Summer School
of Transformative Research
in honour of Hannah Arendt

The Metaphysics of Action

Cross-disciplinary Summer School of Transformative Research for young and experienced researchers who are inspired to work on ideas for the creation of the common future - Ukrainian - in dialogue with a global vision of a shared world of humane action.

The School is an invitation to take the perspectives of philosophy, history, theology, and other disciplines not only as rich traditions of sense making, but also as one common path for the process of sense making itself to engage and transform.

Date:
July 20-27

Location:
Uzhhorod, Ukraine

Apply

Fee:
200€

Language:
Ukrainian, English

Our context:

On our way towards
Center for Transformative Research

In the midst of war and violence, the need to deepen our understanding of humanity has become greater than ever. The war calls for memory, for history, for sensibility, for new meanings. If no one responds to its voice, it does not exhaust itself, but further turns its emptiness against humanity.

Our task is to overcome it - by filling it - to overturn the violence directed at us in metaphysics itself.

The second
interdisciplinary
summer school
The Metaphysics
of Action

click here to learn about previous school

We want to explore how
different disciplines can contribute to understanding human and institutional agency today.

From different perspectives, we address the human capacity for action and the question of how this capacity can be enhanced through transformative research.

Our aim is to explore different ways research can engage in the search for agency constituting action as a response to current challenges and a pro-active approach to the future.

This requires the courage to transcend the academic culture: To realise the academic potential by opening up new intellectual connections that arise from the cultural change outside academia.

We invite:

Students who want to test whether a research path is for them;
PhD students and young researchers in search of dialogue with a community;
Young researchers who are looking for places where they can make real changes by their researches and ideas;
Practitioners - active citizens and entrepreneurs - who feel the need of intellectual communities and are looking for new ideas for transformation of their own or broader systems.

Apply

Our intensions:

Challenge and innovate traditional academic approaches to address changing realities

Develop a collaborative framework merging intellectual and practical action for systemic transformation

Build bridges between
thought and action

Connect Ukrainian context with global intellectual dialogue, positioning Ukraine's challenges as focal points for exploring new approaches to global issues

Foster collaboration between change-makers and those conceptualizing social transformation

Format

Research Component

- Faculty-led courses

- Student research presentations

Experimental Component

- Collaboration with Ukrainian transformation stakeholders to integrate humanities and social science research into strategic processes

- Developing sensibility for emerging realities and identifying potential contributions

- Experimental practices addressing key inquiries:
- Methods for shifting perspectives
- Community-building practices

See how it was on
our YouTube channel

...and Co-reation practices!

Firstly, we believe that when we all pitch in to create our school living rules together, it makes everything way more awesome! These shared agreements help us look out for each other and make sure everyone feels included in our school family

and second,
how about
a little fun?

At this school we particularly welcome your ideas: perhaps you could organize a game or music night together?

Teachers
& Courses

Every teacher came with one’s own understanding of
what is transformative research
and its own methodology how one does it

and we are searching our own understanding of transformative research in current Ukrainian context and invite You into this search

Prof. Dr. Barbara Schellhammer

Main field: Intercultural Social Transformation

Course:
Transformative power of thinking:
The workshop will take us into a common textwork on Hanna Arendt “Vita Activa” and her writings on ancient (Socrates’ in particular) approaches to education.

As a practical part:
Barbara will share her experience gained during life with indigenous arctic cultures by offering evening sharing circles as a way to take part in relational truth (in contrast to relative truth) and sensing the process of transformation.

*see our
meeting here

Barbara Schellhammer is Professor at the Munich School of Philosophy and the director of the Center for Social and Development Studies there.

She lived, worked and researched in Canada for several years and later wrote her PhD utilizing Clifford Geertz “Thick Discription” on her experience in the Arctic.

Currently her main research interest lies in the area of anthropology, intercultural philosophy, the phenomenology of the alien, peace studies and conflict-transformation.

Krisha Kops

Main field: intercultural philosophy and phenomenology

Course:
Transformative power of listening

Barbara and Krisha will lead a two-day workshop exploring the interconnected practices of transformative listening and thinking.

The workshop draws on Bernhard Waldenfels' concept of "(co-)responsivity," Indigenous sharing circle traditions of "relational truth," Hannah Arendt's work on relationality and political action, and Lisbeth Lipari's "inter-listening."

Participants will explore the phenomenological dimensions of listening and apply these insights to inform political and civil action.

Krisha is a lecturer at the Munich School of Philosophy, specializing in intercultural philosophy and phenomenology. He combines theoretical work with practical application of philosophical ideas in the real world, heading ASAP Germany (a network of academics fighting poverty) and previously managing the wirhelfen.eu platform.

Education: BA in Philosophy and MA in Journalism (London and Westminster Universities), PhD in Intercultural Philosophy (University of Hildesheim). His dissertation explored modern philosophical receptions of the Bhagavad Gītā in Germany and India.

Dr. Michael Hjälm

Main field: Ecclesiology, Liturgical Theology, Orthodox Studies

Course:
The metaphysics of action:
Critique and Disclosure

This course explores how dialogue transcends ontological frameworks to reveal truth through communication rather than predetermined ideals.
Students will examine dialogue as a liberating practice that empowers agency and opens new possibilities for thinking and acting.
The approach challenges traditional ontology-based ethics by emphasizing how authentic exchange creates ever-shifting horizons of potential.

Michael Hjälm earned his Doctor of Theology from Uppsala University with research comparing Jürgen Habermas' theory of sublation and Alexander Schmemann's negated sublation in Liturgical Theology.

He serves as Dean of Faculty at Stockholm School of Theology for the Department of Eastern Christian Studies and is co-chair of the Ecclesiology Group in the International Orthodox Theological Association (IOTA).

His research focuses on relationships between history and tradition, and between theory and practice. As Dean, he works toward reconciliation between Chalcedonian and non-Chalcedonian Churches.

click here to visit
Michael's website

click here to explore
Ivo's project

Ivo J. Mensch

Main field: Temporics, Imagination, Buddhist Practice

Course:
Expanding Possibility - from potential to action

This highly practical course explores the cognitive and embodied dimensions of possibility. Students will investigate enabling and constraining mental habits while examining unconscious individual and social beliefs.
Through processes of unlearning, creative imagination, and collective insight, the course aims to expand cognitive sovereignty and agency, ultimately revealing new possibilities previously unavailable to participants.

Ivo leads the Praxis strand at Perspectiva, designing practices and courses for navigating cultural transitions, consciousness shifts, and meta-crisis challenges.

His research focuses on Time (Temporics), Imagination, and Logos as fundamental dimensions for change. Ivo is an ordained monk in the Soto Zen Buddhist lineage.

Schedule