Aarhus University Seal

Hannah Lang - New PhD at the Department of Philosophy and History og Ideas

Hannah Lang is enrolled as a PhD student from 1 September and her project will examine birth and beginning of life as a topic of existential philosophy.

portrait of Hannah Lang

My name is Hannah Lang and I am a new PhD student in Philosophy. I just moved to Aarhus from Copenhagen where I have studied Philosophy and Comparative Literature at the University of Copenhagen. I hold a bachelor’s degree in Philosophy and have been studying a master’s degree in Comparative Literature until recently. Throughout my education, I have mainly worked with existential philosophy and phenomenology and feminist philosophy with special interest in the intersection between philosophy and literature.

My project will examine birth and beginning of life as a topic of existential philosophy focusing on Søren Kierkegaard’s authorship in relation to more recent feminist philosophy on birth and natality. Whereas death and mortality is much discussed, birth has in general been neglected as a topic of philosophical interest and as a resource for reflection. The project is inspired by Hannah Arendt’s concept of natality in which being born is conceived as a condition of continuous significance through life. The main idea is to approach Kierkegaard’s authorship in the light of birth, more specifically to focus on the many passages related to the beginning of life, such as childhood, naivety, and beginngs, and hereby to reconstruct a Kierkegaardian concept of natality. By looking into the resources in Kierkegaard’s authorship in relation to recent feminist philosophy on natality, I seek to investigate how taking the fact that we are born into serious consideration may alter our conception of human existence.

Currently, the topic of birth and beginning of life is receiving more attention, both in philosophy and in a broader context, for instance in the recent debate in Denmark concerning rights for women giving birth or the increasing amount of literature centred around the experiences of labour, motherhood or care work. I am really looking forward to intervening in these contemporary discourses and contributing to this growing field of interest.


Contact: 

Hannah Lang
School of Culture and Society
Jens Chr. Skous Vej 7
building 1465, 528
8000 Aarhus C

hl@cas.au.dk