Speakers
Learn more about the speakers of our past activities.
John Ó Maoilearca
John Ó Maoilearca is Honorary Professor in the Department of Critical and Historical Studies at Kingston University, London, having previously lectured in philosophy departments at the University of Sunderland, England, and the University of Dundee, Scotland. He has published twelve books, including (as author), Bergson and Philosophy (1999), Post-Continental Philosophy (2006), Philosophy and the Moving Image (2010), and All Thoughts Are Equal (2015). His latest work, Vestiges of a Philosophy, examines the convergence of ideas between a philosopher (Henri Bergson) and a mystic (his sister, Mina Bergson) during the Belle Époque in order to tackle themes in contemporary materialist philosophy, spiritualism, memory studies, and the relationship between mysticism and philosophy.
Wouter Hanegraaff
Wouter J. Hanegraaff (1961) is Professor of History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents at the University of Amsterdam, a member of the Royal Dutch Academy of Arts and Sciences, and an honorary member of the European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism (ESSWE).
Lectures: “Hermetic Spirituality and Altered States of Knowledge” - 20 October 2022
Emile Schrijver
Emile Schrijver is the General Director of the Jewish Cultural Quarter in Amsterdam and professor in the history of the Jewish book at the University of Amsterdam. He is also Curator of the Braginsky Collection of Hebrew Manuscripts and Printed Books in Zurich, Switzerland and General Editor of the Encyclopedia of Jewish Book Cultures.
Koert Debeuf
Dr. Koert Debeuf is a professor Middle East Studies at the Brussels University (VUB). He holds a PhD in Philosophy (VUB) and a MA in Ancient History (Universities of Leuven and Bologna). His doctorate studied the influence of Arabic philosophy on European philosophy and why this disappeared from the European books of history of philosophy. From 2011 tot 2016 Debeuf lived and worked in Cairo as an envoy of the Liberal and Democrat group in the European Parliament. It gave him the opportunity to travel intensively in the Arab world, and also to study Islamic history. From 2003 to 2008 Debeuf was strategic advisor, speechwriter and spokesperson of the Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt. After 2016, he was director of the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy Europe and Editor in Chief of the EUobserver. He has written several books on politics and geopolitics. His book “Tribalization. Why war is coming” (2018) was translated into Arabic and Japanese. His last book “Waarom dit niet de laatste oorlog is. Over de psychologie van internationale conflicten” (2022) was translated into French. Debeuf is often asked as an analyst on geopolitics in international media.
Lectures: "The Renaissance started in Baghdad | Koert Debeuf, Professor Middle East Studies, Brussels University - 13 April 2023"