David Fopp | Chercheur associé
Biographie
Work experience
Since September 22
(Ass.) Researcher - Centre Marc Bloch, (An-Institute of the Humboldt University), Berlin
Research on deepening democracy in times of sustainability crises; collaboration (Sept 22 to Dec 23) with the Climate Change Centre Berlin in a project on climate policy and urban development
March 2024 until August 2024
Lecturer, education - Wien University
Teaching in the Master education program; about ”education for a sustainable democracy – by the methods of drama in education”
January 2020 until January 2022
Senior Lecturer, Youth and Childhood Studies - Stockholm University
Teaching (responsible for courses: B.A. Pedagogy) and research (democracy; sustainability; creativity/theatre; youth research: global intergenerational justice, climate movement)
Between August 2017 and February 2019
Lecturer, then Senior Lecturer, Didactics, Arts/Drama Education - Stockholm University
Teaching (co-responsible for drama education training, new B.A. programme "Drama Education"/”Art didactics”; course responsibility and development of new courses on democracy, social and ecological sustainability, directing, play development, education, etc.)
Research (democracy; sustainability; creativity, drama education/theatre pedagogy; relationship between ethics, political philosophy and aesthetics)
Since August 2008
Artistic director of TP1 - Theatre & Pedagogy, Theory & Politics
Working with drama in education; director and publicist (see also publications: ”Changing the social imagination”, documentation of the work of the institution)
2001 to 2003
Lecturer and researcher at the Philosophical Seminar - University of Basel
Research and teaching
1998 to 2000
Research Fellow - École Normale Supérieure, Paris
On the philosophy of Maurice Merleau-Ponty (teachers: Alain Badiou, Pierre Bourdieu, Claude Imbert)
1994 to 1997
Tutor at the Institute of Philosophy - Free University of Berlin at the Chair of Michael Theunissen (Critical theory; theories of modernity; Hegel; social philosophy, metaphysics)
Education
June 2015
PhD in Human Sciences (philosophy, pedagogy, aesthetics), submitted to the Faculty of Humanities
PhD student at Humboldt University Berlin and Charles University Prague
”Being humane as a political, aesthetical and educational idea”, Transcript, Bielefeld
June 2012
Master in Education with a specialisation in "Drama Education"
Stockholm University
June 2008
Social work/pedagogy
Sigtuna Folkhögskola, Sweden
July 1998
Magister Artium in Philosophy, Theatre and Film Studies and Protestant Theology
Free University of Berlin
July 1992
Matura with specialisation in Latin and Greek
Cantonal School St.Gallen, Switzerland
I was born on 20 November 1972 in Heiden, Switzerland, and grew up in Switzerland (St.Gallen) and partly in Sweden (Stockholm).
From my education and work experience, I have a double qualification: on the one hand, I have a PhD in philosophy (democracy, sustainability) and (drama in) education/pedagogy; on the other hand working as a drama in education and theatre teacher as well as social worker with several years of experience and training.
Sujet de recherche
I'm focusing on a research project dealing with the question of how we can develop a school and university system (teaching, learning, institutional transformation, curricula etc.) in which we explore the attitude as well as the transformation of the economic and political rules and structures which allow a life in dignity for all within the planetary boundaries (see www.demo1.org). This project combines questions about global citizenship, education for sustainable development, and transformative multimodal learning.
The main focus lies on the question of what it means that we are creative, social, embodied beings living in problematic power relations to one another and nature, able to transform them in a substantial democratic direction. How can we teach and explore the embodied knowledge about creating relations and structures which allow meetings on eye level (and replace domination and authoritarian structures)? What are the embodied social mechanisms which lead to domination or democratic sustainable relations?
(In the last years, I worked on a project about multigenerational climate justice activism, sustainability, and the role of science in societal transformation; see book "On a ecophilosophy of democracy".
At the Marc Boch Centre, I led the work - supported by the Climate Change Center Berlin - about how cities like Berlin and Paris can be transformed in times of democratic and sustainability crises, linking science, politics and civil society.
At Stockholm University (2017-2022), I was responsible for and developed 10 new university courses on democracy, education, and sustainability using creative methods (drama in education) to work with students who became teachers on all levels.)
My research interests are
- theories of the relation between sustainability and democracy; theories of transformation (global sustainable society); theories of intersectionality
- play, drama, and applied theatre/community theatre; as methods for education and vernacular cultural approaches
- empathy/compassion/dignity research: what does it mean to use the imagination in a humane way (from affective neuroscience and methods of acting and directing to theories of human consciousness)
- the role of intergenerational activism in the societal transformation towards a socially, ecologically, and economically sustainable society in times of an ecological and climate crisis
Politique et recherche sur le climat dans les régions métropolitaines dans le contexte du postulat d'urgence des crises multiples
Publications
(Some recent books and articles)
Fopp, David (2024): The Youth Climate Uprising – from the School Strike Movement to an Ecophilosophy of Democracy. Bielefeld: transkript Verlag (in cooperation with Columbia University Press).
Fopp, David (2022): „What kind of democracy“? Lecture at the conference on sustainability transformation by Researchers Desk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heuGyax7m_o
Fopp, David (2021): Gemeinsam für die Zukunft. Fridays For Future und Scientists For Future. Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag.
Fopp, David (2020): »The core of a united global climate movement«. In: Resilience, 2021. www.resilience.org/stories/2020-01-10/the-core-of-a-united-globalmovement-reacting-to-the-ecological-and-climate-crisis/
Fopp, David (2016): Menschlichkeit als ästhetische, pädagogische und politische Idee. Bielefeld: Transcript.
Fopp, David (2013): „Maurice Merleau-Ponty. Anwesen und Gestalt“, in: Thomä, Dieter (Hrsg.): Heidegger-Handbuch. Stuttgart: Metzler. S. 437-444.
More publications are here and on www.demo1.org.