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Research interests
Political theory and history of political thought
Rethinking democracy (Lefort, Gauchet, Rosanvallon) in contrast to established approaches (e.g. Arendt, Habermas or Foucault)
Undocumented migrants as a challenge for democracy and human rights
Republican theories of political freedom and the law (e.g. Skinner, Lefort, ...)
Democracy, political parties and political representation
European studies
'European values': their history and conceptualisation
Analysis of different ways to represent Europe's history
Theory of history
Analysis of different ways to represent (traumatic events from) the past
(methodological) debates on how to write the history of 'modernity', 'democracy', 'madness' or 'human rights'
French theory post-1945 (e.g. Lefort, Certeau, Foucault, Gauchet, Rosanvallon, …)
Critical analysis of European higher education policy
Publications
Google scholar profile Detailed list of publications and papers Academia profile ResearchGate profile Orcid
I. European political theory and intellectual history
(16) Wim Weymans, ‘Young and Ambivalent. A New Look at the Recent Rise of European Values, Their History, Precursors and Critics', in: Marie Göbel and Andreas Niederberger (eds.), Cosmopolitan Norms and European Values. Ethical Perspectives on Europe’s Refugee Policy (New York: Routledge 2024) 61-87. Online (open access)
(15) Wim Weymans, ‘A critical history of the use of “European values”’, in: Regina Polak and Patrick Rohs (eds.), Values – Politics – Religion: The European Values Study. In-depth Analysis – Interdisciplinary Perspectives – Future Prospects (Cham: Springer 2023) 95-123. Online (open access)
(14) Wim Weymans, ‘Deepening democracy through contestation? Lefort and Gauchet on May 1968 and its legacy’, The Tocqueville Review/La revue Tocqueville, 41, 1 (2020) 121-139. Online
(13) Wim Weymans, ‘From Marianne to Louise. Three ways to represent the (European) people in democratic societies’, in: Anna Schober (ed.), Popularization and Populism in the Visual Arts: Attraction Images (London – New York: Routledge 2020) 31-45. Online
(12) Wim Weymans, ‘On the critical potential of Rosanvallon’s wide definition of democracy’, in: Oliver Flügel, Steven Sawyer a.o. (eds.), Pierre Rosanvallon's Political Thought. Interdisciplinary Approaches (Bielefeld University Press 2019) 99-118. Also appeared in German as ‘Demokratie als Gesellschaftsform: Pierre Rosanvallon und die vielfältige Stimmen des Volkes’ In Oliver Flügel and Franziska Martinsen (eds.), Aktuelle Staatskritik und Demokratietheorie aus Frankreich (Stuttgart: Steiner-Verlag 2015a) 167-185. Online (open access)
(11) Wim Weymans, ‘Religion, human rights and democracy in post-1940 France in theory and practice: from Maritain’s Thomism to Vignaux’s secular realism’. In Rajesh Heyninckx and Stéphane Symons (eds.), What's so new about scholasticism? How Neo-Thomism helped shape the Twentieth Century (Berlin – Boston: Walter de Gruyter 2018) 39-57. Online
(10) Wim Weymans, ‘Radical democracy’s past and future: histories of the symbolic’, Modern Intellectual History, 13 (2016) 3, 841-851. Online
(9) Wim Weymans, 'Identität durch Spaltung: Marcel Gauchet über die verbliebene Transzendenz demokratischer Gesellschaften' in: Oliver Flügel-Martinsen and Franziska Martinsen (eds.), Aktuelle Staatskritik und Demokratietheorie aus Frankreich (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2015) 147-165. Link to book
(8) Wim Weymans, 'Defending democracy’s symbolic dimension: a Lefortian critique of Arendt’s Marxist assumptions', Constellations: An International Journal of Critical and Democratic Theory, 19 (2012) 1, 63-80. Online. (Also appeared in German: Link to book)
(7) Wim Weymans and Andreas Hetzel, 'From substantive to negative universalism. Lefort and Habermas on legitimacy in democratic societies', Thesis Eleven. Critical Theory and Historical Sociology, Number 108 (2012) 26-43. Online
(6) Wim Weymans, 'Revising Foucault’s model of modernity and exclusion: Gauchet and Swain on madness and democracy', Thesis Eleven. Critical Theory and Historical Sociology, Number 98 (2009) 33-51. Online
(5) Wim Weymans, 'Understanding the present through the past? Quentin Skinner and Pierre Rosanvallon on the crisis of political representation', Redescriptions. Yearbook of Political Thought and Conceptual History (2007) 45-60. Online (open access)
(4) Wim Weymans, 'Freedom through political representation? Lefort, Gauchet and Rosanvallon on the relationship between state and society', European Journal of Political Theory, 4 (2005) 3, 263-282. (Also appeared in German). Online
(3) Wim Weymans, 'Über den Nutzen der Ideengeschichte: Quentin Skinner's Verteidigung der republikanischen Freiheit gegen den modernen Staat', Leviathan. Berliner Zeitschrift für Sozialwissenschaft, 33 (2005) 3, 384-390. (Also appeared in Dutch). Online
(2) Wim Weymans, 'Pierre Rosanvallon und das Problem der politischen Repräsentation'; In Oliver Flügel, Reinhard Heil, Andreas Hetzel (eds.), Die Rückkehr des Politischen: Demokratietheorien heute (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 2004) 87-112. Link to book (Also appeared in Dutch: Online (open access)
