideia – The European Institute for Jewish Studies Sweden (Stockholm)
Jewish Culture in Sweden (Stockholm)