At the End of the World Newsletter – 15 December 2025
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This is the 12th newsletter for the At the End of the World research program, housed at Lund University. It is the final 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. |
New essay by Jayne Svenungsson in Respons |
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Jayne Svenungsson has authored a piece in Swedish for Respons aimed at a broad academic audience about why the humanities are fruitful (and needed) to study pressing political concerns related to widespread crisis and apocalypticism. The article is titled “Humaniora vid världens slut” [Humanities at the End of the World]. |
Upcoming symposium at the Katholische Akademie in Berlin |
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Conversations in Apocalyptic Times Are we living through the end of a world order? Across the globe, a growing sense of rupture is reshaping how we think about politics, philosophy, law, and technology. This public event brings together leading scholars from diverse fields to explore how today’s apocalyptic mood is transforming their disciplines – and what new promises, fears, and possibilities emerge in this moment of profound change. Join us for a 1-day symposium – featuring several members of the At the End of the World research team – at the Berlin Center for Intellectual Diaspora at the Katholische Akademie, 9:30–18:30 on 27 January, 2026. All are welcome to attend. The address is Hannoversche Str. 5; 10115 Berlin, Germany. This event is a collaboration between At the End of the World,the Berlin Center for Intellectual Diaspora at the Katholische Akademie in Berlin, and the project Experimenting with Traditions at Södertörn University. Check out this page for more details, for a list of participants, and to download a schedule of events. |
Upcoming webinar in spring 2026 |
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Apocalyptic Imaginaries in Jewish Psychedelic Discourse16:00-17:30, Stockholm time (Zoom), on 24 March 2026 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/z5vGtARJ1Fzd6shV6. We look forward to seeing you there! ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Sam S. B. Shonkoff, is the Taube Family Associate Professor of Jewish Studies at the Graduate Theological Union. His scholarship focuses primarily on German-Jewish and Hasidic theologies, as well as integrations of Hasidic spirituality in relatively secular spheres. Leor Roseman, is a Senior Lecturer and Psychedelic Researcher at the University of Exeter. His interdisciplinary research encompasses neuroscience, psychology, phenomenology, anthropology and conflict resolution. Natalie Bloch is a researcher in Hebrew Bible Exegesis at the Centre for Theology and Religious Studies, Lund University. Her research interests include Jewish apocalypticism across the ages as well as psychedelics and religion/spirituality. 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. |
Recent publications and media appearances by our team |
Mårten Björk and Tormod Johansen have published a co-authored open access book titled The End of Law: Political Theology and the Crisis of Sovereignty for Routledge. Congrats go out to them! For Dixicon, Natalie Bloch authored a piece titled “Djävlar och demoner.” She also contributed to an episode of Bildningsbyrån – UR for Sveriges Radio titled “Maimonides – medeltidens mest moderna hjärna.” David Dunér was interviewed in Jonas Enander's “Tecken på liv på Mars – men har vi hört det förut?” in Forskning & Framsteg and in Simon Devos's “Mars : la première bio-signature potentielle” in Epsiloon, no. 53. Moreover, Dunér was a contributing co-author in Véronique Dehant, ed., Mars: Ambition humaine, défis planétaires, Opinio 6, Académie royal des sciences, des lettres et des beaux-arts de Belgique, Bruxelles 2025. Patrik Fridlund was interviewed by Göteborgs-Posten for the article “Forskare om SD-draget: Har med hudfärg och gener att göra” published 12 November 2025. Tormod Johansen wrote an open access article for Political Theology titled “Law Must Not End – the Threat of Secular Apocalypse.” Max Liljefors created an artistic work titled “In Mundum” published in Matter. The Materiality of Artistic Research in Theatre and Performance, no. 4. Jayne Svenungsson has authored an open access chapter for a book titled Lessons of History (Klas-Göran Karlsson & Maria Karlsson, eds.) titled “Christianity and Crisis: Religion and Ideology in Modern Europe.” On 6–8 November 2025, Jayne Svenungsson and Cecilia Wassén gave lectures at a conference at the University of Basel titled Ende oder Wende? Apokalyptische Diskurse in Antike und Gegenwart. Wassén’s presentation was titled “Searching for the Historical Jesus: The Ongoing Debate over His Apocalyptic Message.” Svenungsson’s paper was titled “Apocalypticism Today: Challenges for a Responsible Theology.” The conference proceedings will be published open access by Theologischer Verlag Zürich (TVZ) in their series Christentum und Kultur. |
AnnouncementsCongratulations to Allan Burnett! Burnett has just been awarded an initiation grant from Riksbankens Jubileumsfond to organize an international and interdisciplinary collaborative research network on 'The Media History of Psychiatry'. The network is co-organized by At the End of The World colleague Amanda Lagerkvist and also involves Marie Cronqvist. It also includes further participants at Durham University, Uppsala University, and Lausanne University in the history of science, psychiatry, medicine, and media. The historical influence of media discourses and technologies upon theories about, among other things, mental collapse or catastrophe and revelations of the unconscious world will be explored by this initiative. The aim of the network is to establish grounds for collaborative research, project applications, and publications. New course offering Allan Burnett has also developed a new course for the Spring 2026 History undergraduate program at Linköping called 'Media and War'. This course is for Level 3 History students enrolled at the university and it is an expansion of a course he developed earlier for Level 2 students. Further information will be made available on Linköping University's website. From Chaos to Creativity – Young People Explore the Apocalypse on Stage On September 22, the research team of At the End of the World held a digital meeting with playwrights at Riksteatern/Länk to launch the collaboration From Chaos to Creativity – Young People Explore the Apocalypse on Stage. This joint initiative between Lund University and Riksteatern engages young people across Sweden in exploring and reimagining apocalyptic imaginaries through the performing arts. In dialogue with the research conducted within At the End of the World and in close collaboration with the research team, playwrights will create five new plays that will be made available to youth theatre groups throughout the country. The collaboration is supported by a research communication grant of nearly SEK 2,000,000 from Formas, awarded to Johannes Stripple. The project is managed jointly by Stripple and Natalie Bloch. Further details about the project will be shared as the collaboration progresses. |
Program websiteAs a reminder, the program’s website is located at https://www.endoftheworld.lu.se/. The website logs each newsletter. |