“Decentering Knowledge: Concepts, Conceptualizations, Translations” — Workshop, 13-14 October 2025, ZMO

The cross-regional workshop, organised by the Religion and Intellectual Culture unit, convened scholars from Indonesia, the United States, South Africa, the Netherlands, Senegal and Germany. The participants examined how concepts acquire normative force as reference points for communities, tools of governance and vehicles of translation across epistemic worlds. Rather than cataloguing terms, participants treated concepts as historically situated and politically charged, paying attention to their social significance, sites of production, and motives of use. One intervention called for “artful scholarship” that couples analytical rigour with storytelling, enabling knowledge to travel beyond the academy.