Transformation Dialogue: Disalienation and Transformative Grief

Transformation is accompanied and shaped by feelings. Often, loss and estrangement provide the ground for subjects to change. Feelings can also be the medium through which past and future are linked, for individuals as well as societies. How does the relation that societies assume to their past facilitate different possibilities for the present and future? Depending on how this relationship is cultivated and understood, it can foster stagnation, or it can spark transformation toward a different outcome.

Elena Vogman offers a perspective on multi-causal histories of transformation, looking at psychoanalytic practices that take into account social and historical conditions. The concept of disalienation approaches transformation by asking how to undo the harm caused by structural violence. Jelena Marković works on grief as a force of transformation and on the affective character of change. Grief is one concrete emotion that can facilitate a process in which an experience of loss serves as a departure point for creating imaginaries different from those determined by past violence. The two speakers will be in conversation to explore the psychic and emotional meaning of transformation and to discuss where and how substantial change is possible.

The dialogue will be chaired by Dr. Henrike Kohpeiß (Leuphana Transformation Lab).

Jelena Marković, PhD, is an artist and a philosopher working in empirically-informed philosophy of mind and moral psychology. Her research focuses on unchosen transformative experiences, especially grief, and on the philosophical psychology of attention.

Dr. Elena Vogman is a writer and historian of media. She offers a perspective on multi-causal histories of transformation looking at psychoanalytic practices that take into account social and historical conditions.

The Transformation Dialogues bring together two scholars from different disciplines to engage in conversation about how transformation is invoked today. The term is increasingly used in academia, politics, and society, yet its meaning often remains vague. This event series by the Leuphana Transformation Lab creates a space for interdisciplinary exchange, in which each scholar’s distinct research focus contributes to a vibrant discussion about transformation.

Each event features short presentations, a moderated conversation, and audience Q&A. By embracing a plurality of perspectives and allowing productive tensions to emerge, the series challenges us to think critically: What work does the term “transformation” do in contemporary discourse?

The event is open to the university community; no registration is required to attend.