Curriculum Vitae

Yvonne Förster

Education

2016

Habilitation through successful completion of the Juniorprofessorship, granting of the title Apl.-Professor

2009

Ph.D. in Philosophy, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena (Germany). Grade: Summa cum laude.
Thesis: Die Zeit zwischen Subjekt und Objekt. Zum Verhältnis von Zeiterfahrung und Ontologie in der modernen Zeitphilosophie (Time between Subject and Object. Experience and Ontology of Time in Modern Philosophy of Time), published with Fink, München 2012

2004

M.A. (Magister Artium) in Philosophy, Germa­n Studies, and Romance Studies at Friedrich Schiller University of Jena. Grade: Sehr gut (A)

Academic Positions

01/2022 – 05/2022

Visiting Professor for Philosophy at The Chinese University of Hong Kong

03/2020 – 03/2021

Visiting Professor for Philosophy at University of Kassel, Germany

2019 to date

Research Professor and Foreign Expert for Philosophy of Technology at Shanxi University, Taiyuan, China

2016 to date

Apl.-Professor for Philosophy, Leuphana University Lüneburg, Germany

2017/18

Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Cultural Science (40.000 Euro), funded by German Research Association (DFG), University of Konstanz, Germany

2008–09

Assistant Lecturer, Department of Philosophy, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Germany

2016/17

Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies of Media Cultures of Computer Simulation (MECS), funded by German Research Association (DFG) (25.000 Euro), Leuphana University Lüneburg, Germany

2010–16

Juniorprofessor (associate professor, non tenure-track) for Philosophy of Culture and Art, Faculty of Cultural Sciences, Leuphana University Lüneburg, Germany

2009–10

Visiting Professor for Aesthetics, Faculty for Design, Bauhaus University Weimar, Germany

Non-Academic Engagements

2014- 2019

Scientific advisor to NEUN GmbH (Hamburg) in matters of philosophy of embodiment and cognitive sciences

2016- 2019

Scientific advisor to SAP futurists in matters of philosophy of technology and ethics

2017- 2018

Scientifc advisor to Key Values (Hamburg) in matters of philosophy of technology and ethics

2017- 2018

Conceptual counseling in public relations for Eudaimonia Consulting and Publishing GmbH (Ettlingen)

Work abroad

2022

Visiting Professor at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (Philosophy of Technology and Culture)

2019

Guest Teaching on Theory of Fashion, Embodiment and Technology:

– Aalto Universität Helsinki

– Grinnell College, USA

– Luther College, USA

– Tongji Universität Shanghai

– Shanxi Universität Taiyuan

2010-2013

Project development, networking and guest teaching in several Universities (Sungkyingkwan University, Chunnam University, Ehwa University, Myongji University) in South Korea (stay for a few months every year, one year in total)

Awards, Grants, Fellowships and Third-Party Funding

01/2021 – date

Senior Research Fellow at GCAS Dublin

11/2017-08/2018

Senior Research Fellow at Kulturwissenschaftliches Kolleg (Institute for Advanced Studies in Cultural Science), University of Konstanz, Topic: Emergent Intelligences. Neural and Artificial Nets in Science, Cinema and Art

10/2016-03/2017

Research Fellow at Kulturwissenschaftliches Kolleg (Institute for Advanced Studies in Cultural Science), University of Konstanz, Topic: Emergent Intelligences. Neural and Artificial Nets in Science, Cinema and Art

2010-2015

Associate Partner in the EU-Project Metabody, Media Embodiment Tékhne and Bridges of Diversity

2010-2011

Participation in the international project Die Aktualität der Romantik, in cooperation between FSU Jena and Monash University Melbourne, Australia

2010-2014

Association in the international COST-project (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) TIMELY (Time In MEntaL activitY: theoretical, behavioral, bioimaging, and clinical perspectives)

2010

Award for best PhD thesis of the year, Friedrich Schiller University Jena

2009

Postdoc fellowship, Klassik Stiftung Weimar, Germany

2005-2008

Dissertation grant, Federal State of Thuringia, Germany

Editorial Board of International Journals

Scientific Board: Journal New Theories

Memberships in Scientific Societies

German Association for Philosophy (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Philosophie)

