University of Cologne

Albert would rise through the ranks of his order.

He would be sent on peace delegations, both sacred and secular, and he would help to found the great University of Cologne, still standing hundreds of years later in that city.

He would rise to the rank of bishop only to resign that position a few years later and his learning was absolutely astounding.

The 1899 collected work spanned some 39 substantial volumes covering virtually every domain of medieval human knowledge and as we'll see even some super human knowledge.

Of course, this enthusiasm for the art of magic would not be shared by students of Albert like Thomas Aquinas, and thus the theology faculty of Paris would remain highly antagonistic toward the practice ultimately resulting in the condemnation of sorcery in 1398. definitely proving that the condemnation didn't work.

There was a lot of sorcerers in Paris.

The University of Cologne, on the other hand, co-founded by Albert himself, would continue more so in this tradition.

Thus, scholasticism itself can be split into sort of a Thomistic versus an Albertistic form of scholasticism.

Nisamala is a poet, writer, children's author, consultant, editor, and translator, journalist-communicator, futurist, and foresight practitioner, and an interdisciplinary scholar working in English, French, and Mbesa.

Nisamala currently works for the University of Cologne,

Germany, as a postdoctoral researcher

and hub coordinator of the UNESCO Most Bridges Coalition.

Nisamah is a poet, writer, children's author, consultant, editor, and translator, journalist, communicator, futurist, and foresight practitioner, and an interdisciplinary scholar working in English, French, and Mbesa.

Nisamah currently works for the University of Cologne, Germany, as a postdoctoral researcher and hub coordinator of the UNESCO Most Bridges Coalition.

His research interests include comparative literature, Anglophone and Francophone African literatures, public and environmental humanities, literary activism, artivism, creative writing, and foresight and futures thinking.

He has published widely in these areas in peer-reviewed volumes and journals, including Ecozone, Orbis Literarum, Electronic Green Journal, Humanities, Peripeti, and ASAPJ.

So the book we will be discussing today is Transient Becoming, Self-Improvement and Capitalist Virtuousness in Contemporary China, published by National University of Singapore Press in 2026.

Our guest, Dr. Gil Hisi, is research fellow and lecturer in the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Cologne in Germany.

His research focused on how people navigate everyday uncertainties, moral dynamics of capitalist works and therapeutic cultures.

So to start us off, could you briefly introduce yourself to our audience, such as could you say a little bit about your academic trajectory and the broader research interests that brought you to study self-improvement in contemporary China?