Hannah Maira Chodura

Who cares? Towards a Negative Aesthetic of collective repression (working title) 

In times of global crisis, the necessity of care becomes evident. Faced with multiple, overlapping crises, the concept and term care are being increasingly recognized in contemporary debates and theoretical discourse. While care is ascribed with high social, moral, and theoretical value, its political relevance has remained largely overlooked. Although there are theoretical frameworks envisioning global care programs, such aspirations have yet to materialize.

In capitalist-neoliberal societies of the Global North, care itself is in crisis. Spaces and practices of reproductive labour are systematically pushed to the margins of society and removed from visibility. In this context, care is outsourced to predominantly female, migrant and less privileged individuals, whereas not being involved in care work constitutes a form of privilege. As a result, the engagement with the existential dimensions of care (aging, illness, death and birth) and affective aspects (e.g. disgust, fear, shame) is marginalized on many levels: care practices are related to shame, characterized as something to be hidden or denied. Especially for the privileged, the negative dimensions of care remain abstract, distant and emotionally unwelcome. The tendency to exclude care from our everyday life not only shapes how we perceive it, but also affects our relation to ourselves and to others.

This dissertation explores the complex social role and the disavowed negative dimensions of care in the present. It examines contemporary artworks, situated within the context of Abject Art and Care, which provide access to the marginalized affective aspects of care. Drawing on a critical and auto-ethnographic approach, the project investigates the affective and psychodynamic defense mechanisms that structure our relationship to care, and asks what transformative potentials might emerge from the mediation of care through aesthetic perspectives and practices.

Academic Background

Memberships, Commitments

Other Professional Experience (selection)

Art Mediation (selection)

Exhibitions

Art Education

Artistic Practice

Chodura, Hannah and Paul*a Helfritzsch: A Distorted View on the Image of Society in the Deferral of Solidarity Practice. Reflections on Guy Debord and Francisco de Goya. In: Jens Bonnemann et. al. (eds.): “68. Social Movements, Intellectual Pioneers”, Springe: Zu Klampen 2019.

How to deal with Racism, Sexism and Antisemitism in the Classical Works of Philosophy? On the example of Racism in Kant’s Philosophy. Online Guide for Research and Teaching, 2021 (co-authored with Andrea M. Esser, Hannah Peaceman, Lisa Gleis, Danilo Gajic).

Lectures, Workshops

How to deal with Racism, Sexism and Antisemitism in the Classical Works of Philosophy? On the example of Racism in Kant’s Philosophy. Online workshop, held on the following dates:
- at the Philosophical Seminar, University of Tübingen,16 September 2022 (co-hosted with L. Gleis),
- at the Leuphana University of Lüneburg, 24 November 2021 (co-hosted with D. Gajic),
- at the Institute of Philosophy, University of Hildesheim, 21 January 2021 (co-hosted with L. Gleis).

How to deal with Racism, Sexism and Antisemitism in the Classical Works of Philosophy? On the example of Racism in Kant’s Philosophy. In-person workshop held on the following dates:
- At the Philosophy National Student Conference, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, May 11, 2019 (co-hosted with D. Gajic),
- Within the 6th Annual Conference of SWIP Germany e.V. and the Chair of Practical Philosophy at the Friedrich-Schiller-University of Jena, November 23-24, 2018 (co-hosted with A. M. Esser, H. Peaceman, L. Gleis, D. Gajic).

Collectives of Networking. I hear your voice, I see your face, I smell plastic and metal. (Körperschaften der Vernetzung). Project presentation (lecture) at the 15th anniversary of the Philosophy-Arts-Media course of study at the University of Hildesheim, October 2019 (co-presented with Jens Fehrenbacher).

A Distorted View on the Image of Society in the Sublation of Solidarity Practice. Reflections on Guy Debord and Francisco de Goya. Workshop at the conference “68. Social Movements and Intellectual Pioneers“ at the Friedrich-Schiller-University of Jena, July, 28, 2018 (co-hosted with Paul*a Helfritzsch).

Organization of Conferences, Symposiums, Workshops

regarding: Unease. How to Express and Deal with It? A Critical Engagement with Academic Practice. Student conference at the Leuphana University Lüneburg, June 25-26, 2022, (co-organized with L. Eckert, L. Gleis).

Textrix I. Online event series by SWIP Germany e.V. (Jena) for networking among persons read as fe- male in academic philosophy; four sessions with invited guests, January to April 2021 (co-organized with Anna Rifat Klassen).

Textrix II (Weekend Edition). Online event series by SWIP Germany e.V. (Jena) or networking among persons read as female in academic philosophy, June 10-12, 2021 (co-organized with Anna Rifat Klassen).