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ECTS: 4

Course leader: Finn Olesen

Language: English

Graduate school: Faculty of Arts

Course fee: 0.00 DKK

Status: Course is open for application

Semester: Fall 2025

Application deadline: 09/09/2025

Cancellation deadline: 11/09/2025

Course type: Blended learning

Start date: 30/09/2025

Administrator: Andreas Mølgaard Laursen

Please have a look in our FAQ: https://phd.arts.au.dk/phd-courses/courses/faq-phd-courses

Course description

This PhD course offers an advanced introduction to and exploration of postphenomenology, with a dedicated focus on the interrelations between technologies, sociotechnical practices, and human agency. Central concepts such as multistability, technological mediation, and non-foundational subjectivity are foregrounded to explore how technological artifacts shape and are shaped by human experience.

Drawing on interdisciplinary insights from practice philosophy and Science and Technology Studies (STS), the course critically examines how technologies mediate perception, action, and meaning in everyday life. Special emphasis is placed on the implications of technological mediation for human agency and the transformative potential of technology in domains such as health, education, and public policies within sociotechnical cultures.

Through a combination of theoretical inquiry, case study analysis, and empirical research design, participants will develop robust analytical tools to engage with challenges and opportunities posed by contemporary technologies.

The following key questions will be explored:

What is postphenomenology, and how does it differ from classical phenomenology and other STS approaches?
What are the core concepts of multistability and technological mediation?
How can postphenomenological methods be applied in empirical research?
In what ways do human-technology relations manifest in different sociotechnical contexts?
Where has postphenomenology been practically applied, and with what outcomes?

Aim/Learning outcomes

By the end of the course, participants will:

Gain a comprehensive understanding of the scope, strengths, and limitations of postphenomenology.
Engage critically with foundational texts and contemporary debates.
Understand how multiple stable interpretations of technology emerge within complex sociotechnical systems.
Be able to position postphenomenology within broader theoretical and methodological landscapes.
Have the opportunity to discuss their own research cases, theoretical frameworks, and methodological challenges with the course lectures and participants.

Requirements for participation

Writing a brief text about their project and its relations to Postphenomenology before the course
Writing an assignment after the course

Target group/Participants

PhD students from the human and social sciences, medicine, or engineering science with a basic knowledge about (post)phenomenology and/or about STS and human-technology relationships.

Workload

Course/ teaching hours: 4 days / 26 hours
Preparation hours: 35 hours
Written assignments etc.: 30 hours

Language

English

Lecturers

Robert Rosenbergeris a professor in the School of Public Policy at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, and he is currently serving as the President of the Society for Philosophy and Technology. As one of the central developers of the postphenomenological school of thought, he studies human interactions with technology, including studies into topics such as imaging technologies, driver distraction, phantom vibrations, and the critique of anti-homeless design.
Anders Albrechtslund is a professor at the School of Communication and Culture at Aarhus University.
Cathrine Hasse is professor at Danish School of Education - Department of Educational Anthropology and Educational Psychology, Aarhus University.
Finn Olesen is associate professor emeritus at the School of Communication and Culture at Aarhus University. He has worked theoretically and empirically with postphenomenology for many years, mainly in studies of technology usage in healthcare practice, e.g. electronic health records and telemedicine.

Literature

Mandatory texts

Assing Hvidt, E. & Olesen, F. (2025). Empathy in technologically mediated patient-provider communication: a phenomenological and postphenomenological exploration. Philosophy, Ethics, and Humanities in Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13010-025-00172-4
Hasse, C. (2018). Studying the Telescopes of Others: Toward a Postphenomenological Methodology of Participant Observations. In J. Aagaard, J. K. B. O. Friis, J. Sorenson, O. Tafdrup, & C. Hasse (Eds.), Postphenomenological Methodologies: New Ways in Mediating Techno-Human Relationships (pp. 241-258). Lexington Books.
Rosenberger, R. (2014). Multistability and the Agency of Mundane Artifacts - From Speed Bumbs to Subway Benches. Human Studies 37, p. 369-392.
Rosenberger, R., & Verbeek, P.-P. (2015). A Field Guide to Postphenomenology. In R. Rosenberger & Verbeek, P.-P. (Eds.), Postphenomenological investigations: essays on human-technology relations (pp. 7-42). Lexington Books/Fortress Academic.
Verbeek, P.P. (2016). Toward a Theory of Technological Mediation: a program for postphenomenological research. In Technoscience and Postphenomenology: The Manhattan Papers. London: Lexington Books (pp. 189-204).

Course Doing Postphenomenological Research: Multistability, Technological Mediations, and Human Agency

You will automatically be placed on a waiting list. After the application deadline, seats will be allocated and all applicants will be notified whether or not they have been offered a seat.