Talk by Ruth E. Hagengruber at the Goethe-Institut Barcelona
2025-11-28

New Voices - Anna Jurkevics: Hannah Arendt on Eigentum: an anti-liberal theory of private property
2025-11-28 16:00 - 18:00 (Europe/Berlin) | online
Hannah Arendt Today
The Winter Term Talk Series 2025/26, organised by Samantha Fazekas (Trinity College Dublin) and Maria Robaszkiewicz (UPB), is an online talk series dedicated to Hannah Arendt.
Arendt could aptly be described as a thinker of the crisis, or perhaps rather of multiple crises. This motif is ever-present in her work and, indeed, it is a concept that is becoming ever-present in our own time. This is one of the reasons why academic and public interest in Arendt’s writings is currently skyrocketing. It is because so many politically acute challenges today call not for dogmatic, but for critical and practical perspectives. In her works, Arendt seems to be looking for crises: cracks in the fabric of the everyday, which offer an opening, enabling individuals to appear before each other and become political actors. It is not that action necessarily needs a crisis, but a crisis definitely needs action. Crisis, for Arendt, is always ambivalent. It presupposes a destructive moment, but also a constructive one. As she states, “The opportunity, provided by the very fact of crisis – which tears away façades and obliterates prejudices to explore and inquire into whatever has been laid bare of the essence of the matter.” A crisis only proves disastrous when the reaction to it consists of recourse to the ways of thinking prescribed by tradition, answered in conventional, schematic ways.
In line with Arendt’s critical spirit, and especially her concept of natality (every human’s capability of striking new beginnings in the world), this edition of the New Voces talk series introduces contributions of emerging Arendt scholars addressing issues of philosophic and political relevance for the world in which we live today. Topics include the female body, speech and speechlessness, dwelling and home, meanings of property, and natality in times of dictatorship. Everyone is welcome to join us in discussing Hannah Arendt’s relevance today!
Everyone is welcome to attend. You will get the Zoom-Link here or at maria.robaszkiewicz@upb.de.

New Voices - Elsa Siu Lonzas: Natality as a formative structure in Hannah Arendt’s work. A phenomenological approach to the question of the university in times of dictatorship
2025-12-05 16:00 - 18:00 (Europe/Berlin) | online
Hannah Arendt Today
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).
Talk: Natality as a formative structure in Hannah Arendt’s work. A phenomenological approach to the question of the university in times of dictatorship by Elsa Siu Lanzas (University of Costa Rica)
Abstract:
This paper is guided by Hannah Arendt’s phenomenological approach to education, arguing that a university undergoing dictatorial intervention fractures one of the structures of formation: natality. I first review the possibilities the author grants to the concept of ‘natality’ for thinking about the relationship between education and formation. Then I present an approximation to Arendt’s own understanding of the university. Finally, I develop a description of the forced closure of the Universidad Centroamericana in Nicaragua and, regarding the possibilities of Arendt’s conceptual framework, I seek to provide some of the aspects that, due to the university’s fragile situation, ends up limiting the formation.
About the speaker:
Elsa Siu Lanzas (Dra. phil.) is visiting professor and researcher specializing in phenomenology and the philosophy of education, trained at the Universidad Pedagógica Nacional de Colombia and the University of Costa Rica. Her work focuses on questions of passivity, embodiment, and philosophical formation, including the role of the body in thinking and teaching. She has published on Husserl, Patočka, and philosophical pedagogy, contributing studies on responsibility, memory, and educational challenges in Latin American contexts.
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/

Workshop - AG DGPhil: „Sie waren ihrer Zeit voraus“
2025-12-08 09:30 - 18:00 (Europe/Berlin) | Technologiepark 8, Technologiepark 8, Paderborn, 33098, Germany
PHILOSOPHINNEN UND WISSENSCHAFTLERINNEN UND IHR PLATZ IN DER GESCHICHTE
Anmeldungen zur Teilnahme (ohne Beitrag) am Workshop sind noch bis zum 4. Dezember 2025 möglich. Nur noch für Online Teilnahme. ANMELDUNG.
Das Jahrestreffen der AG Frauen in der Geschichte der Philosophie widmet sich Philosophinnen und Wissenschaftlerinnen, deren Ideen und Theorien ihrer Zeit weit voraus waren und bislang nicht ausreichend als solche anerkannt wurden. Der hybride Workshop lädt dazu ein, Fallstudien vorzustellen, die aufzeigen, wie Denkerinnen in verschiedenen Disziplinen – von der Philosophie bis zu den Natur- und Sozialwissenschaften – grundlegende Paradigmenwechsel vorbereitet und geprägt haben.
Ziel des Workshops ist es, an konkreten Fallstudien das Gefüge philosophischer und wissenschaftlicher Diskursentwicklungen sichtbar zu machen und Strukturen zu identifizieren, die Vergleiche zwischen unterschiedlichen Disziplinen und Theorien ermöglichen.
Vorläufiges Programm:

9.30-10.00
Julia Lerius, Reziprozität als ökologische Leitkategorie im Denken Hildegards von Bingen

10.00-10.30
Christian Henkel, Fundamentality, Simplicity and Mass-Energy: Du Châtelet’s Theoretical Philosophy as an Anticipation of Contemporary Physics

10.30-11.00
Susann Hofbauer und Sabrina Zucca-Soest, Der Staat als Geschlechterordnung – Mathilde Vaertings (1884-1977) Beitrag zur politischen Philosophie

11.00-11.10
Pause

11.10-11.40
Anne Pollok, Bloß eine fragmentarische Stimme? Frauen in Zeitschriften und Rezensionen

11.40-12.10
Heike Kahlert und Xenia Wenzel, Die Internationale Assoziation von Philosophinnen als Pionierin in der wissenschaftlichen Organisationsbildung von Frauen

12.10-12.15
Pause

12.15-13.00
Keynote: Andrea Reichenberger, Vergessene Philosophinnen als Brückenbauerinnen zwischen Philosophie und Physik

13.00-14.00
Lunch

14.00-14.30
Elżbieta Filipow, From Double Exclusion to Being Authoress on Her Own Terms – Towards the Recognition of Harriet Taylor Mill’s Contribution to Sociological Thought

14.30-15.00
Justin Joseph Vlasits, Margaret Macdonald as a Pioneer in Philosophy of Science

15.00-15.20
Dagmar Berger, Laura Bassi

15.20-15.40
Linda Brancaleone, Educating for Emancipation: Legal-Philosophical Resonances Between My Brilliant Friend and the Feminist Thought of Mary Wollstonecraft and Olympe de Gouges

15.40-16.00
Valentina Lommatzsch, Gertrud Simmel

16.00-16.15
Pause

16.15-18.00
Mitgliederversammlung der AG Frauen in der Geschichte der Philosophie:
1) Publikationsmöglichkeit der Beiträge AG Frauen in der Geschichte der Philosophie 2025
2) neue Optionen der Webpage DGPhil für die AGs
3) Entwicklung von Lehrmaterialien
4) Workshop 2026
5) Kongress 2027
6) Repräsentation der AG

