At the End of the World Newsletter – 16 June 2025
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This is the 10th newsletter for the At the End of the World research program, housed at Lund University. It is the second newsletter from our third year of activity. If you’re receiving this email, it’s because you’ve subscribed to our mailing list. Below, we’ll fill you in on some upcoming events and also what we've been up to since the last newsletter. |
Upcoming webinar |
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Technology and the Apocalyptic Imaginary: Understanding AI Through the Lens of Religion, 16:00–17:30, 7 October 2025Abstract: What can we learn about the apocalyptic imaginary through probing how AI and religion intersect? Why is new technology entangled with religious and eschatological thought? This webinar is a conversation between Professor Dr. Beth Singler (University of Zürich), an anthropologist of religion and author and editor of several books on AI and religion, and Amanda Lagerkvist from At the End of the World, Professor of media and communication studies and researcher at the Centre for Multidisciplinary Research on Religion and Society at Uppsala University. This webinar will take place on Zoom on Tuesday, 7 October 2025, from 16:00 until 17:30 (Stockholm time). PLEASE NOTE: Our protocols for webinar attendance have changed. You must register in advance to attend this webinar. Please fill out this very short form, and a link to the Zoom webinar will be emailed to you at the email address you supply about 24 hours before the webinar begins: https://forms.gle/iH9jGyJNUQQhAzmS7. We look forward to seeing you there! Beth Singler is Assistant Professor in Digital Religion(s) at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, where she is also the Co-Director of the University's Research Priority Programme (URPP) in Digital Religion(s), a member of the Directorate of the Digital Society Initiative, and co-lead of the Media Existential Encounters and Evolving Technology Lab. Amanda Lagerkvist is Professor of Media and Communication Studies and researcher at the Centre for Multidisciplinary Research on Religion and Society at Uppsala University. Aaron James Goldman will chair the webinar. He is a research fellow in Philosophy of Religion at Lund University's Centre for Theology and Religious Studies. Image credit: Stephanie Harlacher. Photograph. 18 October 2020. “White laptop computer on table.” https://unsplash.com/photos/white-laptop-computer-on-table-dfgTcDNlAzY. Custom license: https://unsplash.com/license. |
Recent publications and media appearances by our team |
Natalie Bloch has authored an article titled “The Hypertemple in Mind: God's Voice Rebooted in the Temple Scroll” for the volume Jerusalem in Memory and Eschatology, edited by Emma O'Donnell Polyakov for Bloomsbury Academic. Marie Cronqvist appeared on a panel for the SVT production “Sverige och kriget: Eftersnack,” tracing the impact of the second World War in Sweden. David Dunér wrote a popular piece titled “Utomjordiska livsåskådningar” for a Glänta special issue on the topic, “Vad är liv?” Dunér also wrote the open access piece “Hur skapas en intellektuell miljö?” in, Mats Nygren (ed.), Hur skapas ett toppuniversitet? Lund 24 maj 2024. Patrik Fridlund recorded a short lecture video for the Centre for Theology and Religious Studies' Religion and Dates series (eds. Hege Markussen and Daniel Strömgren) titled “Thomas Hobbes ger ut Leviathan.” Fridlund also published an open access piece for Opulens titled “Vårt behov av fiktion” on 19 May 2025. Fridlund was also interviewed by Arvid Jurjaks for the article ’Macron kokainanklagades — därför är knark så kraftfull desinformation,’ which appeared in Omni on 20 May 2025. Fridlund published an open access academic article titled “Populism som idé” in Statsvetenskaplig tidskrift. Finally, Fridlund published another open access academic article titled “A Voice that Must be Silenced? In the Name of Reason. A Reading of D’un ton apocalyptique adopté naguère en philosophie” in Logoi.ph – Journal of Philosophy. Tobias Hägerland was interviewed by Gusten Holm for the 27 April open access article “SVT skildrar Jesus som Guds son – 'beklagligt'” in Expressen. Tormod Johansen was interviewed for Göteborgs Stift about the content of a panel he contributed to at Vetenskapsfestivalen i Göteborg, titled “Något större bud än dessa finns inte.” Amanda Lagerkvist authored an open access academic article for Sociologisk Forskning titled “The Senseless Machine: Toward a Crip Reading of (No-touch) Hands and Human Value from Eugenics to Biometrics.” Gregor Noll authored an academic article titled "Killing Hitler Word by Word: The Oath as Apocalyptical Lawmaking" for Jus Cogens. A Critical Journal of Philosophy of Law and Politics.
