People

Lukas Meisner

Visiting Predoctoral Fellow (Jun 2022-Nov 2022)

Lukas Meisner studied philosophy, sociology, and comparative literature in Tübingen, Colchester, Berlin, and London. He is currently based at the Ca’ Foscari University of Venice and the Max Weber Center for Advanced Cultural and Social Studies in Erfurt. During his time as a visiting scholar at Department I of the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, he will be finishing his PhD. His thesis bears the working title Radicalizing the Project of Modernity: Critical Theory of Political Autonomy. Among other things, it updates core concepts of political epistemology, from (material) ideology via (objective) alienation to (liquid) reification. These concepts are of crucial methodological importance to approach the entangled phenomena of modern science, technology, and economics. They also particularly aid in exploring the complex relationship between humans and their environments in the twenty-first century. Lukas’ most recent academic book, Capitalist Nihilism and the Murder of Art, was published in 2020 and was co-authored with Dutch artist Eef Veldkamp.

Presentations, Talks, & Teaching Activities

The Good Life, Political Autonomy, and the Need to May in Critical Theory

Conference: “Vivir Bien. Transcultural and interdisciplinary Dialogues”

Universidad de San Simón en Cochabamba, Bolivia; Max-Weber-Kolleg, Universität Erfurt

Capital’s Sci-tech-economic complex: On the Reasoning of Instruments

Conference: “Alternative Futures: Marcuse’s Dialectic of Technology”

Arizona State University

Kritische Theorie politischer Autonomie

Cusanus Hochschule für Gesellschaftsgestaltung, Koblenz

Basic Concepts of Critical Theory: (Objective) Alienation, (Liquid) Reification, (Material) Ideology

Seminar in Theoretical Sociology

Friedrich Schiller University Jena

Capital, Creativity, Consumption – from Crisis to Artistic Critique to the Spectacle of Cultural Capitalism

Q-Tutorials in Cultural Studies (with Theresa Walter)

Humboldt University Berlin

Avant-gardes from Head to Toes: Critiquing Art vs. Artistic Critique

Q-Tutorials in Cultural Studies (with Theresa Walter)

Humboldt University Berlin