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On Monday 29 September 2025, Kathrin Thiele, Professor of Gender, Culture & Ecologies, and Birgit M. Kaiser, Professor of Comparative Literature, will deliver their inaugural lectures. Thiele will give her inaugural lecture titled ‘Who's Afraid of Complexity?’, followed by Kaiser's inaugural lecture ‘The Many Tongues of Literature’. At the heart of both talks lies a shared conviction: in order to work towards a more inclusive and more just world, it is vital to remain curious about new perspectives and to be open to others.

Embracing complexity and new perspectives

Simple oppositions and neat separations are not sufficient to make sense of our world, more and more scholars point out. Reality is far more complex. That is why, says Kathrin Thiele, we should not shy away from complexity, but embrace it. Birgit M. Kaiser underscores this point. Don’t avoid it, she urges, but be open to new perspectives, even when they initially seem to clash with your own beliefs.

Especially within the humanities, scholars must (dare to) ask big questions and give space to small stories, the professors argue. 

Inaugural lecture Kathrin Thiele: Who’s Afraid of Complexity?

To build a more just and sustainable society, we cannot afford to ignore complex questions, Professor Kathrin Thiele argues. The challenge is to move beyond traditional oppositions such as nature-culture or the binary framework of two sexes, because these overlook the lived complexity of the world.

Thiele resists the idea that domains exist in strict separation and instead proposes a way of thinking that focuses on relations. In her chair, Thiele brings together three key concepts: gender, culture, and ecologies.

These are ‘lenses’ through which to view the world. Thiele does not, for example, research gender as identity, but uses insights from gender studies to understand how power and inequality function. Culture, in turn, shows which values and traditions matter, and how they give meaning to the world. And ecology is about the relationships between ourselves and everything in our surroundings – reminding us that nothing exists in isolation.

In her inaugural lecture, Thiele engages with the work of renowned thinkers such as Judith Butler and Sylvia Wynter, and with critical feminist philosophy more broadly. She argues that this way of doing scholarship does not stop at reflection, but actively seeks ways to make a difference in practice.

Inaugural lecture Bigit M. Kaiser: The Many Tongues of Literature

What is the value of literature today? This is the question at the heart of Professor Birgit M. Kaiser’s inaugural lecture. For her, literature is much more than art or entertainment: it allows us as readers to step into unfamiliar worlds, encounter ‘the other’, and explore new perspectives. Literature, she argues, stimulates our curiosity and imagination, and invites us to open ourselves to what is different or strange from ourselves.

In her lecture, Kaiser builds on the concept of ‘aesthetic education’, developed by the internationally acclaimed literary critic Gayatri Spivak. Spivak suggests that we must train our imagination and empathy in order to be truly receptive to the voices and experiences of others. 

This means that marginalised and often forgotten voices must be heard, Kaiser emphasises. While her field, comparative literature, has traditionally focused largely on European texts, she calls for a wider scope and for the embrace of global multilingualism. In this way, the field can contribute to a more inclusive literary landscape – and to a more just society.