Faculty

Jan Rehmann, Dr Phil Habil

Visiting Professor for Critical Theory & Social Analysis
Ph.D. Program Director


A smiling man with short gray hair and glasses, wearing a reddish-brown shirt, is in front of bookshelves filled with various books. The background is slightly blurred, suggesting an indoor setting likely in a library or study.

CONTACT

[email protected]

EDUCATION

Erste, Wissenschaftliche Staatsprüfung für das Amt des Studienrats, Free University Berlin, 1982
Ph.D., Free University Berlin, Summa Cum Laude, 1997
Venia Legendi and HabilitationFree University Berlin, 2003

Publications

BIOGRAPHY

Professor Jan Rehmann holds two doctorates in Philosophy (Ph.D. and Habilitation) and is an internationally recognized critical theorist and social analyst. He has been teaching social theories, philosophy and modern languages (French and German) at Union Theological Seminary since 1998. He also teaches philosophy at the Free University in Berlin. His publications comprise several monographs, edited books and numerous essays, chapters and dictionary entries. In 2012, his book Max Weber: Modernisierung als passive Revolution received an award for the promotion of excellent publications in the Humanities and Social Sciences by the Börsenverein des deutschen Buchhandels.

Best known for his expertise in theories of ideology, hegemony, religion and postmodernism, Professor Rehmann combines scholarly research with public engagement and social justice activism. He co-founded the Berlin “Volksuni” (people’s university) and became its chief-coordinator (1986-92). Starting with a clandestine meeting in Czechoslovakia in 1988 between dissenting Marxists and theologians (e.g. Dorothee Sölle and Jürgen Moltmann), he has been engaged in many Christian-Marxist dialogues in Germany and the US. From 2005 onwards, he did extensive work with the Poverty Initiative, including classes on social theories, poverty and social justice movements (with Willie Baptist), several immersion trips with students, numerous lectures and presentations as well as the publication of the co-authored book Pedagogy of the Poor. He took part in Occupy Wall Street actions and published on the strengths and weaknesses of the movement. He is a founding member of the Berlin “Institute for Critical Theory” (INKRIT), a co-editor of the encyclopedia “Historical-Critical Dictionary of Marxism” (HKWM), a co-editor of the revue “Das Argument” and a guidance counselor in the German think tank Rosa Luxemburg Foundation.

Recent COURSES

Praxis-Philosophie, neuer Materialismus, Őko-Marxismus — at the Free University Berlin (Spring Semester 2023)
Marxism, Critical Theories, New Materialism (Fall Semester 2023)
Doctoral Seminar I
Theological German (Fall 2023)
Theological French (Fall 2023)
Was ist Őko-Marxismus? Grundlagen, Debatten, Anwendungen — at the Free University Berlin (Spring Semester 2024)

PREVIOUS COURSES

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