German Association for Aesthetics (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Ästhetik)

German Association for Phenomenological Research (Deutsche Gesellschaft für phänomenologische Forschung)

Association for Cultural Sciences (Kulturwissenschaftliche Gesellschaft)

Presentations

(2022) Fashion Entanglements: Being and Becoming Bodies in the Metaverse, invited presentation in the event: Phygital Fashion, NXS Amsterdam, Netherlands

(2022) Self-Awareness in Technological Environments – A Tentative Approach to Perception in Virtual Realities, invited lecture at the international conference: Varieties of Self-Awareness, Chinese University of Hong Kong, China

(2022) Human-Machine Relations: A Phenomenology of Becoming, invited lecture in the research seminar of the Institute of Philosophy, Chinese University of Hong Kong, China

(2021) Techné – Plasmatisches Transformationsgeschehen, invited presentation at: fest-flüssig-plasmatisch-flüchtig. Aggregationen der Sprachbildlichkeit, Klassik-Stiftung Weimar, Germany

(2021) Mensch und Technik: Eine Phänomenologie des Werdens im Dazwischen, invited presentation at the international conference: Zu den halben Sachen Selbst. Phänomenologie des Unfertigen, University of Cologne, Germany

(2021) Contemporary Tensions: The Body and its Virtualization in Pandemic Times and Beyond, invited presentation at the international conference Being One and Many. Faces of the Human in the 21st Century, Medical University of Lodz, Poland

(2020) Rituals of Coexistence. Being Together in the Times of a Global Pandemic, invited talk at in the 6th World Humanities Forum, Gyeongju, South Korea

(2020) Embodiment in times for COVID-19 and the accelleration of the digital shift, invited talk in the 1. Beyond Humanism Forum, online event: http://beyondhumanism.org/

(2020) The Spirit of the Machine, invited presentation at the online conference Shamanism and Digitalisation, organised by Foundation for Shamanic Studies Europe

(2020) Rethinking Art through Human-Machine Collaboration invited presentation at the conference Hacking the Computable, HMDK Stuttgart, Germany

(2019) Lived Time in the Age of Microtemporal Rhythmicity, invited presentation at the workshop Technology and Temporality, University of Vienna, Austria

(2019) Ästhetik der Technologie: Standardisierung oder neues Medium kultureller Pluralität? Invited presentation at the conference Weltkultur Gestern und Heute, Universitá degli Studi di Catania, Univesitá Roma Tre, Italy

(2019) Vanishing Hardware and Invisible AI –  How to Do Phenomenology in Times of the Disappearance of Technology?, invited presentation  at the international workshop How to Approach Artificial Intelligence and Social Robotics from a Philosophical Point of View: Methodological Questions and Challenges, Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies (FRIAS)

(2019) Singularitäten und verführerische Betriebssysteme: Das Kino und die Zukunft der Technik, invited lecture in the lecture series Zwischen Star Trek und Matrix. Philosophische Perspektiven auf Digitalisierung, KI und Transhumanismus, Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg

(2019) Transcending the Human – Technology and the Liberal Arts, invited lecture at Luther College, USA

(2019) Invited lecture series at Grinnell College, USA:

Beyond the Anthropocene: Technology, Innovation and the (Post-)Human Condition

Degrees of Freedom: Embodiment, Plasticity and the Need for a Critical Neuroscience

Designing Future Bodies: Fashion and Technology

(2019) Visibility and Invisibility: Democratic Potentials of AI, invited guest lecture at Tongji University Shanghai

(2019) Invited lecture series at Shanxi University, Taiyuan, China:

Changing Life-Worlds: Non-Conscious Cognition, Affect and Experience

The Future of Human-Machine Relations: Embodiment and Disembodiment in     Contemporary Cinema

Fashion and Critical Thinking: Bodies, Sensors and Digital Skins

(2019) Neurophilosophy and Embodiment, invited lecture in the event Critical Conversations    on the Neurosciences. – Feminist, Sociological, and Philosophical Points of View, Paris Institute for Critical Thinking

