idw – Informationsdienst Wissenschaft
Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
BAD HOMBURG. Emotions play a decisive role in shaping the political culture of democracy. Israeli-French sociologist Eva Illouz has explored in several widely discussed works – including The Emotional Life of Populism: How Fear, Disgust, Resentment, and Love Undermine Democracy and Explosive Emotions: How Modern Society Shapes What We Feel – how fear, resentment, anxiety, disgust, and love emerge from social conditions and influence democracy. In her keynote at the joint annual workshop of the new German Research Foundation (DFG) Research Training Group “Aesthetics of Democracy” and Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften’s research focus “Democratic Vistas”, she revisits this subject – this time with a focus on an emotion that sparks particularly intense debate in Germany: guilt.
In her English-language lecture, “Is Guilt Good for Democracy?”, Illouz retraces the cultural and historical processes through which guilt has become a central emotion in the self-conception of liberal democracies since the 1980s. She explores the normative and political implications of this transformation and asks whether guilt acts as a productive or inhibiting force in democratic societies. The lecture will take place
on Friday, April 24, 7 p.m.
at the Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften Institute for Advanced Studies
Am Wingertsberg 4
in Bad Homburg.
Prof. Johannes Völz, spokesperson for the Research Training Group and co-spokesperson of “Democratic Vistas,” will introduce the topic.
Eva Illouz is a professor of sociology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and director of studies at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS) in Paris. She has published numerous books on the sociology of emotions, consumer capitalism, and modern culture. For her work, she was awarded the Frank Schirrmacher Prize 2024, the Aby Warburg Prize 2024, and the EMET Prize for Social Sciences, among others. Latest book publications: The Emotional Life of Populism. How Fear, Disgust, Resentment, and Love Undermine Democracy (Polity Press, 2023), Der 8. Oktober. Über die Ursprünge des neuen Antisemitismus (in German, Suhrkamp, 2025), and Explosive Emotions. How Modern Society Shapes What We Feel (Princeton University Press, 2026).
The event poster is available for download here: https://www.uni-frankfurt.de/184956955.
Getting Here
Public Transportation: The nearest stops are Kaiser-Wilhelms-Bad (Bus 6), Bad Homburg Station (S 5), and Ober-Eschbach (U 2).
By Car: Please use the nearby parking options – the Casino Parking Garage, accessible via Weinbergsweg, or the parking lot at the Tennis Club and Kur Royal Aktiv, located at Kisseleffstraße 20.
Further Information:
Monika Hellstern
Science Communication
Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften – Institute of Advanced Studies at Goethe University Frankfurt
Tel. +49 (0)6172 13977-45
E-Mail hellstern@forschungskolleg-humanwissenschaften.de
Homepage www.forschungskolleg-humanwissenschaften.de
Facebook / YouTube @FKHbadhomburg
Information on participating / attending:
Registration open until April 21 at anmeldung@forschungskolleg-humanwissenschaften.de
Date:
04/24/2026 19:00 - 04/24/2026 21:00
Event venue:
Am Wingertsberg 4
61348 Bad Homburg
Hessen
Germany
Target group:
Journalists, all interested persons
Email address:
Relevance:
regional
Subject areas:
History / archaeology, Politics, Psychology, Social studies, Teaching / education
Types of events:
Presentation / colloquium / lecture
Entry:
04/17/2026
Sender/author:
Dr. Anke Sauter
Department:
Public Relations und Kommunikation
Event is free:
yes
Language of the text:
German
URL of this event: http://idw-online.de/en/event81417
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