THE LIMITS OF CRITIQUE: PHENOMENOLOGY AND IDEOLOGY
\n10&ndash\;11 September 2026
Husserl Archives\, University of Cologne
Kerpener Str. 30\, 50937 Cologne\, Germany
Phenomenology has often presented itself as a method capable of freeing thought from unexamined assumptions. Yet critical\, political\, and Marxist phenomenologies have shown that experience is always situated within historical\, social\, and political horizons. At the same time\, phenomenology has itself been criticized for obscuring the socio-historical mediations that constitute subjectivity.
\nThe workshop explores this tension by asking whether phenomenology can serve as a method of ideology critique\, where the limits of such a critique lie\, and to what extent phenomenology may itself become implicated in ideological formations. The contributions address gender ideology\, social imaginaries\, reification\, political belonging\, war\, science\, and the relationship between phenomenology and Marxism.
\nPROGRAMME
\nThursday\, 10 September 2026
\n14:00&ndash\;14:15
Welcome and introduction
Jesú\;s Guillermo Ferrer Ortega (University of Wuppertal) and Marco Cavallaro (University of Cologne)
Panel 1: Phenomenology and Gender Ideology
Chair: Marco Cavallaro
14:15&ndash\;14:35
Tris Hedges (Freie Universitä\;t Berlin/University of Copenhagen) and André\;a Delestrade (London School of Economics)
&ldquo\;&lsquo\;Gender Ideology&rsquo\; and the Limits of Phenomenological Critique&rdquo\;
14:35&ndash\;14:55
Lucie Boulay (Université\; Bordeaux Montaigne)
&ldquo\;The Ideology Producing Obstructed Transcendence: The Lived Experience of Emancipation\, a Phenomenological Approach to the Memoirs as an Epoché\; of Destiny\, Drawing on The Second Sex&rdquo\;
14:55&ndash\;15:15
Discussion
15:15&ndash\;15:30
Coffee break
Panel 2: Ideology and Imagination
Chair: Jesú\;s Guillermo Ferrer Ortega
15:30&ndash\;15:50
Francesca Casciotta (University of Jena)
&ldquo\;Beyond Suspension: A Phenomenology of Social Imaginaries as the Key to the Critique of Ideological Naturalisation&rdquo\;
15:50&ndash\;16:10
Carlos Anaya (University of Toronto)
&ldquo\;Ric&oelig\;ur on Ideology\, Utopia\, and Imagination&rdquo\;
16:10&ndash\;16:30
Discussion
16:30&ndash\;16:45
Coffee break
Panel 3: Ideological Field and Reification
Chair: Sara Dameno
16:45&ndash\;17:05
Damian Nussbaumer (University of St Gallen)
&ldquo\;The Dialectic of Reification: Reification as a Critical Concept in Merleau-Ponty and Adorno&rdquo\;
17:05&ndash\;17:25
Vanessa Ossino (University of Cologne/Université\; de Fribourg)
&ldquo\;Beyond False Consciousness: Merleau-Ponty on the Ideological Field&rdquo\;
17:25&ndash\;17:45
Discussion
19:00
Conference dinner at Hanoi Vibes\, Weyertal 47\, 50937 Cologne
Friday\, 11 September 2026
\nPanel 4: Myth\, Ideology\, and Political Belonging
Chair: Ragna Winniewski
09:30&ndash\;09:50
Piero Carreras (independent scholar)
&ldquo\;Existentialism and Mythological Machinery&rdquo\;
09:50&ndash\;10:10
Simon van Ramshorst (Radboud University)
&ldquo\;Beyond the Nation-State Horizon: Political Belonging and Ideology Critique&rdquo\;
10:10&ndash\;10:30
Discussion
10:30&ndash\;10:45
Coffee break
Panel 5: Political Phenomenology and the Critique of Ideology
Chair: Gudrun Reucher
10:45&ndash\;11:05
Weronika Maciejewska (University of Warsaw)
&ldquo\;Political Phenomenology as a Method for Situating Being within the Realm of Responsibility&rdquo\;
11:05&ndash\;11:25
Paul Gigon (Sciences Po\, Paris)
&ldquo\;Enzo Paci and the Phenomenological Critique of Ideology&rdquo\;
11:25&ndash\;11:45
Discussion
11:45&ndash\;12:00
Coffee break
Panel 6: Ideology Critique and Husserlian Phenomenology
Chair: Jesú\;s Guillermo Ferrer Ortega
12:00&ndash\;12:20
Bence Marosan (Budapest University of Economics and Business)
&ldquo\;From Critical Rationality to Ideology Critique: Husserl and Luká\;cs on Collective Authenticity and Emancipation&rdquo\;
12:20&ndash\;12:40
Dror Pimentel (Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design\, Jerusalem)
&ldquo\;Phenomenology as Critique of the Ideology of Science: Husserl with Marx&rdquo\;
12:40&ndash\;13:00
Discussion
13:00&ndash\;14:30
Lunch
Panel 7: War Ideology and Its Reception in Spanish Phenomenology
Chair: Marco Cavallaro
14:30&ndash\;14:50
Jesú\;s Dí\;az Á\;lvarez (UNED Madrid)
&ldquo\;Phenomenology and Ideology: Some Reflections on Ortega&rsquo\;s Reception of Max Scheler&rsquo\;s Der Genius des Krieges und der Deutsche Krieg&rdquo\;
14:50&ndash\;15:10
Jesú\;s Guillermo Ferrer Ortega (University of Wuppertal)
&ldquo\;Towards a Historical Phenomenology of War Ideology: Unamuno&rsquo\;s Stance on the Spanish Civil War&rdquo\;
15:10&ndash\;15:30
Discussion
15:30&ndash\;16:00
Final discussion and farewell
The workshop is organized by Marco Cavallaro (University of Cologne)\, Jesú\;s Guillermo Ferrer Ortega (University of Wuppertal)\, and Sara Dameno (University of Cologne).
\nFurther information and programme updates can be found here:
\n ORGANIZER;CN=Marco Cavallaro: METHOD:PUBLISH END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR