Lecture series

Love and Friendship

True love, genuine friendship. For as long as we have been able to reflect on our own lives, we have been fascinated by love and friendship. We are willing to give up on a lot, but not on that. In a new age of digitalization and diversity, new fields of research have appeared: What do dating-apps and online partner searches mean? What is the history of romantic love and to what extent can we even distinguish clearly between love and friendship? What does love mean in Japan, in Ghana, in Germany or Switzerland? Why is love sometimes hidden or disguised as friendship? How do we define the limits of privacy: Why do we regulate and sometime prohibit love legally and socially? How do biological factors influence relationships? How do we encompass love in social or psychological terms?
The lecture series presents recent research and also explores new frameworks for understanding love and friendship through a variety of disciplines (e.g. sociology, psychology, history, biology and social anthropology).

One lecture is in English:

• February 22, 2023, 6.15 p.m.
  Love and its disenchantment
  Prof. Dr. Eva Illouz, The Department of Sociology and Anthropology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

For full program details, please see the German page.