Felix Grewe: Von Diffraktion zum Storytelling: Eine alternative Wissenschaftsgeschichte aus der Perspektive der Philosophin Donna J. Haraway
2025-12-16 16:00 - 18:00 (Europe/Berlin) | Room P1.1.02, P-Gebäude, Universität Paderborn
Am 16. Dezember 2025 stellt Felix Grewe seine Forschungen zum Konzept des Storytellings und seiner Genese im Werk von Donna J. Haraway vor. Der Vortrag Von Diffraktion zum Storytelling: Eine alternative Wissenschaftsgeschichte aus der Perspektive der Philosophin Donna J. Haraway ist Teil der Seminarreihe Interdisziplinäre Geschlechterforschung, der dieses Semester von Oxana Eremin und dem Zentrum für Geschlechterstudien der Universität Paderborn organisiert wird.
Das Seminar bietet einen Einblick in die Geschlechterforschung an der Universität Paderborn und eröffnet vielfältige Perspektiven auf das Forschungsfeld der Gender Studies. Gastvorträge von Expert:innen aus unterschiedlichen Disziplinen ermöglichen es, aktuelle Debatten, Forschungsperspektiven und Anwendungsfelder der Geschlechterforschung kennenzulernen. Geschlecht wird dabei als gesellschaftliche, kulturelle und soziale Kategorie aus verschiedenen wissenschaftlichen Blickwinkeln reflektiert. Das Seminar richtet sich an alle, die sich für Gender Studies und interdisziplinäre Forschung interessieren.
Felix Grewe ist wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter am Lehrstuhl für Praktische Philosophie der Universität Paderborn und ist dort am Center for the History of Women Philosophers and Scientists tätig. Seine Forschungen und sein Dissertationsprojekt fokussieren sich auf die Werke und Theorien Donna J. Haraways.
Mehr Informationen zu diesem Event können über die Seiten des Zentrums für Geschlechterstudien abgerufen werden.

Guest Lecture - Kristin Käuper: „What Can We Learn about Sexual Orientation from Asexuality?“
2025-12-17 11:00 - 13:00 (Europe/Berlin) | Building P1.5.08.2, University Paderborn, Paderborn, 33100, Germany
Guest Lecture in the Seminar “Feminist Perspectives on Sexuality” – A seminar offered within the Teaching Area on Heterogeneity – Lecturer: Ana Rodrigues
Kristin Käuper (University of Leeds): The Invisible Orientation: What Can We Learn about Sexual Orientation fromAsexuality?
About the Speaker:
Kristin Käuper studied at the University of Paderborn and completed her Master’s dissertation at the University of St Andrews on Asexuality and Sexual Orientation. She is currently pursuing her PhD at the Centre for Love, Sex, and Relationships at the University of Leeds, where sheresearches the philosophical dimensions of asexuality and aromanticism. Kristin is also the founder and organiser of the Aromanticism& Asexuality Research Network.
About the Lecture:
What does it actually mean to have a sexual orientation? Philosophical theories often define sexual orientation in termsof desire or behaviour – yet this approach proves insufficientonce we take asexuality seriously as a sexual orientation. Asexual people experience little or no sexual attraction toothers, revealing that desire, behaviour, and attraction are not the same thing. This talk explores how asexuality challengesour understanding of sexual orientation – and argues that weshould instead view it as a disposition to experience sexual attraction.
This perspective has far-reaching implications for how we:

conceptualise sexuality,
distinguish between sexual, romantic, and platonicattraction,
and determine the place these forms of attraction occupyin society.

ALL INTERESTED PERSONS ARE WARMLY INVITED TO ATTEND!
_______________________
German Version:
Gastvortrag im Seminar „Feministische Perspektiven auf Sexualität“ – Ein Seminarangebot im Lehrbereich Heterogenität – Leitung: Ana Rodrigues
Kristin Käuper (University of Leeds): Die unsichtbare Orientierung: Was können wir von Asexualität über sexuelle Orientierung lernen?
Über die Vortragende:
Kristin Käuper hat an der Universität Paderborn studiert und ihre Masterarbeit an der University of St Andrews zum Thema Asexualität und sexuelle Orientierung verfasst. Derzeit promoviert sie am Centre for Love, Sex, and Relationships der University of Leeds zu den philosophischen Dimensionen von Asexualität und Aromantik. Zudem ist sie Gründerin und Organisatorin des Aromanticism& Asexuality Research Networks.
Über den Vortrag:
Was bedeutet es eigentlich, eine sexuelle Orientierung zu haben? Philosophische Theorien definieren sie meist über Begehren oder Verhalten – doch diese Sichtweise greift zu kurz, wenn wir Asexualität als sexuelle Orientierung ernst nehmen. Asexuelle Menschen empfinden wenig, bis keine sexuelle Anziehung zu anderen und machen sichtbar, dass Begehren, Verhalten und Anziehung nicht identisch sind. Der Vortrag zeigt, wie Asexualität unser Verständnis sexueller Orientierung herausfordert – und warum wir sie besser als Disposition zur Erfahrung sexueller Anziehung verstehen sollten.
Dies hat weitreichende Konsequenzen dafür,

wie wir Sexualität konzeptualisieren,
wie wir sexuelle, romantische und platonische Anziehung voneinander abgrenzen,
und welchen gesellschaftlichen Stellenwert wir ihnen zuweisen.

ALLE INTERESSIERTEN SIND WILLKOMMEN!

Anniversary of Émilie Du Châtelet - Online Event
2025-12-17 16:00 - 17:30 (Europe/Berlin) | online
Du Châtelet’s Eclectic Laboratory

L’Expérience est le bâton que la nature a donné à nous autres aveugles, pour nousconduire dans nos recherches ~ Du Châtelet, Institutions de physique, Avant-propos

To celebrate Émilie du Châtelet’s 319th birthday, the Center for the History of Women Philosophers and Scientists invites you to take a deep dive into the empirical foundations of her Institutions de physique. The event is organised by Ruth E. Hagengruber and Pierpaolo Betti.
While Du Châtelet’s engagement with major figures like Descartes, Newton, and Leibniz is well documented, her work also draws extensively on a wide range of lesser-known experimentalists of her time. This event shifts the focus to the “eclectic laboratory” embedded in the Institutions and the remarkable variety of experiments she references. The program will feature an introductory talk by Pierpaolo Betti, with responses by Clara Carus and Christian Henkel, followed by a discussion with all participants. Join us as we investigate how Du Châtelet intagrates these findings to construct and support her natural philosophy.
Registration for participation is required: https://indico.uni-paderborn.de/event/150/

Talk by Jil Muller - Enseigner les femmes philosophes: correspondances, journaux intimes et la querelle des femmes
2025-12-18 - 2025-12-19 | Université Jean Moulin–Lyon 3 (France), 1 Av. des Frères Lumière, Lyon, France, 69008
Jil Muller will present her talk “Enseigner les femmes philosophes: correspondances, journaux intimes et la querelle des femmes” at the international colloquium “ENSEIGNER LES INVISIBLES : QUELS CORPUS DE PHILOSOPHIE MODERNE DANS LES SALLES DE CLASSE ?”, taking place on December 18–19, 2025, at Université Jean Moulin–Lyon 3 (France).
Program:
JEUDI 18 DECEMBRE
9h15 : ACCUEIL et Préambule
9h30-10h30
KEYNOTE SPEECH : Sarah Hutton (université de York) : « Penser aux penseuses : quelques réflexions sur un programme d’études sur les femmes philosophes »
———
Pause café
———
10h45-11h30
Jil Muller (université de Paderborn) : « Enseigner les femmes philosophes : correspondances, journaux intimes et la querelle des femmes »
11h30- 12h15
Nicolas Piqué (INSPE Grenoble) : « Enseigner les controverses au risque du contexte, une tension funeste ? »
——–
Pause méridienne
———
14h-14h45
Aurélie Knüfer (université de Montpellier) : « Enseigner l’histoire queer de la philosophie »
14h45-15h30
Elena Nájera (université d’Alicante) : « Le problème de l’autorité intellectuelle. Le cas de Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz »
——-
Pause café
——-
15h50-16h35
Marco Menin (université de Turin) : « Rendre visibles les émotions : autrices et cartographie philosophique des Lumières »
17h20-18h05
Lina Davy et Mary Purcell (université Lyon3 / Duke University) : « Project Vox Showcase »