(2019) Philosophical Hermeneutics, invited guest lecture at Aalto University Helsinki, Finland

(2019) Fashion and Technology, invited guest lecture at Aalto University Helsinki, Finland

(2019) Embodiment and Future Technologies, guest lecture at TU Darmstadt, Germany

(2019) Presentation of my Research in Philosophy of Technology and Phenomenology, invited talk at UCD Dublin, Ireland

(2018) Phenomenology as Critical Tool in Ethics of Technology, invited talk at P.E.A.CE Conference (Phenomenology for East-Asian CirclE), Seoul National University, South Korea

(2018) From Human to Posthuman Embodiment. Images of Embodied Cognition in Science Fiction and Digital Art, invited talk at the World Humanities Forum 2018, Busan, South Korea

(2018) Presentation on the topic Aesthetics and Technology in the Philosophy Department and at the Summer School of Tongji University Shanghai, China

(2018) Prekäre Pluralitäten: Virtuelle Öffentlichkeit zwischen Utopie und Dystopie, invited talk at the workshop Öffentlichkeit, Privatheit und Pluralität im digitalen Zeitalter, TU Darmstadt, Germany

(2018) Utopias of disembodiment reconsidered: On the phenomenal aspects of human-   machine interactions, talk given at the international workshop Changing Life-Worlds: Exploring Human-Machine Interactions, Institute for Advanced Studies of Cultural Sciences, Konstanz, Germany

(2018) Emergent Technologies between Phenomenology and Poststructuralism: A Methodological Question, keynote at the symposium on Phenomenology and (Post)Structuralism, Chinese University Hongkong, China

(2018) The Status of Experience in Philosophy of Technology, talk at the conference Phenomenology of Changing Life-worlds.
Exploring the Impact of Phenomenology on Contemporary Problems, Institute for Advanced Studies of Cultural Sciences, University of Konstanz, Germany

(2018) Von Körpern, Zeichen und Listen, invited talk at the conference Das Herz thesaurieren, Leuphana University Lüneburg, Germany

(2017) Technology through the Lense of Art: Exploring Digital Life-Worlds, invited talk at The 2017 Annual International Conference of the Ewha Institute    for the Humanities “Ecology and Technology: the New Condition of the Humanities”, Seoul, South Korea

(2017) Fashion in the Digital Age: Toward a New Phenomenology of Perception, invited talk at the international conference Philosophy between Past and Future, Sungkyunkwan University Seoul, South Korea

(2017) Fashion and Technology, public lecture at the festival A Summer’s Tale, Luhmühlen, Germany

(2017) Perceptual Ecologies: Inhabiting a Sensor-driven Niche, invited talk at Night of Philosophy, Helsinki, Finnland

(2017) Fashion and the Posthuman: From Digital Skin to Digital Flesh, invited talk at 9th Beyond Humanism Conference, Rome, Italy

(2017) Presentation on “Being Human” at the roundtable tech-forum of SAP, Daimler, IBM, Kellog, Berlin, Germany

(2017) Körpermoden: Optimierungsstrategien und Zukunftsvisionen, invited talk at the interdisciplinary conference Moden der Kleidung – Moden des Geistes?, FernUniversität Hagen, Germany

(2017) Simulating Human Life: Cinema as Future Lab, talk and organisation of the workshop Simulation and Embodied Cognition in Neuroscience and AI, MECS, Leuphana University Lüneburg, Germany

(2017) Götter, Chimären, Cyborgs: Amorphe Gestalten zwischen Schizophrenie und Zulkunftsvision, invited speaker at the workshop Pathos und Pathologie. Interferenzen religiöser und pathologischer Wahrnehmungsmodi, University of Heidelberg, Germany

(2016) Art and Technology: Exploring Aisthetic Dimensions of the Life-World, invited speaker at the conference Aesthetics and Life-World, Chengdu, China

(2016) Why Experience Matters: Technology and the Constitution of Consciousness, invited talk at Chinese University Hongkong, China

(2016) Sensory Overload. Considerations on the Ethical Implications of our Sensor Saturated Environment, invited talk NYIT New York, USA

