The New Voices Talk Series continues this winter with a lecture dedicated to Hannah Arendt and is organized by Samantha Fazekas (Trinity College Dublin) & Maria Robaszkiewicz (Paderborn University). In the past two weeks, the series opened philosophical conversations on democratic infrastructures, shared worlds, and the fragile conditions of dwelling together.
Below you will find the two most recent talks as well as today’s lecture, which will take place at 4:00 PM.
Talk: Towards an architecture of democratic infrastructures
Date: 14. November 2025; 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM
Abstract:
In the absence of conditions for democratic articulation, it is not surprising if existing discontents take anti-democratic routes. In my dissertation I developed a theory of democratic infrastructures as the spaces and practices that make democratic expression possible. In this talk I explore what role physical spaces and public things might play in building shared grounds against antidemocratic movements – from the table at Arendt’s séance, to the walls of the city.
About the speaker:
Catherine Koekoek is a PhD researcher at the Erasmus School of Philosophy and a curator of the 2024 International Architecture Biennial Rotterdam (“Nature of Hope”). She holds degrees in architecture (MSc, cum laude, Delft) and philosophy (MA, cum laude, Leiden). Her dissertation explores how democratic infrastructures—such as community centers and the Rotterdams Wijktheater—support democratic coexistence amid post-truth polarization and neoliberal depoliticization. Together with Veerle Alkemade, she also produces the feminist architecture podcast Respons.
Talk: Dwelling in the common world: Arendt and the right to share home with-others
Date: 21 November 2025; 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM (CET)
Abstract:
This presentation critically engages with Hannah Arendt’s ideas on the common world and the ancient experience of property to offer a philosophical intervention into current housing and accommodation crises. It draws upon her definition of property, as “having one’s own location in the world” to rethink the ways in which our home-spaces are fundamentally connected to the common world, and therefore, a sense of privacy which has an essential connection to the publicness of appearance. Consequently, it also opens out towards considerations of what it means to be deprived of such a location in the world and towards other ethical considerations concerning what it means to share a common world with-others.
About the speaker:
Jonathan Wren is a research assistant with CEPL at University College Dublin and currently lectures in Applied Ethics at the School of Philosophy. He works on the Thinking Changes project, which fosters philosophical discussions on non-violence, peace, and reconciliation across Ireland. Building on earlier research from the Thinking About Home event (CEPL 2023), he is developing a project on the phenomenology of home and housing. His broader research spans post-Kantian European philosophy, phenomenology, critical theory, feminist theory, and contemporary political thought.
We thank our previous two speakers for their insightful contributions and look forward to today’s lecture of Anna Jurkevics (University of British Columbia, Vancouver) on Hannah Arendt on Eigentum: an anti-liberal theory of private property.
Everyone is welcome to attend. You will get the Zoom-Link here or at maria.robaszkiewicz@upb.de.
More about the New Voices Winter Talk Series 25/26:
https://historyofwomenphilosophers.org/new-voices-talk-series/
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