(1) Wim Weymans, 'Michel de Certeau and the Limits of Historical Representation', History and Theory. Studies in the Philosophy of History, 43 (2004) 2, 161-178. (Also appeared in Spanish, German and Dutch). Online (JSTOR)
II. European higher education policy
(4) Wim Weymans, 'Reconnecting the humanities with the public: on how (not) to publish at European universities'; In Maarten Simons, Mathias Decuypere, Joris Vlieghe and Jan Masschelein (eds.), Curating the European university. Exposition and public debate (Leuven: Leuven University Press, 2011) 113-120. download here link google books (incomplete)
Abridged and contextualized version (in Dutch): Online (open access) or download pdf here
(3) Wim Weymans, 'Democracy, knowledge and critique: rethinking European universities beyond tradition and the market', London Review of Education, 8 (2010) 2, 117-126. Online
(2) Wim Weymans, 'Review article: The merits and limits of using Foucault to criticize lifelong learning', Studies in Philosophy and Education, 28 (2009) 6, 589-596. Link
(1) Wim Weymans, 'From coherence to differentiation: understanding (changes in) the European area for higher education and research'; In Robert Cowen and Andreas Kazamias (eds.), International Handbook of Comparative Education (Dordrecht: Springer, 2009) 561-576. (Also appeared in Portuguese) Online
A shorter version appeared in the New York Consortium for European Studies Newsletter, April 2007
III. Internationalism in practice and expat life; migration studies
Wim Weymans, ‘At home abroad? International House New York and the Cité Universitaire in Paris: cosmopolitan versus diasporic internationalism’; In: Klaus Stierstorfer and Florian Kläger (eds.), Diasporic Constructions of Home and Belonging (Berlin - Boston: De Gruyter, 2015) 279-295. Link
Teaching experience
In English
Rethinking Europe, Interdisciplinary graduate seminar, UCLouvain, Spring 2019 - Spring 2025
History of European integration, Graduate lecture course, UCLouvain, Autumn 2018 - Autumn 2024 (taught together with Jan Willem Brouwer)
Theories of human rights, Undergraduate seminar, Columbia University, Spring 2008 - Autumn 2009
History and human rights, Undergraduate lecture course, Columbia University, Spring 2009
In French
Pluralisme et diversité culturelle en Europe, Undergraduate lecture course, UCLouvain, Spring 2019 (taught together with Anne-Sophie Gijs)
In Dutch
Rechtsfilosofie: Recht anders bekeken, rechtsfilosofische perspectieven, Undergraduate lecture course, University of Antwerp, Autumn 2013 - Autumn 2015
Rechtsfilosofie, Graduate seminar, University of Antwerp, Autumn 2013 - Autumn 2015
Ethiek en maatschappij, werkcollege, Undergraduate seminar, University of Leuven (KU Leuven), Autumn 2013
Anders kijken. Inleidingen tot de wijsbegeerte [Looking differently. Introductions to philosophy], Undergraduate lecture course, University of Leuven (KU Leuven), Kortrijk College ('Kulak'), Spring 2011
Fellowships and appointments
UCLouvain (Université catholique de Louvain), Chair in European Values, 2018 – present
University of Leuven (KU Leuven), Research Fellow, Leuven International and European Studies (LINES), 2014 – present
University of Antwerp, Faculty of Law, Guest Professor (part-time), 2013 – 2016
University of Leuven (KU Leuven), Postdoctoral Researcher, 2013 – 2014
European Commission, Marie Curie Actions, Career Integration Grant, 2012 – 2014
The Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO), Postdoctoral Fellowship, 2010 – 2013
Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies (CES), Harvard University, Visiting Scholar , Autumn 2012, Spring 2013
Sciences Po, Paris, Cevipof, Chercheur Invité, 2011 – 2012
Columbia University, New York, Visiting Scholar, Fall 2008, Spring 2010, Autumn 2010
Columbia University, New York, Adjunct Assistant Professor, Spring 2008, Spring 2009, Autumn 2009
Belgian-American Educational Foundation (BAEF), postdoctoral grant, Columbia University, New York, 2008
New York University (NYU), Remarque Institute, New York, Invited Visiting Scholar, Spring 2007
University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley), Fulbright postdoctoral scholarship, Fall 2006
DAAD (German Foreign Exchange Service) postdoctoral scholarship, 3 months, research at Technische Universität Darmstadt (TU Darmstadt) and Institut für Europäische Geschichte (IEG), Mainz, Summer 2006
Research Fund University of Leuven (KU Leuven), Postdoctoral Research Fellowship, 2006
European Commission, Directorate General for Research, Directorate “Social sciences and humanities; foresight”, Internship ('Blue Book Intern'), Brussels, March 2005 – July 2005
Gates Scholarship, University of Cambridge, 2001 – 2002
DAAD (German Foreign Exchange Service), visiting student scholarship, Universität zu Köln (Cologne University), Summer 2001
The Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO), Research Assistant, 2000 – 2004
Education
Ph.D. in Philosophy, University of Leuven (KU Leuven), 2005
M.Phil. in Political Thought and Intellectual History, University of Cambridge, 2002
M.A. in Philosophy, University of Leuven (KU Leuven), 2000
M.A. in History, University of Leuven (KU Leuven), 1998
Languages
Dutch: native
English: near-native
German: fluent
French: fluent
Italian: basic
Spanish: very basic
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