(2016,) Art, Technology, and the Body, in cooperation with Metabody, invited talk at Universidade de Brasilia, Brazil

(2016) Embodiment, Big Data and the City, invited talk at 10. Contato Festival, Multimedia Cooperativo, in cooperations with Nomads, Institute for Architecture, Universidade de Sao Paulo, Campus Sao Carlos, Brazil

(2016) Aisthetic Dimensions of Smart Environments, invited talk and round table discussion at Redbull Station Sao Paulo, in cooperation with Metabody and Universidade de Sao Paulo, Brazil

(2016) Ecological Subjectivity vs. Brainhood: Why Experience Matters, invited speaker at the conference Perceiving Truth and Value Phenomenological Deliberations on Ethical Perception, Leuphana Universität Lüneburg, Germany

(2016) Metaphysical Considerations on the Omnipresence of Sensors, invited speaker at the 8th Beyond Humanism Conference: Posthuman Studies and Technologies of Control. From Nietzsche to Trans- Post- and Metahumanism, Universidad Complutense Madrid, Spain

(2016) Imaginations of Intelligence: Embodiment and Disembodiment in Contemporary Cinema, invited speaker at the conference Embodiment. Phenomenology East – West, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany

(2015) Humanities and Neuroscience: The Encounter of Easter and Western Perspectives in the Search for a Theory of Consciousness, paper presented at the conference Critical Transactions: Engaging the Humanities East and West, Hongkong University, China

(2015) Bin ich mein Gehirn? – Die Seele in Zeiten der Neurowissenschaft, invited speaker at the annual meeting of Karl-Heim-Society on: Gibt es eine Seele? Eine Spurensuche, Marburg, Germany

(2015) Mode zwischen Kultur und Kunst – Ein Grenzgang, invited speaker at the conference: Kultur – Interdisziplinäre Zugänge, Fernuniversität Hagen, Germany

(2015) Cinema of Transcendence: The End of the World as we Know it?, invited speaker at the conference: From Humanism to Post-and Transhumanism, Ehwa Women’s University, Seoul, South Korea

(2015) Philosophy of Embodiment, invited talk at the Sunkyunwang University Seoul, South Korea

(2015) Vanishing in the Void – Bodies vs. Data, invited speaker presented at the conference: Metabody Unconference: Hacking Big Data Brother: From Biometrics to Intra-action, Madrid, Spain

(2015) Embodiment, invited speaker presented at “Symptoms of the Planetary Condition” Terra Critica IV, Leuphana University Lüneburg, Germany

(2015) Das neuronale Netz als superhumane Struktur?, paper presented at the lecture series 10 Minuten Philosophie, Leuphana University Lüneburg, Germany

(2015) The Neural Net – Dimensions of an Imaginative Paradigm, invited talk at Lignan University Hongkong, China

(2015) Neuroturn – Das Gehirn als zentrale Kategorie menschlichen Selbstverständnisses, invited talk in the lecture series: Cultural Turns, Leuphana University Lüneburg, Germany

(2014) Time-Consciousness and Embodiment, invited speaker  at Berlin School of Mind and Brain in the conference: Conscious experience of time: its significance and interpretation in neuroscience and philosophy, Humboldt University Berlin, Germany

(2014) Kunst an den Grenzen der Kunst – Hegel in Zeiten des Neuroturns, invited speaker at the conference: Colóquio Hegel: Ação e Pensamento, Universidade de Sao Paulo, Brazil

(2014) Dynamic Embodiment: A Non-Anthropocentric Approach, invited speaker at the conference: Metabody Forum 4. History and Ontologies of Movement-Gesture, Madrid, Spain

(2014) Medien – Der Stoff, aus dem die Zeit ist?, paper presented at the lecture series 10 Minuten Philosophie, Leuphana University Lüneburg, Germany

(2014) Philosophie der Verkörperung, paper presented at the lecture series 10 Minuten Philosophie, Leuphana University Lüneburg, Germany

(2013) Der Welt verbunden und bei sich selbst – Gedanken zum Zeitbegriff, invited speaker at the conference Bieler Philosophietage 2013, Biel, Switzerland