VENDREDI 19 DECEMBRE
9h30-10h30
KEYNOTE SPEECH : Lisa Shapiro (université McGill) : « (L’histoire de) la philosophie de l’esprit en tant que la philosophie de l’éducation »
———
Pause café
———
10h45-11h30
Ernest Mbonda (université de Montréal) : « L’« oubli » de la philosophie africaine dans l’enseignement de la philosophie : comment et pourquoi ? »
11h30- 12h15
Thierry Hoquet (université de Nanterre) : « Trucs, Astuces et cas pratiques pour enseigner les auteurs qui ne figurent pas au programme »
——–
Pause méridienne
——–
14h-14h45
Clément Raymond (Lycée Léonard de Vinci, Villefontaine) : « Penser la domination coloniale. Une séance autour de Bacon, la poudre à canon et les Codex américains »
14h45-15h30
Anne-Lise Rey (université de Nanterre) : « Le canon : entre inclusion et explosion »
15h30-16h15
André Charrak (université Paris1-Sorbonne) : « L’absence de la philosophie chinoise dans les corpus modernes »

Research Colloquium - Patricia Grill: Olga Hahn-Neurath im Kontext des Neurath-Kreises / des Wiener Kreises
2026-01-19 16:00 - 18:00 (Europe/Berlin) | per Zoom
Olga Hahn zwischen Zugehörigkeit und Ausschluss
Vorgestellt wird ein Ausschnitt aus einem laufenden Dissertationsprojekt, der der Sichtbarmachung der Philosophin Olga Hahn gewidmet ist. Hahn gehörte zu den wenigen weiblichen Mitgliedern des Wiener Kreises und promovierte 1911 als erst dritte Frau im Fach Philosophie an der Universität Wien. Dennoch ist ihre eigene philosophische Stimme in der Forschung weitgehend in den Hintergrund getreten.
Ausgehend von biografischen Quellen und späteren Erinnerungen soll in diesem Vortrag gezeigt werden, dass Hahn zwar hohe intellektuelle Anerkennung genoss, institutionell jedoch nur begrenzt verankert war. Im Zentrum steht die Frage, wie sich diese ambivalente Position – im Diskurs präsent, aber kaum dokumentiert – erklären lässt und welche epistemischen wie sozialen Bedingungen dazu beigetragen haben, dass ihr Denken nur fragmentarisch überliefert ist.
Ziel ist es, Olga Hahn als eigenständige Akteurin der frühen Wissenschafts- und Ideengeschichte sichtbar zu machen und zugleich die strukturellen Grenzen philosophischer Überlieferung kritisch zu reflektieren.
Der Vortrag ist Teil des regulären Research Colloquiums des Center for the History of Women Philosophers and Scientists. Das Research Colloquium wird vom Center for the History of Women Philosophers and Scientists organisiert.
Alle Interessierten sind herzlich willkommen!
Der Vortrag beginnt um 16:00 Uhr.
Raum: TP8.1.46
Gebäude: Technologiepark 8
Adresse: Technologiepark 8, 33098 Paderborn

Talk by Ruth E. Hagengruber - Europa neu denken: Am Beispiel der Philosophin Émilie Du Châtelet (1706–1749)
2026-01-22 18:00 - 20:00 (Europe/Berlin)
[Further information will follow.]

Research Colloquium - Pietro Gori: Mary B. Hesse’s contribution to the history and philosophy of science
2026-01-26 16:00 - 18:00 (Europe/Berlin) | Technologiepark 8, Technologiepark 8, Paderborn, 33098, Germany
[Further information about the talk will follow.]
Dr. Pietro Gori is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy at NOVA University Lisbon, where he is in charge of the chairs in Philosophy of Science and Philosophy of Knowledge. Integrated member of the NOVA Institute of Philosophy since 2012, he is also the coordinator of the “Lisbon Nietzsche Group” at IFILNOVA. The main areas of his academic activity are Modern and Contemporary Western Philosophy, History and Philosophy of Science, Epistemology, and Philosophical Anthropology. In this context, Gori has particularly devoted his research to representatives of an anti-foundationalist shift in philosophy, with a specific interest in the works of Friedrich Nietzsche, William James, and Ernst Mach. Since 2021, his research has also been centered on the work of the British philosopher of science Mary B. Hesse and her post-empiricist approach.
The Talk is part of the regular research colloquium held at the Center for the History of Women Philosophers and Scientists. The research colloquium is organised by the Center for the History of Women Philosophers and Scientists.
Everybody is welcome to attend!
The talk will start at 4 pm.
Room: TP8.1.46
Building: Technologiepark 8
Adress: Technologiepark 8, 33098 Paderborn

Or via Zoom: https://uni-paderborn-de.zoom-x.de/j/68025505662?pwd=[REDACTED]

Research Colloquium - Minji Lee: The Medieval Womb - Hildegard of Bingen’s Views on the Female Reproductive Body
2026-02-02 16:00 - 18:00 (Europe/Berlin) | Technologiepark 8, Technologiepark 8, Paderborn, 33098, Germany
Minji Lee will present her newly published book The Medieval Womb: Hildegard of Bingen’s views on the female reproductive body. as part of the regular Research Colloquium at the Center for the History of Women Philosophers and Scientists.
Lee, M. (2025). The Medieval Womb: Hildegard of Bingen’s views on the female reproductive body. Arc Humanities Press.
This study of the twelfth-century German abbess Hildegard of Bingen examines her understanding of the womb through her medical work Cause et cure and visionary work Scivias. Medieval tradition viewed female bodies negatively, seeing their porous nature as easily polluted. Women were considered weaker and more vulnerable to spiritual invasion. This volume shows how Hildegard’s revolutionary understanding of the female reproductive body reversed these assumptions. She connected female bodily flows not to pollution but to purification, presenting menstruation and reproductive fluids as vital components in natural cleansing and healing processes. The book concludes with a chapter showing how Hildegard’s concept of beneficial bodily flow remains relevant in modern Western and non-Western alternative medicine, in which female bodily porosity and fluid exchange continue to be understood as sources of regenerative power.
Minji Lee is Assistant Professor of Religion and Medical Humanities at Montclair State University, New Jersey. She holds a PhD from Rice University, and specializes in medicine in relation to cultural practices, women’s health, and reproductive issues.
Everybody is welcome to attend!
The talk will start at 4 pm.
Room: TP8.1.46
Building: Technologiepark 8
Adress: Technologiepark 8, 33098 Paderborn

Or via Zoom: https://uni-paderborn-de.zoom-x.de/j/69114807044?pwd=[REDACTED]

