Teaching

Critical Theory: Adorno, Marcuse and the Long May ‘68

This seminar examines May 1968 through the philosophical and critical-theoretical perspectives of Theodor W. Adorno and Herbert Marcuse. It explores the relationship between theory and praxis, utopian thought and social possibility, and the enduring significance of the movements associated with the “Long May". The course also considers what revisiting this historical moment can contribute to contemporary forms of critical social thought.

Taught
Goethe University Frankfurt · Winter 2023–2024; Summer 2026

Critical Theory: Adorno’s Theory of Negative Dialectics

This course offers an in-depth engagement with Adorno’s theory of negative dialectics, situating it within his broader philosophical and critical-theoretical work. Through close readings of selected texts, the course examines Adorno’s critique of identity, his understanding of contradiction and negativity, and the relationship between philosophical thought, social reality, and transformative praxis. Particular attention is given to the continuing significance of negative dialectics for critical philosophy and social theory.

Taught
Goethe University Frankfurt · Summer 2025; Winter 2025–2026

Critical Theory: Concept and Problems

Beginning with Marx and moving through the major figures of the Frankfurt School and its wider intellectual tradition, the course traces the development of Critical Theory as a distinctive form of philosophical and social critique. It examines the ways in which Critical Theory approaches questions of reason, knowledge, ideology, domination, and emancipation, while also considering the relationship between philosophical reflection and historically situated forms of social experience. Particular attention is given to the tensions between theory and praxis, critique and transformation, and the possibility of emancipatory thought and action in late modernity.

Taught
Goethe University Frankfurt · Summer 2023; Summer 2024; Winter 2025–2026; Winter 2026–2027

Education for Anarchy/Autonomy

Questions of education, autonomy, and emancipation provide the central focus of this course. Drawing on philosophical, critical-theoretical, feminist, and pedagogical traditions, it examines the relationship between education and the formation of autonomous subjects, while also considering the ways in which educational institutions can reproduce existing forms of authority and social domination. The course explores the tensions between education as a practice of formation and enculturation, and education as a space for critical freedom. In the process,  it tries to highlight alternative forms of learning, teaching, and collective study that point towards the possibility of more autonomous ways of thinking and acting.

Taught
Goethe University Frankfurt · Summer 2026, Winter 2026–2027

The End of Art, the Art of the End

Taking the philosophical question of the “end of art” as its point of departure, the course examines changing conceptions of art, history, and aesthetic experience from German Idealism to contemporary critical theory. Drawing on thinkers such as Hegel, Adorno, Marcuse, Danto, and Jameson, it considers what it means to speak of art as historically transformed, philosophically contested, or even brought to an "end". Alongside these theoretical debates, the course reflects on the possibilities of artistic practice under conditions of social, political, and ecological crisis, asking how art might respond to – and critically register – the experience of an increasingly uncertain present.

Taught
Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz · Winter 2023–2024
Goethe University Frankfurt · Winter 2024–2025

Critical Theory

Foucault and Social Critical Theory 

Introduction to Continental Philosophy 

Introduction to Greek Philosophy 

Introduction to Moral Philosophy 

Philosophy of Interpretation 

Rationalism & Empiricism 

The Search for Meaning