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Upcoming Lectures with Christine Helmer and Robert Orsi |
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Helmer: "Sacramental Religion in Apocalyptic Times": 10:00-12:00, 23 September 2025. Orsi: “The Gods of the Contemporary Far-Right”: 13:00–15:00, 23 September 2025. You are welcome to attend these lectures by prominent Professors of Religious Studies from Northwestern University (US) on 23 September 2025. When ready, abstracts will be found on this page. We hope to see you there! Christine Helmer is the Peter B. Ritzma Chair of Humanities at Northwestern University (USA), where she is also Professor of German and Religious Studies. Helmer is a theologian of Christianity, with a special focus on German intellectual history from the sixteenth century to today, including the theology and philosophy of Luther and Schleiermacher. She is the author of five books: The Trinity and Martin Luther (1999); Theology and the End of Doctrine (2014); How Luther Became the Reformer (2019); A Constructive Theology in Conversation with Christians in Tainan (2020); and (with Amy Carr), Ordinary Faith in Polarized Times: Justification and the Pursuit of Justice (2023). Robert Orsi is Grace Craddock Nagle Chair of Catholic Studies at Northwestern University (USA), where he is also Professor of Religious Studies, History, and American Studies. Orsi studies modern and contemporary religion, with a special focus on Catholic practices and ideas, from both historical and ethnographic perspectives. He also researches and writes on theory and method in the study of religion. His books include The Madonna of 115th Street: Faith and Community in Italian Harlem, 1880-1959 (3rd ed., 2010); Thank You, Saint Jude: Women’s Devotion to the Patron Saint of Hopeless Causes (1996); Between Heaven and Earth: The Religious Worlds People Make and the Scholars Who Study Them (2005); the edited volume, Gods of the City: Religion and the American Urban Landscape (1999); and History and Presence (2016). |
Other Upcoming Events |
On 26 June 2025, 11:00–12:30, Cecilia Wassén has organized a panel for the meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature and the European Association of Biblical Studies at Uppsala University. The panel will feature presentations by Jayne Svenungsson, Robert Folger, Blaženka Scheuer, Natalie Bloch, Tobias Hägerland, Katarina Pålsson, and Joel Kuhlin. More information, including precise times, titles, and abstracts, can be found on the meeting webpage. On 5 August 2025, Amanda Lagerkvist will deliver a keynote at the International Society for Media, Religion and Culture (ISMRC) Conference, Boston College (USA) titled, “In the Wilderness of the (Digital) Limit Situation: Existential and Extraordinary World-making in Times of Techno-apocalypticism.” On 2 September 2025, 16:15–18:00, in association with the Beyond Truth and Lies project, Patrik Fridlund and Aaron James Goldman have organized a seminar at Lund University under the title "Kayfabe Making, Kayfabe Breaking: Trump, Authenticity, and the Politics of Unmasking." At this seminar, Goldman will present his research in progress. You can find further information on the seminar here. On 3 September 2025, Amanda Lagerkvist has been invited to give a lecture at The Danish Institute for Advanced Study in Odense (DIAS) titled “At the Limit: Existential Media, Relational Selves and Technological Futures.” This fall, on 1 October 2025, Tobias Hägerland has invited our research group – with some limited slots available to the public – to an afternoon in Gothenburg. This event, titled Apokalyptik i konst och litteratur, will feature a visit to Gothenburg's art museum (fee: 70 kr) at 13:00 and a seminar – featuring Hannah Strømmen and Amanda Lagerkvist – at 15:15 about Karl Ove Knausgård's Morgenstjernen. The event will be in Swedish. Advance registration is required via email to tobias.hagerland[at]lir.gu.se. Allan Burnett is the principal organizer of a conference titled The Power of the Humanities in Academia and Society, 16–17 October 2025 at the Arbetets museum in Norrköping, Sweden. Burnett's role is part of his ongoing work with at Linköping University's Hub for Apocalyptic and Post-Apocalyptic Research. |
AnnouncementsCongratulations to Natalie Bloch! We congratulate Natalie Bloch for receiving a Shneer Family Fellowship in Innovations in Jewish Life. The fellowship will support her travel to the University of Colorado (US) to conduct archival research on the Zalman M. Schachter-Shalomi Papers in the Innovations in Jewish Life Collections. Her focus will be on the envisioning of apocalyptic spaces for Human-Divine encounters within Reb Zalman’s psychedelic hermeneutics. Congratulations to David Dunér! We also congratulate our researcher David Dunér on the achievement of becoming a new working member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, in Stockholm. Congratulations to Amanda Lagerkvist! The congratulations just keep coming. The End of the World researcher Amanda Lagerkvist has been appointed Core Fellow at the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies for the 2025–2026 academic year. Her project at HCAS will expand on her study within End of the World. By interrogating intersections of technology, dis/ability, extinction (eugenic world-building) and selfhood, she will be working on the problem of apocalypticism within powerful socio-technical imaginaries of AI and how they deeply affect and the fate of – and reflect or (re)forge norms for – being human in the world. Course launch for Vid världens slut: Apokalyptiska föreställningar i historia och nutid On 9 June 2025, we launched our distance course, based at Lund University, featuring lectures by several members of our research program. The course is in Swedish, and you may enroll after the start date. Course description: CTRD13, Kurs 7,5 högskolepoäng – Varifrån kommer föreställningen om att världen som vi känner den håller på att ta slut och varför kallas det för apokalyptik? På vilket sätt inverkar apokalyptiska föreställningar på politiskt tänkande, rapportering kring AI och klimathot? Hur kan apokalyptiska föreställningar tjäna till att väcka kritiskt engagemang och när blir de i stället hämmande? |
Program websiteAs a reminder, the program’s website is located at https://www.endoftheworld.lu.se/. The website logs each newsletter. |