Talk by Pierpaolo Betti - Du Châtelet’s Influence on Kant’s Early Response to Newtonianism
2026-02-26 17:00 - 18:30 (Europe/Berlin)
February 26th, 5.00-6.30 pm CET (Zoom)
Abstract:
This paper explores the influence of Du Châtelet’s Institutions physiques (1740–42) on Kant’s early natural philosophy. While recent scholarship has shown that both authors adopted a critical stance toward Newton’s ideas, little research has been devoted to comparing their responses to the Newtonian paradigm. Yet, as early as 1749, Kant expressed sincere appreciation for Du Châtelet’s work in his treatise on living forces. In this paper, I examine Du Châtelet’s and Kant’s critiques of the speculative strand of Newtonianism that goes back to the Opticks and was further developed by Newton’s followers. More specifically, I compare their objections to John Keill’s highly influential account of matter and attraction, which played an important role in shaping eighteenth-century speculative Newtonianism. On the basis of the similarities in their arguments, I contend that Du Châtelet’s critical engagement with Keill’s work informed Kant’s early dynamical theory of matter. This paper thus highlights the often-overlooked yet crucial role of Du Châtelet in the German reception of Newtonian ideas.
About the Speaker:
Pierpaolo Betti is a post-doctoral research fellow at the Center for the History of Women Philosophers and Scientists at Paderborn University. He is currently responsible for the commentary on the historical-critical edition of Émilie Du Châtelet’s Institutions de Physique.
His primary research interests lie in modern philosophy, with a particular focus on the interrelation between the history of metaphysics and the history of science. He obtained his doctoral degree from KU Leuven in 2025. His doctoral research examined the evolution of the concept of the monad in Kant’s philosophy in light of the early reception of Leibniz’s monadology.
Respondent: Aaron Wells (Metropolitan State University of Denver)
Please register through the website in order to receive the Zoom link: https://hiw.kuleuven.be/cmprpc/events/leuvenseminarinclassicalgermanphilosophy/program2026spring
Events are recorded and made available on the YouTube platform of the research group.

Talk by Ruth E. Hagengruber: The History of Women Philosophers and its Role in the Future of Global Philosophizing
2026-03-11 09:30 - 17:30 (Europe/Berlin) | Hildesheim University
On March 11th, Ruth E. Hagengruber gave a talk at the international workshop Futures of Philosophizing – On the Transformation of the Philosophy Curriculum at the University of Hildesheim. The workshop took place from March 10 to March 13, 2026, and was organized by the Research Center for Advanced Studies GloPhi (Philosophizing in a Globalized World), Rolf Elberfeld, Birgit Benzing, Lerato Posholi, and Abbed Kanoor.

For more information on the program, see here.

Abstract:
What is the common feature of all philosophical traditions around the world, and globally? – The exclusion of womens ideas is a key element to all philosophical traditions, globally.

Conclusion 1 : Every institutionalised philosophical tradition was created to the exclusion of women’s ideas and must therefore be regarded as a dominant strategy that is essentially and necessarily linked to this dominant characteristic

Conclusion 2: why should the accumulation of these dominant strategies result in anything else than one big philosophy of oppression?

Talk by Jil Muller - Olismo in Oliva Sabuco ed Elisabetta di Boemia
2026-03-11 18:00 - 20:00 (Europe/Berlin)
Dr. Jil Muller will give her talk in the seminar “La filosofia delle donne 2025-2026 Temi e concetti del pensiero filosofico femminile” at Università di Trento.
Abstract of the Talk
Oliva Sabuco ed Elisabetta di Boemia adottano entrambe un approccio medico allo studio dell’essere umano inteso come un tutto unificato, ma lo fanno partendo da presupposti filosofici nettamente diversi. Nella Nueva filosofía de la naturaleza del hombre (1587), Sabuco concepisce l’essere umano come un’unità integrata la cui salute e vita morale dipendono dall’armoniosa relazione tra corpo e anima. Tale unità, tuttavia, si fonda su una chiara separazione ontologica tra i due: l’anima e il corpo sono distinti per natura, ma la loro interazione, specialmente attraverso le passioni, ha effetti fisiologici e psicologici diretti. Per Sabuco, riconoscere questa distinzione è proprio ciò che permette di comprendere come gli stati mentali possano influenzare la salute del corpo e come le condizioni fisiche possano influire sull’anima, preservando così una visione olistica senza far collassare i due in un’unica sostanza. Elisabetta di Boemia, invece, mette in discussione la coerenza stessa di tale separazione. Nella sua corrispondenza con Cartesio, sfida notoriamente il dualismo cartesiano chiedendosi come una mente immateriale possa interagire causalmente con un corpo materiale. Per Elisabetta, l’essere umano non può essere adeguatamente compreso se la mente e il corpo sono concepiti come sostanze radicalmente distinte, poiché ciò rende la loro interazione oscura e filosoficamente insoddisfacente. Le sue riflessioni suggeriscono che una comprensione autentica dell’essere umano nel suo insieme richiede un ripensamento della natura dell’anima, del corpo e del concetto stesso di causalità.

Oliva Sabuco and Elisabeth of Bohemia both adopt a medical approach to the study of the human being as a unified whole, but they do so starting from distinctly different philosophical assumptions. In Nueva filosofía de la naturaleza del hombre (1587), Sabuco conceives of the human being as an integrated unit whose health and moral life depend on the harmonious relationship between body and soul. This unity, however, is based on a clear ontological separation between the two: the soul and the body are distinct by nature, but their interaction, especially through the passions, has direct physiological and psychological effects. For Sabuco, recognising this distinction is precisely what allows us to understand how mental states can influence the health of the body and how physical conditions can affect the soul, thus preserving a holistic view without collapsing the two into a single substance. Elisabeth of Bohemia, on the other hand, questions the very coherence of this separation. In her correspondence with Descartes, she famously challenges Cartesian dualism by asking how an immaterial mind can interact causally with a material body. For Elisabeth, human beings cannot be adequately understood if the mind and body are conceived as radically distinct substances, as this makes their interaction obscure and philosophically unsatisfactory.His reflections suggest that a genuine understanding of the human being as a whole requires a rethinking of the nature of the soul, the body, and the very concept of causality.

