Dr. Noreen Khawaja

Biography

Noreen Khawaja specializes in 19th and 20th century European intellectual history, with a particular focus on the shifting status of religious ideas and norms in late modernity. Her research examines the fate of metaphysics, the relationship between critique and reform, and the nature of realism, alongside the philosophical, historical, and aesthetic features of the secular. Her book, "Existentialism, Religion and Existence: Asceticism, Philosophy, and Kierkegaard to Sartre," was published with the University of Chicago Press in 2016. Currently, she is working on major projects including a monograph that investigates the relationship between theory and the philosophy of the humanities, specifically in the study of religion. Another long-term project looks at the emergence of authenticity as a cultural ideal from the early Surrealists to the present day. At Yale, recent and upcoming courses include topics such as Existentialism, Critical Theories, Science and Religion, Authenticity, Problems of Secularization, and the works of Martin Heidegger, among others.

Research Interests

Courses