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Iris Hennigfeld

Iris Hennigfeld holds an MA in Philosophy and German Literature from the University of Freiburg  (Germany) and benefited from a Fellowship in the fields of Goethe Studies from McGill University (Montreal, Canada) in 2009­2011. In the framework of a Graduate Assistantship from Southern Illinois University (Spring and Fall, 2012) she engaged in her phenomenological research at the PRC. In 2013 and 2014 Ms. Hennigfeld had an appointment to teach at the Leuphana University Lueneburg (Germany). Currently she is finalizing her dissertation on Goethe’s and Husserl’s phenomenological thinking (University of Lueneburg and University of Freiburg) and works on an edition of writings of the German philosopher Fritz Heinemann (1889­-1970). Her main interests lie in the field of Phenomenology (Husserl, Heidegger, Scheler), German Idealism, and the intersection between philosophy, the arts, and philosophy of religion.

In her current interdisciplinary dissertation, titled “Goethe’s Phenomenological Way of Thinking as a Hermeneutic Dialogue with Phenomenological Philosophy (Edmund Husserl),” Ms. Hennigfeld explores in a phenomenological proceeding the intersection between poetical thinking and philosophical thinking. By investigating key structures and dynamics of Goethe’s specific way of phenomenological thinking — such as, widening and enhancing the notion of experience, integrating the realm of imagination and intuition as precise phenomenological tools for meaningful and fruitful knowledge, and the temporal and  monadic constitution of individuality — she aims to show how Goethe must be understood  as a spiritual predecessor of the phenomenological movement in the 20th and 21st century.

During her stay at the PRC Ms. Hennigfeld also participates in Prof. Anthony Steinbock’s phenomenological research group on Vocation and in a related course on Max Scheler.

 

Recent Publications:

Iris Hennigfeld, „Weimar Classicism: Studies in Goethe, Schiller, Forster, Berlepsch, Wieland, Herder, and Steiner”, ed. by David Gallagher,“ Goethe Yearbook: Publications of the Goethe Society of North America 21 (2014): 287–90.

Iris Hennigfeld, „Goethes Urphänomen: Ein phänomenologischer Beitrag zu einem erweiterten Erfahrungsbegriff“, in: Die Drei (1/2015): 37­47.

Iris Hennigfeld, „Goethe’s Phenomenological Way of Thinking and the Urphänomen,“ Goethe Yearbook: Publications of the Goethe Society of North America 22 (2015): 143­167.