Kathrin Morgenstern

Building PT, Room 3.1.27
Phone +49 941 943-3554
Kathrin.Morgenstern@politik.uni-regensburg.de

Research Interests

Politics and Philosophy in the Works of Hannah Arendt

20th Century German and French Political Philosophy

Narrativity and Political Thought

Intercultural Implications of Political Identity (Germany-Brazil)

Curriculum Vitae

Kathrin Morgenstern studied Political Science and History at the University of Regensburg (main foci: Political Philosophy, Ancient History and Contemporary History). In her MA thesis she dealt with “Action and Thinking. The Continuity of Politics and Philosophy in the Works of Hannah Arendt”. In her doctoral thesis, Kathrin Morgenstern continues her research on Hannah Arendt. The project „One man will always be left alive to tell the story.“ Freedom and Narration in Hannah Arendt’s Political Philosophy“ is situated at the intersection of Political Philosophy, Historiography and Literary Theory.

After her MA in 2008, Kathrin Morgenstern was employed in the International Office of the University of Regensburg (Adviser for International PhD Candidates and Visiting Scholars). In October 2010, she started working as a research and teaching assistant at the Chair of Political Philosophy and the History of Ideas at the University of Regensburg.

PhD project: "One man will always be left alive to tell the story.“ Freedom and Narration in Hannah Arendt’s Political Philosophy

In accordance with Hannah Arendt’s plea for plurality, her complete works are characterized by an extraordinary multilayeredness. In contrast to that, many interpretations tend to reduce her thought to the perspective of one single work. In order to do justice to Arendt‘s demand, my PhD project is focused on her complete works.

To identify continuous lines of thought within these works, I will attempt a textual analysis that takes the interrelationship of freedom and narration as its point of departure. These two concepts act as important constants in Arendt’s works: as a core when it comes to contents, and as the foundation of the methodological approach. Thus, politics and philosophy can be approximated to each other. Both concepts share a specific notion of freedom and of narration. Differing from Arendt‘s own resigning attitude, the term „Political Philosophy“ is no longer associated with an futile attempt at trying to reconcile an irreconcilable dualism. Therefore it is possible to think „with Arendt against Arendt“ (Seyla Benhabib) in this respect: Political philosophy is no longer equivalent to squaring the circle, but it offers a promising new perspective on current issues.

Publications

Kathrin Morgenstern. “Imagination and Space: An Interdependent Relationship.” Narrations, Dreams, Imaginations: Israeli and German Youth Imagine the Future. Ed. Karlfriedrich Herb, Eva Marsal, Jen Glaser, and Barbara Weber. Münster: Lit Publisher, 2013 (forthcoming). Print.

---.“Von Freiheit und Ketten: Die Fragilität des Politischen als Grundkonstante in der Auseinandersetzung Hannah Arendts mit Rousseau.“ Rousseaus Zauber: Lesarten der Politischen Philosophie. Ed. Karlfriedrich Herb and Magdalena Scherl. Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 2012. 67- 89. Print.

Karlfriedrich Herb, Kathrin Morgenstern, and Magdalena Scherl. “Im Schatten der Öffentlichkeit: Privatheit und Intimität bei Jean-Jacques Rousseau und Hannah Arendt.” Jahrbuch für Recht und Ethik 19 (2011): 275- 298. Print.

Kathrin Morgenstern and Lucia Görke. “Ambivalente Transparenz: Vorgehens- und Funktionsweise von WikiLeaks.“ Politische Studien 43 (2011): 16- 25. Print.

Kathrin Morgenstern and Barbara Weber. “The Recovery of the Body: The Disclosure of a Forgotten Precondition in James Mensch´s Embodiments: From the Body to the Body Politic.” Research in Phenomenology 41 (2011): 441- 448. Print.