New Voices | Lectures by Floris Verhaart & Margaret Matthews
2026-04-28 04:30 - 18:00 (Europe/Paris) | zoom
The New Voices on Women in the History of Philosophy network, which is open to early-career researchers in the broadest sense, is hosted by the Center for the History of Women Philosophers and Scientists in Paderborn. The objective of New Voices is to establish a forum and network for international early-career researchers in the field of female philosophers, scientists, and writers in the history of philosophy, and to promote their work.
In the Spring of 2026, the New Voices Talk Series will once again embrace a spirit of collaboration. This joint project represents a partnership between three universities: the University of Paderborn, the Saint Joseph University of Beirut, and the University of Lorraine. The organizers are: Dr. Jil Muller; Dr. Marguerite El Asmar Bou Aoun; Dr. Daniel Fischer and Dr. Katia Raya.
Everyone is welcome to attend. Please register here and you will get the Zoom-Link after registration.
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Floris Verhaart – Johanna Dorothea Lindenaer: Memoirist, Translator, and Religious Polemicist
After being accused of treason and conspiracy, a young widow was imprisoned by the Dutch army in Maastricht. With the help of an army officer and two of his soldiers, she managed to escape and fled to Paris in 1704, where she converted to Catholicism and became a writer and translator. The name of this widow was Johanna Dorothea Lindenaer (nom de plume: Mme Zoutelande). Among her original publications are a notoriously unreliable memoir (1710) and a renunciation of her former Protestant beliefs, La Babylone démasquée (1727). Her translations – translated from Dutch into French – include a selection of letters written by Anna Maria van Schurman (1607-78) on the relationship between medicine and divine providence (Lettres de la très fameuse demoiselle Anne-Marie Schurmans, 1730) and a treatise on political theory with a distinctly republican flavour by Pieter de la Court (1618-85), the Memoires de Jean de Wit, grand pensionnaire de Hollande (1709). Although this written output may seem like a mishmash of topics, I will demonstrate how Lindenaer’s writings and translations across a range of genres and themes convey a coherent religious agenda aimed at defending Catholicism from Protestant polemicists and at commenting on contemporary tensions between Jansenists and their opponents within the Catholic church. Both in her translations and in her original writings, Lindenaer makes clever use of the arguments and formulations of others to get her own points of view across to the reader. This helps her retain the intellectual modesty expected of women in the early modern period. After all, she could claim she merely reported and conveyed other people’s ideas. I will therefore argue that Lindenaer was not just a religious author and translator who happened to be a woman; her gender is key to understanding her writings from a religious perspective.
About the Speaker: Floris Verhaart is a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Exeter. He is affiliated with the ERC/UKRI project Cultures of Philosophy: Women Writing Knowledge in Early Modern Europe and has published on a wide range of aspects of early modern religious and intellectual culture, such as ideas on religion and violence, sexuality and gender, university culture, and the impact of the classical tradition. He is the author and (co)editor of five books, including Protestant Politics Beyond Calvin: Reformed Theologians on War in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries (Routledge, 2022, co-edited with Ian Campbell) and Classical Learning in Britain, France, and the Dutch Republic, 1690-1750: Beyond the Ancients and the Moderns (OUP, 2020).
Margaret Matthews – Rhetoric, Method, and Genre in Gabrielle Suchon’s Treatise on Ethics and Politics
In this talk, I discuss the genre, methodology, and mode of communication used by early modern philosopher Gabrielle Suchon in her Treatise on Ethics and Politics (1693), and describe its relation to her feminism. I examine how Suchon adapts aspects of the theological genre and methods of Scholasticism, redirecting them toward new ends, namely, an extended argument for the moral, intellectual, and spiritual equality of men and women. I show further how Suchon’s appropriation of Scholasticism renders her feminist project distinctive within her seventeenth-century context, contrasting it with that of feminist writers in the querelle des femmes tradition (e.g., Marie de Gournay and Marguerite Buffet) and Cartesian feminists (e.g., François Poulain de la Barre and Mary Astell). When considering the rhetorical features of Suchon’s work, scholars have often emphasized her efforts to communicate with a female audience and to cultivate generosity and solidarity in her female readers. Much less scholarly attention has been given to Suchon’s mode of communication with male audiences and her use of traditionally male-dominated genres, such as Scholasticism, to advance her feminist project. I show how Suchon draws on Scholastic methods and genres, such as dialectic and the disputed question format, as well as concepts within Thomistic natural law theory, to reach a specific type of male reader, namely one steeped in the Scholastic tradition. On one level, her goal is to persuade this type of reader that concern with the elevation of women’s status is not only consistent with, but also demanded by the Thomistic theoretical framework that he accepts. On another level, by appropriating a traditionally male-dominated genre, Suchon’s goal is to reclaim a position of epistemic authority that has been denied to her as a woman writer, and to perform (through her own example) the very equality she seeks to prove.
About the Speaker: Margaret Matthews is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Assumption University. Her research specialization is in Renaissance and Early Modern philosophy with an emphasis on the intersection of epistemology and social and political philosophy. She has published on topics such as Gabrielle Suchon’s epistemology and Marie de Gournay’s skepticism, and she is currently working on a book project on the philosophy of Gabrielle Suchon.

New Voices | Lectures by Elodie Pinel & Lila Braunschweig
2026-05-05 16:30 - 18:00 (Europe/Paris) | zoom
The New Voices on Women in the History of Philosophy network, which is open to early-career researchers in the broadest sense, is hosted by the Center for the History of Women Philosophers and Scientists in Paderborn. The objective of New Voices is to establish a forum and network for international early-career researchers in the field of female philosophers, scientists, and writers in the history of philosophy, and to promote their work.
In the Spring of 2026, the New Voices Talk Series will once again embrace a spirit of collaboration. This joint project represents a partnership between three universities: the University of Paderborn, the Saint Joseph University of Beirut, and the University of Lorraine. The organizers are: Dr. Jil Muller; Dr. Marguerite El Asmar Bou Aoun; Dr. Daniel Fischer and Dr. Katia Raya.
Everyone is welcome to attend. Please register here and you will get the Zoom-Link after registration.
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Elodie Pinel – Vernacular Theology and Authority: Marguerite Porete, Mechthild of Magdeburg, Hadewijch of Antwerp
This paper examines the writing of Marguerite Porete, Mechthild of Magdeburg, and Hadewijch of Antwerp as a distinct mode of speculative discourse that can be understood, following McDonnell, as vernacular theology. Rather than denoting a merely linguistic choice, “vernacular” here refers to a relocation of theological authority outside clerical, scholastic, and institutional frameworks, into forms of expression rooted in lived experience and the rhetorical resources of lyric and narrative. Each of these writers develops a conceptual reflection on the soul’s union with God that is neither derivative of scholastic thought nor reducible to affective piety. Porete articulates a radical theology of dispossession of the will: the soul in Love becomes “without why,” beyond virtue and rational effort. Hadewijch theorizes Minne as a demanding reciprocity between the soul and God, where love is both ontological ground and ethical trial. Mechthild describes the divine as a dynamic “flowing light” that both consumes and renews the soul, elaborated through intensely embodied imagery. In each case, theological insight is embedded in poetic, dialogical, and visionary forms, which are not ornamental but constitutive of meaning. These women write in vernacular languages—Old French, Middle High German, Middle Dutch—but more importantly, they write in vernacular forms: song, dialogue, allegory, visionary narrative. Such media allowed them to communicate theology as transformation, not proposition. Their texts construct communities of reception independent of academic institutions: readers, listeners, fellow laywomen, informal circles of devotion. Communication is therefore not simply transmission but negotiation of authority. By claiming the right to speak of God from lived experience, they challenge clerical monopoly over theological discourse.This paper argues that the theological originality of these mystics lies precisely in this convergence of speculative rigor and vernacular expression. Their work demonstrates that the history of philosophy cannot be restricted to scholastic production, and that forms of communication themselves shape what counts as legitimate knowledge.
About the Speaker: Élodie Pinel is a lecturer in philosophy and a specialist in medieval French literature. Agrégée in both modern literature and philosophy, she focuses on Marguerite Porete and the intellectual legacy of female mystics. She explores the intersections of theology, literature, and philosophy, with a special interest in will, language, and freedom. She completed her PhD on Le Miroir des âmes simples at Université Paris Nanterre, where she is affiliated with the research center CSLF (Centre des Sciences des Littératures en Langue Française). She is also active in public philosophy through podcasts and feminist publishing
Lila Braunschweig – A Voice of One’s Own: Philosophizing as Feminized Subjects (Impostor Syndrome & Authority)
This presentation offers an investigation into the complicated, doubtful, and sometimes painful relationship feminized subjects have with philosophical activity. Drawing on the analyses of French philosopher Michèle Le Doeuff regarding the place of women in philosophy, as well as accounts from women philosophers, I aim to identify some of the reasons behind what has been termed “feminine doubt” (Casselot 2018), commonly known today as impostor syndrome. I will argue that these doubts regarding one’s philosophical authority cannot solely be explained by the now well-known reasons, such as the lack of female figures in the traditional canon of continental philosophy, or the hostility of certain philosophical texts or contexts towards women, whether they are philosophers or not.By linking Le Doeuff’s arguments with those of other Francophone and Anglophone Western feminist thinkers and writers, I will demonstrate that these doubts may also stem from the unique relationship to knowledge and authority shaped by feminine socialization and its intersection with class and race. This, in turn, hinders feminized subjects from expressing and asserting their own unique voice. I will argue that philosophy, and more broadly the ability to generate new ideas in the academic field, requires an attitude of self-assertion, as well as a capacity for disruption that is sometimes at odds with the attitudes of submission promoted by certain feminine norms and societal expectations for women in Western societies. Therefore, the ability to assert oneself as a philosophizing subject not only requires “a room of one’s own” (Woolf, 1929), but also the development of a voice of one’s own. Finally, on a more personal note, I will reflect on the remedies and practices that, in a non-ideal world, have helped me find my own voice as a theorist, assert my viewpoint, and assume a certain philosophical authority. In particular, I will discuss the rich and transformative experience of creating and participating in a women-only writing group with young Francophone feminist scholars.
About the Speaker: Lila Braunschweig is an assistant professor of French literature and culture and a research affiliate at the Institute for Cultural Inquiry (ICON) at Utrecht University. She holds a PhD in political science from Sciences Po (France). Before joining Utrecht, she was a British Academy Newton international postdoctoral fellow at the University of Kent, and a postdoctoral fellow in philosophy at the Centre de recherche en éthique (CRÉ) in Montreal, and the Chaire de recherche du Canada en éthique féministe at the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivière. Previously, she has also been a visiting researcher and international Fox fellow at Yale University (2019-2020). Her first book (Neutriser: emancipation par le neutre) was published in French by Les Liens qui Libèrent in 2021. Her second monograph (Vers la délicatesse. Une philosophie relationnelle de la liberté) will be published by Gallimard in 2026. Her work has also appeared in La Revue française de science politique, Philosophiques, Political Theory, Recherches féministes, the International Journal for Gender, Sexuality and Law, and Genre, Sexualités, Société.

