'No Humans Involved' 2.0 in the World after Gaza: Unlearning imperialism and working toward earthy justice
Special Professor of Humanism in Relation to Religion and Secularity Yolande Jansen reports in her valedictory speech on her research that she (along with many others, including Matthea Westerduin, Anna Blijdenstein and Thijl Sunier) has done. She discusses the concepts of religio-secularism and "inquisitive racialization," and explains how she developed a decolonial perspective on humanism over the course of the chair's tenure.
Jansen argues that one cannot talk about humanism without addressing dehumanization and the inhuman, as Sylvia Wynter did in 1992 in her famous letter "No Humans Involved. In it she discussed the role of the concept of Man in modernity and the way it had shaped the dehumanizing "inner eyes" and "grammar" of modern knowledge and science in higher education. Following Wynter, Jansen argues for a self-critique of humanism, of 'Europe' and of the universities. She does so from a reflection on the nadir of dehumanization of which Europe is currently complicit, the genocide in Gaza.
Jansen places the genocide in the broader context of Europe's historical role in colonialism and fascism, increasing violence at Europe's borders, increasing state and institutional violence against legitimate resistance, and the growth of Islamophobia and racism. She argues that this interrelated whole acts as a shield from what is actually necessary and possible: working for "earthy justice": justice based on the earthly fragility and uniqueness of everything that lives, including all human beings. An interplay of religious and secular sources can motivate and deepen such justice.