Copenhagen Winter School in Phenomenology

The Copenhagen Winter School in Phenomenology is a PhD course that offers a close reading of a classical work in phenomenology. In 2025, the selected text is Alfred Schutz'  Der sinnhafte Aufbau der sozialen Welt (1932) (Phenomenology of the Social World, transl. by G. Walsh & F. Lehnert, Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1967).

The Winter School will consist of two keynote lectures, six presentations by participating PhD students, and sessions devoted to a close reading of Schutz's text. The two keynote lectures will discuss Schutz's text, and PhD students who wish to present will be expected to engage with the work in question.

What can we still learn from Schutz’s classical text?

Although Schutz’s early work will constitute the point of departure, the systematic focus of the winter school will be broader.  It will also engage with questions about Schutz’s later development, his relation to other figures in phenomenology, as well as to more overarching questions of the phenomenology of the lifeworld, social phenomenology, and the application of phenomenology in the social sciences

Alexis Gros (Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena) and Dan Zahavi (CFS—University of Copenhagen) will be the keynote speakers.

Programme

Thursday 30 January 2025

09:15

Opening remarks

09:30

(Keynote) Alexis Gros – The Motivational ‘Aufbau’ of the Social World: Reconsidering Alfred Schutz’s Phenomenology of Motivation

10:45

Coffee Break

11:00

Ilami Yasna – Normativity and Danger: Schutzian Perspective

11:45

Sepehr Razavi – Purpose in Action: Shades of Motives in Action Understanding

12:30

Lunch in the canteen (at own expense)

13:30

Group discussions I

14:30

Plenum discussion I

15:30

Coffee Break

15:45

Maia Wellborn - Rereading Anonymity: Schutz’s Social Phenomenology and Anonymization

Friday 31 January 2025

09:30

(Keynote) Dan Zahavi – From the Dyad to the We

10:45

Coffee Break

11:00

Kanu Priya – From Fields to Frontlines: Schutzian Analysis of the Indian Farmers' Protest 2020-2021

11:45

Simon Lafontaine – The Problem of Strangeness in Schutzian Thought: Early Formulations, Later Developments, and Contemporary Reflections

12:30

Lunch in the canteen (at own expense)

13:30

Group discussions II

14:30

Plenum discussion II

15:30

Coffee Break

15:45

Charlotte Nell – Structures of the Love-World: A Sociological Exploration of a Late-Modern Province of Meaning

16:30

Concluding remarks

The course is now full, and no more abstracts can be submitted, but PhD students who are interested in participating and who haven't yet registered, can use the registration link below and be placed on a waiting list. They will then be informed in case any slots become available.  

Registration

ECTS: 1.2 ECTS for participation / 2.7 ECTS for participation with presentation