Ionut Untea has been teaching western philosophy at Southeast University, in Nanjing, China, since 2016, in the department of Philosophy and Science, and has become a member of ZRKG since March 2025. Dr. Untea’s research focuses on the intersections between moral, theological and political thought. He is also the current editor of the series Ethical Dilemmas in Public Philosophy of the blog of the American Philosophical Association.
ZRKG: What (research) project are you currently working on?
Untea: I have recently started to be interested in the role of performativity in contemporary public spaces, both in Western and non-Western contexts. On a broader scale, my everyday contemplation of the amateur performances and activities of people in China, in places such as parks, squares, temples, as well as my contact with my students’ interest to understand western religious and artistic performances have provided me a broader platform for reflecting on what people, either in western or non-western cultures, take to be acceptable, or permitted, in what concerns the public expressions of personal values, convictions, or the many layers of collective solidarity and protest. At the same time, the contemporary state of the world, with transnational movements of individuals and populations for diverse reasons, such as work, marriage, conflicts, wars, or climate instability seems to have boosted what has already been defined in the 20th century as both the postmodern character and the liminality of cultural engagement and production.
My own life development has been profoundly impacted by this postmodern back-and-forth across different borders: geographical, religious, political, and cultural. I am convinced that life challenges, to live sometimes “in-between” established identities, require more attention, despite the public perception (especially in the west nowadays) that there has been too much talk about progressive values at the expense of traditional identities. I believe that, in this postmodern world, performativity may bring back the hope for reconciling traditional and progressive values, while allowing people with diverse identities not only to “co-exist” in a parallel existence, but more importantly to mirror a reciprocal “pro-existential” engagement to make this world, our shared home, a peaceful and resilient place.
ZRKG: How did you come to this topic? Was there something like a strong impulse, a central motif?
Untea: I have come to formulate my specific topic on protest rituals and political performativity in the post-truth era as I was trying to contemplate as an outsider, from Asia, the culture wars in the west, by attempting to reflect (as much as my limited knowledge and the cultural/political challenges allowed it) on the situation of Christians in Asia, or by addressing these issues during my research stays in Europe.
At the same time, two specific academic events have boosted my interest for situating the philosophical enquiry at the level of performativity in the post-truth era. While I was a fellow-in-residence at the Akademie Schloss Solitude, in Stuttgart (2022-2023), I had the opportunity to participate in two academic events. The first one took place in my home country, Romania (10-11 May 2023), in a very special place, Constanta, a port city situated in a region historically inhabited by Muslim and Christian communities who have been a model of harmonious living in togetherness for hundreds of years. This conference dealt with the topic of religious and philosophical “horizons of authenticity.” On this occasion, I presented my preliminary approach regarding the performativity of the authenticity of transcultural togetherness in our postmodern world. The second event took place in Eichstätt, being organized by the ZRKG (15-17 June 2023), where my presentation focused on the continuity, over millennia, of the performativity of the Church’s tragic destiny and heritage.
I believe that a balanced understanding, beyond established doctrines, of the performative content of different traditions of worship, belief and creativity matters in our postmodern age and may shape the agencies of people worldwide appealing to their own, or borrowing elements from different religious traditions. In other words, it is the Christians’ (more or less autonomous) choice of this peculiar “destiny,” prepared for them from eternity, to carry Jesus’ Cross, sometimes in unexpected ways and at unplanned times, that continues to make the mystery of what it means to be a Christian. In these highly uncertain and unstable times, this destiny may summon even non-practicing, secular, or skeptical people that admit at most a minimally Christian, or some kind of religious heritage.
ZRKG: What motivates you to join an interdisciplinary research centre? Are there any topics that are particularly important to you?
Untea: So far, I have observed, of course, from my limited and perhaps self-centered perspective, that the promise of interdisciplinarity has had an impact on humanities which—perhaps I am wrong—has diminished the very creativity that is supposed to be involved in the teaching and practice of humanities. Quantitative data, metrics and algorithms have now come to be considered the normative element when doing research in humanities meant to attract funding.
Of course, we are in an era of rapid production of knowledge at the global scale, so not using some tools to sort out the vast amount of research would be unproductive. From this point of view, I notice that the humanities are in a crisis due to the vast influence of digital means of communication. I am still optimistic and believe that there are important resources that may counter the waves of hate and conspiracy theories that are boosted by the technologies that are supposed to help people communicate and understand each other better. My interest is to give more space and visibility to the performative dimension involved in the interdisciplinarity required for our postmodern, yet everyday relationships.
ZRKG: Is there a discipline other than your own subject to which you feel particularly attached? And if so, why?
Untea: My project is already interdisciplinary in character, involving methodologies from humanities and social sciences, such as religious studies, theology, moral philosophy, semiotics and political science. What I feel that might contribute further to the enquiry on performativity will be a greater attention to the development of new technologies of communication, the very production of communication, and the impact of AI chatbots in generating both negative clashes and positive cohesion between individuals and groups in post-truth era. In this respect, I am particularly interested to bring together the theological debate on “imago Dei,” which is starting to gain visibility in the field of religious ethics on AI technologies, and the broader discussion of human wellbeing in a digital world. I am particularly interested in which way digital means of communication production contribute to generating, not only “viral” images, videos or texts, but also to bring people closer, in a ritual-like enacting and performance of examples of the foolishness to speak truth to power, or the humbleness of dedicating one’s life to helping those in need.
ZRKG: Thank you very much for talking to us!