UT Faculty of Theology and Islamic Studies Hosts Slavoj Žižek in “Beyond Academic Philosophy”

On June 17, UT Faculty of Theology and Islamic Studies played host to Slavoj Žižek, a distinguished Slovenian philosopher, researcher at the Department of Philosophy of the University of Ljubljana Faculty of Arts, and international director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities of the University of London. He is also Global Eminent Scholar at Kyung Hee University in Seoul and Global Distinguished Professor of German at New York University. He works in subjects including continental philosophy, psychoanalysis, political theory, cultural studies, art criticism, film criticism, Marxism, Hegelianism, and theology.

Addressing Maftouni’s approach to traditional Islamic philosophy in this colloquium, Žižek said: “You are not hidden from me and I love your work, your readings; the way you approach Iranian tradition. It may surprise you.” Slavoj added: “Here now I come with what the work of Nadia Maftouni means to me. In her dealings of imagination, she goes and she demonstrates that already ancient Islamic philosophy went this way. She goes beyond Aristotle.”