1 Oct
2026
1 Oct
'26
1:28 p.m.
Dear colleagues,
it is our pleasure to cordially invite you to the workshop
"*Myth and the More-than-Human Community in the Twenty-First Century"*
that will take place *8–9 October 2026* at the University of Vienna,
NIG, 3rd floor, room 3A.
Organised by Matthäus Leidenfrost (Berlin), Lukas Geiszler (Vienna),
Georg Harfensteller (Vienna), and Michael Staudigl (Vienna), this
workshop is made possible with the support of the Vienna Doctoral School
of Philosophy <https://vd-philosophy.univie.ac.at/> and the Research
Centre "Religion and Transformation"
<https://www.religionandtransformation.at/en/>.
Please find the programme below, the poster attached, and further
information at the workshop website
<https://phaenomenologie.univie.ac.at/forschung/myth-community/>:
-
The workshop asks whether community — and more-than-human community in
particular — can be conceived as anything other than a myth. It places
the constitutive ambivalence of myth at the centre of its inquiry: myth
as ideological fiction on the one hand, and as a primordial, potentially
non-hierarchical form of world-disclosure on the other. Topics include
inter-species relations, ecological entanglements, becoming-animal,
sovereignty and immunisation, and relational and Indigenous ontologies.
Theoretical reference points include Derrida, Nancy, Latour, Haraway,
and Nietzschean and post-Nietzschean critiques of humanism.
-
The *workshop-sessions* will be held at
University of Vienna, Institute of Philosophy, 3rd floor
*Room 3A (NIG)*
Universitätsstraße 7, 1010 Wien, Austria
starting *Thu. 8 October at 09:00* and *Fri. 9 October at 10:30*. No
prior registration is required.
-
As part of the workshop, we are happy to announce that *keynote
lectures* will be held by
*Thu., 8 October, 16:30 - 18:00, Room 3D (NIG):*
Vanessa Lemm (London) - /Rooted in Other Worlds/
*Fri., 9 October, 14:15 - 15:45, Room 3B (NIG):*
Laurens ten Kate (Utrecht) - /The Divine Stranger: Communities after the
Interruption of Myth: Revisiting the Theory of the ‘Axial Age’/
-
Feel free to share the invitation in your networks - and the link to the
full programme:
https://phaenomenologie.univie.ac.at/forschung/myth-community/
We are looking forward to seeing you there and to interesting discussions!
Best wishes,
Matthäus Leidenfrost - Lukas Geiszler - Georg Harfensteller - Michael
Staudigl
---
*
*
*Workshop Programme*
*Venue:* NIG – Neues Institutsgebäude, University of Vienna, Institute
of Philosophy
Universitätsstraße 7, 1010 Vienna
*Presentations:* 20-minute presentation · 30-minute discussion ·
10-minute break
Day 1 · Thursday, 8 October 2026
*Room 3A*
*09:00* · Welcome and Introduction
*09:30* · *Eliška Fulínová*
/Center for Theoretical Study, Prague/
*Gods, Animals, and Mortals: Hesiod's Cosmological Communities and the
Return of Gaia in Anthropocene Thought*
*
*
*10:30* · *Isabella Schlehaider*
/Academy of Fine Arts Vienna/
*Sensing Otherwise or What a Theory Can Do: Whitehead, Haraway and
Stengers on the Aesthetics of Theory*
*
*
*11:30* · *Michael Zangerl*
/University of Vienna/
*Eco-poetics as a “New Mythology”? Interrogating Contemporary Romantic
Studies with Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe*
*
*
*12:30–14:00* · Lunch Break
*14:00* · *Matteo Maria Paolucci*
/University of Milan “La Statale” & University of Bari “Aldo Moro”/
*Parole naissante: Jean-Luc Nancy and the Mythical Writing of Community*
*
*
*15:00* · *Matthäus Leidenfrost*
/Freie Universität Berlin/
*Myth as Trickster: Toward a Material-Semiotic Theory of Myth*
*
*
*16:00* · End of Workshop Sessions
*16:30–18:00* · *Keynote: Vanessa Lemm*
*Rooted in Other Worlds*
/Room 3D/
/
/
*18:30–21:00* · *Reception, Exhibition Tour, Food & Drinks*
/Postsparkasse, University of Applied Arts Vienna/
Day 2 · Friday, 9 October 2026
*Room 3A*
*09:30* · *Miriam Hamburger*
/University of California, Santa Barbara/
*Myth and Kinship as the Work of Autochthony*
*
*
*10:30* · *Stélia Muianga*
/Universidade Pedagógica de Maputo/
*Plural Rationality Through Myth: African Hermeneutics and the
Reconfiguration of Philosophical Thought*
*
*
*11:30* · *Alessandro Jesi*
/University of Turin/
*The Myth of Community and Pastoral Power: Weber, Foucault, and Canetti*
*
*
*12:30–14:00* · Lunch Break
*14:15–15:45* · *Keynote: Laurens ten Kate*
*The Divine Stranger: Communities after the Interruption of Myth:
Revisiting the Theory of the “Axial Age”*
/Room 3B/
/
/
*16:00* · *Daniel Costa Jařab*
/Masaryk University Brno/
*Modern Technology in Indigenous Hands – Threat or Opportunity? Some
Preliminary Notes from the Amazonian Rainforest*
*
*
*17:00* · *Lukas Geiszler*
/University of Vienna/
*Beyond GAIA as Myth and Metaphor? Investigating B. Latour's notion of
the Planetary as irreductive actant.*
*
*
*18:00* · End of Workshop
---
Poster for the Workshop "Myth and the More-than-Human Community in the
Twenty-First Century"