New Voices | Lectures by Elżbieta Filipow & Shamoni Sarkar
2026-05-12 16:30 - 18:00 (Europe/Paris) | zoom
The New Voices on Women in the History of Philosophy network, which is open to early-career researchers in the broadest sense, is hosted by the Center for the History of Women Philosophers and Scientists in Paderborn. The objective of New Voices is to establish a forum and network for international early-career researchers in the field of female philosophers, scientists, and writers in the history of philosophy, and to promote their work.
In the Spring of 2026, the New Voices Talk Series will once again embrace a spirit of collaboration. This joint project represents a partnership between three universities: the University of Paderborn, the Saint Joseph University of Beirut, and the University of Lorraine. The organizers are: Dr. Jil Muller; Dr. Marguerite El Asmar Bou Aoun; Dr. Daniel Fischer and Dr. Katia Raya.
Everyone is welcome to attend. Please register here and you will get the Zoom-Link after registration.
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Elżbieta Filipow – Women’s Writing of Harriet Taylor Mill and its Various Modes of Self-expression
Harriet Taylor Mill (1807–1857) was a long-time friend, intellectual partner, and, eventually, wife of John Stuart Mill (1806–1873) – one of the main representatives of utilitarianism and an advocate of feminism. My preliminary research has shown that Harriet Taylor Mill is an almost entirely absent figure in the field of literary studies. The aim of my presentation will be to highlight her contribution to the development of women’s writing, aesthetics, and literary self-reflection, based on her essays in aesthetics, literary criticism, and poetry. Although the topic of Harriet Taylor Mill’s female writing is completely overlooked from the perspective of her contributions to social thought or feminist philosophy, it is, in my view, worth taking a closer look at these insufficiently explored aspects of various modes of self-expression in her literary activity. Doing so may show her creative output in a different light: as that of a writer with a critical sensibility towards literary work and as a poet addressing themes linked to emotions arising from motherhood and marriage. Particularly, this last element of her female voice inwriting may serve to complete her portrayal as a woman who attempted to reconcile her feminist beliefs with family life – a considerable challenge in the Victorian era. Ultimately, I will argue that it is possible to demonstrate that Harriet Taylor Mill’s works represents an example of female writing as a form of self-reflection, which ambivalently set for and against her own perception of the social issues related to gender inequality within the broader context of the role and place of women in Victorian society.
About the Speaker: Elżbieta Filipow holds MA in sociology and BA in philosophy. Since 2022 she is working as a research assistant in the Department of Ethics at the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Warsaw and she is principal investigator in the research project entitled ‘The Place of Equality in John Stuart Mill’s Utilitarianism’ financed by the National Science Centre (Poland) and a research assistant in the project ‘Enlightenment-Era Pedagogical Reforms and Arguments against the Gendered Conception of Human Progress in Poland and Germany’ financed by National Agency of Academic Exchange (NAWA, Poland). She is completing her doctoral dissertation in philosophy entitled ‘Perfectionism and Justice. The Equality of Women and Men in John Stuart Mill’s Utilitarianism’. Since 2024 she is doctoral student in a Doctoral School in Sociological Science at the University of Bialystok (Poland). Her doctoral dissertation focuseson the contribution of Harriet Taylor Mill into the canon of sociological thought. In 2024 she was an Academic Visitor at the Faculty of Philosophy, Oxford University and conducted research in The John Stuart Mill Library at Somerville College.
Shamoni Sarkar – Karoline von Günderrode: Fragmentation, Philosophy, and Early German Romanticism
In this paper, I argue for a creative ethics grounded in fragmentation in the work of the early German romantic poet and philosopher Karoline von Günderrode. Scholarship on Günderrode is scant, but commentators have emphasized, among other themes, her novel environmental ethics and Naturphilosophie, as well as her original philosophy of gender and selfhood. However, the larger hermeneutics of the early romantic fragment as a form of philosophical communication has not been sufficiently investigated in terms of her philosophical conception, especially given her role as a woman on the fringes of the movement. With this in mind, I provide a close reading of Günderrode’s essay-fragment “The Idea of the Earth” (Die Idee der Erde) and her lyric poem “The Kiss in the Dream” (Der Kuss im Traume) to show how her concept of the spiritual will, life, and dream-inspired creativity all depend on an underlying conception of fragmentation at the core of willing, living, and dreaming. We are confronted with fragmentation as both a threat as well as a sustenance of our collective life on earth and of our creative communication. Therefore, writing in the fragment form is a direct expression of the pain of philosophizing and poeticizing from within a context of a world and a creative will that is consistently torn apart seemingly by its own volition. Günderrode’s work appeals to our imaginations to see and to use this pain to re-imagine the real rather than chase the ideal. Ideal unity functions more as a limit condition of this philosophical activity rather than as a destination.
About the Speaker: Shamoni Sarkar obtained her PhD in Philosophy from the University of California, Riverside in Fall 2025. Her dissertation argued for a conception of openness in community in Early German Romantic philosophy. This is facilitated by the process of reading and understanding the early romantic fragment– in which finitude and infinitude work themselves out together. From 2023-2024, she was an associated doctoral fellow at the Freie Universität Berlin, funded by an Einstein Stiftung grant. In the future, she plans to focus more on women philosophers from the period, and on investigating alternative forms of ‘philosophizing’ as a form of community creation.

