Interdisciplinary Phenomenology Cluster

The DIAS Interdisciplinary Phenomenology Cluster facilitates networking and collaboration among researchers across SDU

Phenomenology is a philosophical tradition concerned with understanding subjectivity and the lived world. Since its founding at the start of the twentieth century, it has influenced a range of philosophical traditions, from existentialism to structuralism to postmodernism. But phenomenological approaches have also been incorporated into dozens of academic disciplines across the humanities; the psychological, social, learning, and health sciences; business, including marketing and management; and even art and design. Anthropologists, for instance, use phenomenological accounts of embodied experience to illuminate a range of cultural practices, from ritual healing to martial arts. And psychiatrists use phenomenological accounts of selfhood to better understand experiences of psychosis, informing new tools for diagnosing schizophrenia spectrum disorders.

Yet, despite this widespread influence, many phenomenological approaches remain siloed within their respective disciplines. A phenomenological researcher in nursing, for example, may not be familiar with phenomenological approaches in psychiatry or medical anthropology, despite overlapping aims and research topics. Considering this, the DIAS Interdisciplinary Phenomenology Cluster aims to bridge phenomenological approaches across these diverse disciplines. It achieves this aim by facilitating research at three levels:

Studying how phenomenology is used across disciplines in the humanities; the psychological, social, learning, and health sciences; marketing and management; and art and design.
Developing new methodological approaches and refining existing approaches to using phenomenology in disciplines outsides of philosophy—with a special focus on methods that facilitate interdisciplinary research.
Conducting collaborative interdisciplinary research projects with existing phenomenological approaches or new approaches developed by members of the cluster.

Activities

The cluster hosts interdisciplinary networking events intended to facilitate collaboration among researchers at SDU, across Denmark, and internationally. Our inaugural event will take place Tuesday, September 12th, from 13.00 to 16.00 in the DIAS Seminar Room. To find more information or to register, please us this link.

Management

The cluster is managed by DIAS fellows Anthony Vincent Fernandez (SUND) and Shriram Venkatraman (SAMF), as well as DIAS chairs Nina Bonderup Dohn (HUM) and Søren Askegaard (SAMF).

Members

Membership is open to any staff affiliated to SDU, including graduate students, postdocs, and assistant, associate, and full professors. If you would like to join the cluster and be added to our mailing list, please email Anthony Vincent Fernandez at afernandez@health.sdu.dk.

Currently, membership spans three of SDU’s five faculties: Humanities, Business and Social Sciences, and Health Sciences. A full list of members can be found below.

Members labeled (FT) are full-time faculty at the rank of Assistant Professor or above.

Faculty of Humanities

Anne-Marie Søndergaard Christensen (FT)

Nina Bonderup Dohn (FT)

Rasmus Gahrn-Andersen (FT)

Jytte Kjærgaard Isaksen (FT)

Harun Kaygan (FT)

Søren Harnow Klausen (FT)

Martin Hauberg-Lund Laugesen

Emanuela Marchetti (FT)

Marie Konge Nielsen

Michael Paulsen (FT)