“Simone Weil revisited. Partizipative Forschung und Lehre als Denkwege zwischen Berlin und Wien“

Collaboration between Humboldt-University Berlin and the University of Vienna, funded by Humboldt Virtual Academic Collaboration/HUVAC

Our overarching goal is to engage in research on Simone Weil and create an open dialogue around her as a philosopher, activist and mystic, resulting in an international framework that includes rather than excludes.

The immense complexity of her writings requires interdisciplinary, diversity-conscious and international research collaboration which takes into account her multilingualism (ancient Greek, German, English, French, Italian, Latin, Portuguese, Sanskrit, Spanish), the discourse collage of philosophy, religion, history, culture, mathematics, geography, astrology, physics, medicine, theatre, art and music as well as their intercultural and historical transpositions. The aim is not to merely focus on short temporary gatherings (such as conferences or workshops), but to create ongoing, sustainable and long-term research groups that have the tools to engage with the polyperspectivity of Weil’s work.

We consider university as a place of endless possibilities where creative processes take place in an inclusive way. For that reason, it is important to us to foster a collaborative working climate in which we constantly encourage one another to question hierarchies and organisational arrangements.

Thus, we envision a type of collaboration in which students, young academics (PhD students), post-docs and professors work together and develop structures that enable the acquisition of knowledge. By bringing together these different perspectives and backgrounds, we hope to achieve diversity, continuity and creativity in the reconstruction or further development of academic life, teaching and learning.

The HUVAC collaboration focuses on three main areas: