Dhouib, Sarhan

My work centres on the relationship between philosophy and religion from both a historical and a systematic perspective. My focus is on reciprocal processes of reception and knowledge transfer between continental European and modern Arab-Islamic traditions of thought. My aim is to establish an intercultural philosophy of religion that productively combines religion-critical approaches from Arab-Islamic modernity with global debates on human rights, democracy, justice and tolerance.

My research on justice, human rights and tolerance bridges the gap between European and Arab-Islamic traditions of thought and provides concrete impetus for a reflective, pluralistic coexistence.

 

• Intercultural Philosophy
• Criticism of religion and the philosophy of religion in European and non-European contexts (particularly Arab-Islamic traditions)
• Philosophy and Religion in the Islamic World
• Political Philosophy: Human Rights, Democracy, Tolerance and Intolerance, and Justice
• Classical German Philosophy (in particular, Philosophy of Nature and Philosophy of Religion)

• 1992–1996 Studied philosophy at the University of Sfax (Tunisia)
• 1996–2003 Secondary school and vocational college teacher of philosophy in Sfax and Djerba (Tunisia)
• 1998–2000 D.E.A. / Master’s degree in the history of modern philosophy, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (France)
• 2004–2008 PhD in Philosophy at the Universities of Bremen and Tunis (Tunisia)
• 2008–2009 Research Fellow at the Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research, Braunschweig
• 2010–2016 Research Fellow at the Chair of Practical Philosophy, Institute of Philosophy, University of Kassel
• 2016 Visiting Professor of Philosophy in the Context of Cultural Comparison at the Institute of Philosophy, University of Bremen
• 2016–2018 Fellow at the Research Institute for Philosophy, Hanover (fiph)
• 2018–2019 Research Fellow at the Institute of Philosophy, University of Kassel
• 2019–2020 Research Fellow on the Reinhart Koselleck Project ‘Writing the History of Philosophy from a Global Perspective’, Institute of Philosophy, University of Hildesheim
• 2020–2023 Independent research post (DFG) at the Institute of Philosophy, University of Hildesheim
• 2022 Visiting Scholar at the Department of Near Eastern Languages & Civilisations, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA (USA)
• 2023–2024 Feodor Lynen Research Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Université Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah, Fez (Morocco)
• 2024–2025 Feodor Lynen Return Fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation at the Institute of Philosophy, University of Hildesheim
• 2025–2026 Visiting Research Fellow at the Institute of Philosophy, University of Hildesheim
• 2026 Habilitation in Philosophy, University of Hildesheim
• since September 2026 tenure track professorship in Intercultural Philosophy of Religion, Faculty of Catholic Theology, University of Vienna