ozsw

Ivan Boldyrev, Radboud University Nijmegen, 
                                                                            Jamila Mascat, Utrecht University,
Bart Zantvoort, Leiden University,
Rae Aumiller, Radboud University Nijmegen,

Hegel’s philosophy is devoted to demonstrating that immediacy itself is essentially mediated. First impressions are deceptive: what initially appears self-evident and self-subsisting often reveals itself, upon closer scrutiny, to be the outcome of historical and conceptual developments. Mediation, therefore, deserves to be acknowledged and critically examined.

In a time when mediation is often reduced to the accelerated and endless “accumulation of opinions” across news and social media, Hegel’s Vermittlung reminds us that genuine understanding demands a deeper reflective engagement.

This research group is dedicated to promoting scholarship on Hegel’s philosophy, its post-Kantian background, and its contemporary reception. We follow Hegel in conceiving of philosophy as a critical and practical enterprise and value both his concept of dialectical Vermittlung and his insistence on the perspective of totality as crucial tools of critique.

Our research investigates the ways in which Hegel’s thought mediates—and is mediated by—a wide array of intellectual perspectives and practices.

Our activities will include a biannual conference (end of 2026, call for papers to be circulated), workshops, seminars, book presentations and reading groups. Activities planned for now:

• Book launch: Bart Zantvoort, Inertia, Resistance, Revolution: Hegel and the Logic of History. March 19, 15:15-17:00, Leiden
• Reading groups on the Phenomenology of Spirit, primarily aimed at graduate students/PhDs, in Nijmegen, Leiden and Utrecht. Winter/Spring 2025/2026, with a joint student workshop in Spring 2026.
• Conference Hegel: The Logic, Politics and Aesthetics of Mediation, Summer/Fall 2026, Utrecht