Archives of the Impossible conference | Flash Talk: Michael Lackner

Michael Lackner, managing director of the International Consortium for Research in the Humanities, presented a talk titled "Divination: An Alternative Rationality" as part of "Archives of the Impossible: Transnationalism, Transdisciplinarity, Transcendence." The May 11-13, 2023 international conference at Rice University featured speakers and panelists who set out to demystify the paranormal through their research and experiences regarding metaphysics, UFOs and much more.
Michael Lackner studied sinology, anthropology, political science and philosophy in Heidelberg, Munich and Taipei. He received his M.A. in 1979 (with a study of prophetic children's songs in 4th century China) and PhD in 1983 (with a study on theories of dreams and their interpretation in traditional China). From 1993 to 1998, he was professor of sinology in Göttingen, and from 1998 to 2000 he held the chair of sinology in Geneva. Since 2000, he has been teaching at the University of Erlangen Nuremberg.
In 2014, he was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina. He is the managing director of the International Consortium for Research in the Humanities - Fate, Freedom, and Prognosis. Coping Strategies in East Asia and Europe. Since 2022, he has been the spokeperson for the Center for Advanced Study “Alternative Rationalities and Esoteric Practices from a Global Perspective.” His scholarly interests include the typology of coping with the future (e.g., oracle and prophecy) in traditional and modern China, thought and scholarly practices at the time of the Song and Yuan dynasties (10th-14th centuries), the mission of the Jesuits in China, the emergence of modern Chinese scholarly language since the late 19th century, and disputes over Chinese identity in modernity.
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