New Voices | Lectures by Maxim Demin & Patricia Guevara Wozniak
2026-05-19 16:30 - 18:00 (Europe/Paris) | zoom
The New Voices on Women in the History of Philosophy network, which is open to early-career researchers in the broadest sense, is hosted by the Center for the History of Women Philosophers and Scientists in Paderborn. The objective of New Voices is to establish a forum and network for international early-career researchers in the field of female philosophers, scientists, and writers in the history of philosophy, and to promote their work.
In the Spring of 2026, the New Voices Talk Series will once again embrace a spirit of collaboration. This joint project represents a partnership between three universities: the University of Paderborn, the Saint Joseph University of Beirut, and the University of Lorraine. The organizers are: Dr. Jil Muller; Dr. Marguerite El Asmar Bou Aoun; Dr. Daniel Fischer and Dr. Katia Raya.
Everyone is welcome to attend. Please register here and you will get the Zoom-Link after registration.
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Maxim Demin – Philosophy, God-Seeking, and Developmental Psychology: Stolitsa and Volkovich in Late Imperial Russia
This presentation examines the philosophical project of two largely forgotten Russophone women thinkers, Zinaida Stolitsa (1873–1956) and Vera Volkovich (1873–1962). As co-authors and lifelong partners, they developed a distinctive body of work at the intersection of religious philosophy, developmental psychology, and pedagogical reform during the final decades of the Russian Empire. Their voices, once publicly visible, were later marginalized and silenced under Soviet rule.Stolitsa and Volkovich strategically used a wide range of media and communicative forms to articulate a female philosophical voice within the early twentieth-century God-Seeking movement. Their collaborative writings, most notably the manifesto The Future in Our Hands (1909), combined speculative religious philosophy with emerging scientific approaches to child psychology. They published philosophical essays, reviews, and programmatic statements of their independent society, and they also participated in international scholarly events in Geneva (1909) and The Hague (1912). These diverse communicative strategies enabled them to claim intellectual authority within discourses traditionally dominated by men. Their reworking of central theological and philosophical concepts, particularly Stolitsa’s reinterpretation of Man-Godhood, formulated partly in a one-sided polemic with figures such as Nikolai Berdiaev, provided a conceptual foundation for their broader agenda of moral, spiritual, and national renewal. Their work also contributed to the early twentieth-century feminisation of pedagogical expertise, placing women at the center of discussions on education and child development. The paper will highlight the paradoxical ideological constellation that shaped their project: an upper-class background combined with conservative moral views; openness to feminist concerns; aspirations for international intellectual exchange; and, simultaneously, elements of Russian imperial nationalism and cultural chauvinism on the eve of the First World War. The presentation will also draw on archival photographs and visual materials, offering a tangible sense of their intellectual and social world.
About the Speaker: Maxim Demin is a research fellow at the Ruhr University Bochum (Germany). His main interest is post-Hegelian philosophy and its intellectual development in German-speaking countries during the nineteenth century. Before moving to Bochum, he taught for nearly a decade at the National Research University – Higher School of Economics (HSE) in St. Petersburg and Moscow, offering courses in critical thinking, philosophy of science, metaethics, and moral psychology. His current project explores Russian philosophical and public debates on the emergence of studies of human and animal psychology and mental phenomena, tracing the transfer of psychological knowledge from the early nineteenth century to the early Soviet regime.
Patricia Guevara Wozniak – The Metaphysical Tenacity of Barbara Skarga – Metaphysics in Totalitarianism
Contrary to twentieth-century proclamations of the “death of metaphysics” and the erosion of truth, Barbara Skarga persistently defended the metaphysical dimension of human existence. For Skarga, metaphysicality constitutes the core of being; its eradication would entail a loss of humanity itself. Her philosophical stance gains particular significance when considered against the backdrop of totalitarian experience, including her imprisonment in the Gulag. Skarga’s reflection on metaphysics centers on the notion of the source of being, explored primarily through the categories of time, evil, and experience. In a series of philosophical essays, she emphasizes both the difficulty and the ethical-intellectual value of seeking the origins of being. She critically engages classical conceptions of time—physical, psychological, and cosmological—while foregrounding lived temporality as structured by finitude. Her analysis of evil exposes philosophy’s enduring struggle to comprehend it: as privation of good, corruption of human nature, or an inescapable dimension of social violence, paradoxically accompanied by utopian visions of moral redemption. Addressing experience as a source of being, she enters into dialogue with thinkers such as Plotinus, Husserl, and Heidegger. After returning from the Gulag in 1955 and completing her studies, Skarga joined the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of the Polish Academy of Sciences, remaining associated with it throughout her career. Although her early academic choices were shaped by Adam Schaff’s centrally planned research agenda, they ultimately became foundational to her intellectual development and to the formation of the Warsaw School of the History of Ideas. Skarga’s work can be divided into five stages: studies of Polish and French positivism; research on non-positivist currents in nineteenth-century French philosophy, culminating in her engagement with Bergson; a metaphilosophical reflection on the methodology of the history of philosophy; a “post-critical” metaphysics informed by phenomenology and hermeneutics; and, finally, moral and civic essays affirming the durability of European values. Rather than offering rigid definitions, Skarga reveals the plurality of meanings and historical configurations through which metaphysical questions persist.
About the Speaker: Patricia Guevara Wozniak is a Doctor of Humanities in the field of philosophy, editor, academic lecturer, and educator. A graduate of the Academy of Film and Television. She has collaborated with the Academy of Art and Design and with Pedagogium – the University of Social Sciences in Warsaw. She is currently a lecturer at Kozminski University. She is a beneficiary of the Culture in the Network program awarded by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage and administered by the National Centre for Culture. She is the editor-in-chief of the nationwide monthly Remedium (remedium-psychologia.pl), funded by the Ministry of Health and administered by the National Centre for the Prevention of Addictions, a professional magazine providing up-to-date information on modern methodologies of education and prevention.