(2013) Das Menschliche im Wandel – Humane Kognition und ihre soziokulturellen Bedingungen, invited talk at Chonnam National University, Gwangju, South Korea

(2013) Gender Theory, invited talk at Chonbuk National University, Jeonju, South Korea

(2013) On Fashion Theory: Temporality of Fashion, invited talk at Tunghai University, Taichung, Taiwan

(2013) Flesh of Time. Thinking Time as Materialized Structure, invited talk at the opening conference of the EU-Culture-Project Metabody. Media Embodiment Tékhne and Bridges of Diversity, Madrid, Spain

(2013) Dream on. Traum und Bewusstseinsphilosophie, paper presented at the lecture series 10 Minuten Philosophie, Leuphana University Lüneburg, Germany

(2013) Participation at the Summerschool Phenomenology and Philosophy des Center for Subjectivity Research, Copenhagen, Denmark

(2012) Sentience – Das Gefühl, lebendig zu sein. Planning, organization and active participation at the conference Körperwahrnehmung Körperrepräsentation, Leuphana University Lüneburg, Germany

(2012) The Embodied Mind. Methoden der Bewusstseinsphilosophie, paper presented at the lecture series 10 Minuten Philosophie, Leuphana University Lüneburg, Germany

(2012) Dimensionen der Leiblichkeit in der Bildung, invited speaker at the conference Ästhetische Bildung – Hegel und die Moderne, Universitat de Girona, Spain

(2012) Mode und Philosophie. Eine (un-)mögliche Kombination?, paper presented at the lecture series 10 Minuten Philosophie, Leuphana University Lüneburg, Germany

(2011) Unsichtbares sichtbar machen – Kunst und der kulturelle Blick, invited talk in the interdisciplinary lecture series Ästhetik, Wahrnehmung und Natur, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, Germany

(2011) Fashion and Temporality, invited speaker at the conference The Actuality of Romanticism, Monash University Melbourne, Australia

(2011) Participation at the Simposio internacional: Reconocimiento, libertad y justicia. La actualidad de la filosofía práctica de Hegel en Latinoamérica, Universidad Atónoma de la Ciudad de México, Mexico

(2011) Versuch einer Phänomenologie des Buchstabens, invited speaker at the conference Buchstaben der Welt, Welt der Buchstaben, Internationales Kolleg Morphomata, Genese, Dynamik und Medialität kultureller Figurationen, University Köln, Germany

(2011) Die Zeit zwischen Subjekt und Objekt, paper presented at the lecture series 10 Minuten Philosophie, Leuphana University Lüneburg, Germany

(2010)  Fleisch – Ein philosophischer Begriff, paper presented at the lecture series 10 Minuten Philosophie, Leuphana University Lüneburg, Germany

(2010) Variatio delectat – Perspektiven eines ästhetischen Prinzips, paper presented at the Bauhaus-University Weimar, Germany

(2010) Organization and participation, conference funded by DAAD: Die Aktualität der Romantik (2), Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, Germany

(2010) Perspectives on the Concept of Fashion in Romanticism, invited speaker at the conference of the DAAD-project Aktualität der Romantik (1), Monash University Melbourne, Australia

(2010) Perspektiven einer philosophisch-anthropologischen Neubestimmung des Kulturbegriffs, paper presented at the Leuphana-University Lüneburg, Germany

(2009) The Body as Medium – Fashion as Art, invited talk at the conference Humanism and Posthumanism, University of Belgrade, Serbia

(2009) Zum Verhältnis von Natur und Kultur bei Ernst Cassirer und Merlin Donald, paper presented at the Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, Germany

(2006) Merleau-Ponty’s Concept of Time as an Example of Wisdom in Academic Theory, invited speaker at the conference Wisdom and Academic Education, Universiteit van Tilburg, Netherlands

(2004) Zum Begriff der Gegenwart, paper presented at the Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, Germany

(2002) Participation at a public forum concerning the medial aspects of 9/11 (organized by Mike Sandbothe and Friedrich Küppersbusch), Jena, Germany

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