This project studies the global politics of religion in both international practice and theory. It asks what kinds of politics become possible, which actors are authorized and empowered, what relations are strengthened, or undermined, and which actions and institutions are legitimated by such understandings of religion. In other words, to what and to whom does the concept of religion refer, what does its use do, and how do these dynamics change?

Recognizing religion in global politics comes with costs and these have been largely understudied. I suggest that this reflects more basic qualities in the logic of recognition itself. By studying recent critical debates regarding recognition in relation to minorities, nations, empires, and states, the project points out that recognition has two faces: along with the frequently acknowledged empowering and emancipatory aspect of recognition, it also comes with costs.

This project studies the forms and functions of ignorance. It studies the different practices and institutions of unknowing, unlearning, or ”agnogenesis”, i.e. active or passive destruction of available knowledge, selective amnesia, and determined ambiguity. The various subprojects focus on various aspects of the epistemology of ignorance of climate change, race, and religion and set out to improve our understanding of ignorance as a constructive force of modern social and political processes amounting to more than simply the null state when the flow of knowledge is interrupted. In this sense, the project seeks to study ignorance as a productive force in itself, the twin and not the opposite of knowledge.