Faith and the Illiberal Turn

Marlene Laruelle is Full Professor at Luiss University in Rome and Director of the Illiberalism Studies Program and The Lab for Political Imaginaries. Prior to joining Luiss, she spent fifteen years as Research Professor at George Washington University, where she also directed the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies (IERES). Trained in political theory and originally a specialist on Russia, Marlene now works on grassroots cultural illiberalism, left postliberalism, and the renewal of political imaginaries. You can follow her on her Substack, Vivatopia.

Tobias Cremer has represented the Ruhr region, western Westphalia, and the Münsterland in the European Parliament since July 2024, serving as one of 14 SPD Members of the European Parliament. He sits on the Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Committee on Security and Defence, and he is a member of the delegations for relations with the United States and with the NATO Parliamentary Assembly.

Cremer completed his secondary education at the Neues Gymnasium Bochum before earning a bachelor’s degree in Political Science, Economics, and Philosophy at Sciences Po Paris in France. He went on to receive a master’s degree in Public Administration from Harvard University in the United States and a doctorate in Political Science and International Relations from the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom. He subsequently worked as a lecturer in Political Science at the University of Oxford and as a diplomat in the European Affairs Department of the Federal Foreign Office in Berlin.

Alongside his professional career, Cremer is active in a number of civic and community organizations, including the AWO Bochum (a workers’ welfare association), the football club VfL Bochum, and the parish of Altenbochum/Laer.