New Voices | Lectures by Jake Nicholas Brooks & Kaimé Guerrero Valencia
2026-06-02 16:30 - 18:00 (Europe/Paris) | zoom
The New Voices on Women in the History of Philosophy network, which is open to early-career researchers in the broadest sense, is hosted by the Center for the History of Women Philosophers and Scientists in Paderborn. The objective of New Voices is to establish a forum and network for international early-career researchers in the field of female philosophers, scientists, and writers in the history of philosophy, and to promote their work.
In the Spring of 2026, the New Voices Talk Series will once again embrace a spirit of collaboration. This joint project represents a partnership between three universities: the University of Paderborn, the Saint Joseph University of Beirut, and the University of Lorraine. The organizers are: Dr. Jil Muller; Dr. Marguerite El Asmar Bou Aoun; Dr. Daniel Fischer and Dr. Katia Raya.
Everyone is welcome to attend. Please register here and you will get the Zoom-Link after registration.
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Jake Nicholas Brooks – Autonomy Beyond Kant: Butler, Tronto, and Interdependence
The aim of this contribution is to highlight – from a standpoint of intersectional critique – the limitation of the Kantian conception of autonomy, grounded on a male and autonomous subject, that has shaped Western philosophical and theological discourses. The contribution will develop along two complementary lines. First, drawing on Butler’s critique of the State of Nature tradition, it will show how the subject of modern philosophy has always been conceived as already adult, male, and autonomous, thus masking the condition of dependency inherent to human beings. Butler’s analysis reveals how this framework is produced through exclusions of those identities, which are shaped by gender oppression and racialization. Butler’s work demonstrates that dependency is not a deviation from the norm, rather a constitutive feature of human life. Secondly, relying on Tronto’s care ethic, the contribution will argue that humanity is better understood as grounded on interdependence, where care relationships are not only fundamental for democratic societies, but also for a responsible and adequate care of human beings. Tronto’s analysis highlights how the unequal distribution of care labor – which is historically borne by women or racialized and marginalized groups – is grounded on “passes” given to men, that exempt them from care responsibilities. Through Tronto’s theory it will become clear that a model of humanity grounded on interdependence and responsibility is necessary for a more equal ethical and political life. Through this two-fold analysis, this contribution aims at demonstrating the necessity for an ontological shift: it is necessary to overcome the conception of humanity as male-centered, autonomous and self-made, to a vision of humanity as interdependent, needy, vulnerable, and relational.
About the Speaker: Jake Nicholas Brooks is MA graduate with honors in Philosophy at University of Rome “La Sapienza”. His research interests revolve around Political Philosophy, Feminist Theories, and Gender Studies. He carried out a thesis on the Habermasian conception of progress. He has published an article in double-blind peer review for Quaderni Leif – ethical and moral journal from the University of of Catania – on Tronto’s ethics’s of care and Simone Weil’s perspective on war. He is currently working on a paper for Etica-Mente, another journal of University of Catania, concerning Tronto’s conception of interdependence.
Kaimé Guerrero Valencia – Intervening Assemblages of Trans-formation/Action: Beatriz Nascimento (1942-1995)
This paper examines the intellectual, artistic, and political contributions of Beatriz Nascimento (1942–1995), a leading figure of Brazil’s Black Movement. It situates her work at the intersection of historiography, aesthetics, and political theory, showing how she developed innovative conceptual and methodological tools to contest colonial structures of knowledge and create new practices of Black autonomy. Through an interdisciplinary analysis of her essays, poetry, archival materials, and the documentary Ôrí (1989), the paper argues that Nascimento, by mobilizing writing, film, and activism as intertwined strategies, elaborates a distinct theoretical, methodological, and ethical approach that redefines Black historiography, advances the conception of a Black utopia, and reconfigures the quilombo (maroon societies) as a political and existential category. At the core of Nascimento’s oeuvre is the concept of trans-formação/ação, a neologism that denotes processes of transformation enacted through language. She theorizes language not as a neutral medium but as a site of material and historical change, capable of unsettling hegemonic orders and generating new forms of collective subjectivity. The paper demonstrates how she strategically combined academic, poetic, and cinematic registers to transform language itself into an instrument of resistance. Nascimento’s work establishes the conditions for new forms of Black historiography in which freedom is articulated not as an abstract universal but as a lived and collective practice. Her oeuvre constitutes an embodied, aesthetic, and political historiography of the Black diaspora, in which the quilombo functions as both archive and horizon of freedom, and Black utopia materializes through collective practices of memory, writing, and resistance.
About the Speaker: Kaimé Guerrero Valencia were born in Quito, Ecuador, and has been living in Berlin for ten years. They studied sociology and political science at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador, followed by a MA degree in interdisciplinary Latin American studies with a gender profile at the Free University of Berlin. They are currently completing their PhD in the Collaborative Research Center Intervening Arts in the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Duisburg-Essen. Their research interests include the intersections between aesthetic, political and scientific processes in the production of alternative forms of word-making.

New Voices | Lectures by Marianne Najm Abou-Jaoude & Roula Azar Douglas
2026-06-09 16:30 - 18:00 (Europe/Paris) | zoom
Marianne Najm Abou-Jaoude – Beneficent Communication as Power
This presentation proposes a three-level framework—safe, responsible and beneficent—to analyse and foster constructive forms of women’s agency in contemporary digital media ecologies. “Safe” designates not engaging in practices and structures that include violence, exploitation and manipulation online and offline. “Responsible” refers to doing no harm, ensuring fairness and structural justice. “Beneficent” goes further, namely actively promote the flourishing of others, create conditions for dialogue and build the common good, and is presented as the key to reimagining women’s power in and through media. Drawing on case studies of women communicators in religious, civic and grassroots community contexts, this research examines digital practices through the three cumulative levels of positive ethics in communication to illuminate how such engagements challenge exclusionary structures in theology and philosophy. A few case studies examples would be first, women moderating encrypted messaging groups that coordinate neighborhood mutual aid and emotional support while establishing clear norms of safety and verification. A second examines women leaders in faith-based digital communities who use livestreams and social media to host spaces of shared discernment, interreligious encounter and reconciliation. A third considers women running community radio and podcast collectives that platform the voices of migrant, indigenous or otherwise marginalised women, combining journalistic rigour with participatory storytelling.
About the Speaker: Marianne Najm Abou Jaoude is a telecom engineer finishing her doctoral research at Sophia University Institute near Florence in Italy. Her thesis concerns ethics of AI and the responsibility of everyone in building a safe and peaceful future. She developed a framework about a digital oath that includes beneficence in communication and systems design, and the role of technology such as generative AI in peacebuilding and depolarization. Her work examines progressive ethical levels and the concept of collaborative positive ethics to foster human-centric innovation and inclusive digital communication.
Roula Azar Douglas – Women’s Digital Voices and the Reconfiguration of Public Debate
In the contemporary digital landscape, social media platforms, blogs, and online communities have emerged as significant spaces where women articulate political, philosophical, religious, or secular positions. Far from being peripheral, these digital arenas are vital sites for rethinking legitimacy, influence, and participation in public discourse. This paper examines how women — from secular thinkers and educators to feminist digital activists, as well as Christian pastors in Europe and Muslim scholars in the Arab world — use digital media to challenge traditional frameworks, reinterpret doctrines or social norms, and create alternative spaces for reflection, critique, and debate. Through selected case studies, the paper analyzes strategies these women employ to reach diverse audiences: the mobilization of storytelling and personal narrative, the use of pedagogical tools, and the deliberate cultivation of online communities that function as safe spaces for questioning and dissent. It also considers aesthetic and rhetorical choices — such as visual branding and accessible language — that enhance the effectiveness of their digital presence. Particular attention is devoted to how these actors navigate visibility in environments where religious, cultural, or political expectations can restrict women’s public expression. This includes facing harassment, censorship, or community backlash, while leveraging alliances, digital solidarity networks, and transnational audiences to amplify their voices. The study highlights how digital platforms enable women to bypass traditional gatekeepers and establish new forms of authority rooted in experience, authenticity, and community engagement. Ultimately, it sheds light on how online spaces are reshaping women’s participation in intellectual and spiritual debates, highlighting both persistent obstacles and emerging opportunities for more inclusive, plural, and transformative dialogue.
About the Speaker: Roula Azar Douglas is a Lebanese-Canadian researcher, journalist, writer, and academic interested in the role of media in shaping social realities. She is the founder and president of the Union de la presse francophone – Liban (UPF Liban), a mentor with the Global Thinkers Forum in London, and serves on the editorial board of the Middle East edition of the scientific journal Hermès. Douglas coordinates the National Observatory of Women in Research (CNRS-L) and contributes to a research project on gender equality with the Diane Chair at USJ and the French Institute for Research and Development (IRD). She also oversees a weekly page on universities, research, and youth for L’Orient-Le Jour and is the author of Le jour où le soleil ne s’est pas levé (2018) and Chez nous, c’était le silence (2007).

Libori Summer School 2026
2026-07-27 - 2026-07-31 | L-Building, Paderborn University
The History of Women Philosophers and Scientists
Save the date: July 27 – July 31, 2026 – Paderborn University
+++More information about CfP and program coming soon+++
