Since 2021 Doctoral research fellow at the Chair of Practical Philosophy, Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy at Humboldt University of Berlin and member of the DFG-funded research training group 2638 Normativity, Critique, Change at Free University of Berlin. PhD project supervised by Prof. Rahel Jaeggi (HU) and Prof. Susanne Gödde (FU).

September/October 2022 Research stay at the University of California Santa Cruz (UCSC), History of Consciousness Department, Chair and Professor Massimiliano Tomba

2020/21 DAAD-stipendiary for teaching assignment at Sapienza University of Rome

2020 PreDoc-stipendiary, Max Weber Centre for Advanced Cultural and Social Studies, University of Erfurt

2018 – 2019 Various employments at cultural associations, private companies and as a translator

2014 – 2018 Graduate studies in Philosophy at Humboldt University of Berlin

Thesis "On the Concept of Progress in Walter Benjamin", supervised by Prof. Rahel Jaeggi

2015 – 2017 Tutor at the Department of Art and Visual History and the Department of Philosophy at Humboldt University of Berlin

2015 – 2017 Student assistant at the cluster of excellence Image Knowledge Gestaltung at Humboldt University of Berlin

2016/17 Visiting student at St Andrews University

2010 – 2014 Undergraduate studies in Philosophy, Art History and Theater Studies at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich

Thesis "Working on the Concept of the Artist in the Italian Renaissance. Leon Battista Alberti's pittore dotto", supervised by Prof. Thomas Ricklin

2011 – 2014 Student assistant and tutor at the Institute for Renaissance Intellectual History and Renaissance Philosophy at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich

2012/13 Visiting student at Roma Tre University

TEACHING 

Winter term 2023/24: Proseminar "Walter Benjamin: Über den Begriff der Geschichte" (2 SCH), Department of Philosophy, Humboldt University of Berlin

Summer term 2023: Proseminar "Eine Einführung in das Denken Walter Benjamins" (2 SCH), Department of Philosophy, Humboldt University of Berlin

Winter term 2020/21 & summer term 2021 Courses for BA and MA programs (8 SCH), Facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia/Dipartimento Studi Europei, Americani e Interculturali, Sapienza University of Rome

Summer term 2016 & winter term 2016/17 Research tutorial "Progresses in the critique of capitalism? Degrowth und #Acceleration" (2 SCH), Department of Philosophy, Humboldt University of Berlin

Winter term 2015/2016 Research tutorial "Zeigen und nicht nur sagen. Genealogie als Kunst und Kritik" (2 SCH), Department of Art and Visual History, Humboldt University of Berlin

Summer term 2014 Tutorial "Zu Ernst Cassirers Begriff von Kulturwissenschaft" (2 SCH), Institute for Renaissance Intellectual History and Renaissance Philosophy, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich

Winter term 2013/14 Tutorial "Machiavelli: De principatibus" (2 SCH), Institute for Renaissance Intellectual History and Renaissance Philosophy, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich

Summer term 2012 Tutorial "Étienne de La Boétie: Über freiwillige Knechtschaft" (2 SCH), Institute for Renaissance Intellectual History and Renaissance Philosophy, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich

ACADEMIC EVENTS (selection) 

Summer term 2023 Co-organization of the international conference "Moving Normativity", Uferstudios Berlin (May 11-12, 2023).

Winter term 2017/18 Co-organization of the symposium "Alternatives in Progress? Degrowth and #Acceleration" at Humboldt University of Berlin (October 27, 2017). 

Summer term 2016 Co-organization of the exhibition "Zeigen und nicht nur sagen. Genealogie als Kunst und Kritik" at Humboldt University of Berlin (July 2-7, 2016). 

Summer term 2016 Assistance in the organization of "+ultra. gestaltung schafft wissen", exhibition by the cluster of excellence Image Knowledge Gestaltung (Humboldt University of Berlin) at Martin-Gropius-Bau Berlin (September 30, 2016 – January 8, 2017).

Summer term 2014 Assistance in the organization of "Leihweise/Paarweise", exhibition by the Institute of Art History (Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich) at Artothek Munich (May 8-11, 2014).

"Counter-History(s). A social-philosophical investigation of the epistemological and social-transformative potential of resistant appropriation of history using the example of Lucrezia Marinella's proto-feminist treatise La Nobiltà (1600/01)"

In my doctoral thesis I examine the epistemological and social-transformative potential of resistant appropriations of history. I take Counter-History(s) to be attempts of subaltern groups to actively inscribe themselves into historical reconstructions by writing against canonical-hegemonic appropriations of history and their arrangements of invisibilizations. Counter-histories are thereby understood as critical interventions that are more than historiographical undertakings: This kind of reinterpretation of the past aims at having a transformative effect on the present and its various contexts of legitimation: (the demand for) social change intertwines with (the formulation of) counter-history(s).

Using (1) a historical case study – Lucrezia Marinella's proto-feminist treatise La Nobiltà (Venice, 1600/01) – and drawing on (2) Walter Benjamin’s conception of history, historiography and their political dimensions, the project aims to examine the structure and functioning of Counter-History and (3) to ask about the conditions and possibilities of critique it can provide.

Research Interests

• Social Philosophy
• Critical Theory
• Philosophy of History
• History of Philosophy, especially Italian Renaissance
• Historical Women's Studies and Feminist Philosophy
• Questions of Method

Publications (selection)

Andrea Messner: "Einige, die wenig von der Geschichte wissen…" Lucrezia Marinellas La Nobiltà (1600/1601) – Frauengeschichte als Gegengeschichte. In: GENDER – Journal for Gender, Culture and Society [accepted, expected to be published in issue 2/2024, June 2024].

Luigi Pareyson: Dostojewski. Philosophie, Roman und religiöse Erfahrung, translated by Andrea Messner, Berlin: Freigeist Verlag, 2022.

Andrea Messner/Mariella Maier/Andrea Kantos/Gandolfo Gabriele David (eds.): Piazza Connection, Palermo: DimoraOZ edizioni, 2021.

Édith de la Héronnière: "Die Weisheit kommt aus dem Schatten. In den Gärten Siziliens" translated by Andrea Messner, in: Goethe-Institut Palermo/Institut Français Palermo (eds.), Il giardino siciliano come metafora – Der sizilianische Garten als Metapher – Le jardin sicilien comme metaphore, Palermo, 2019, 17-21.

Andrea Messner: "Hate as a transformative force. An Essay on Walter Benjamin", in: Evgenia Giannopoulou/Hannes Schumacher (eds.), Love and Politics, Berlin: Freigeist Verlag, 2018, 103-127.

Andrea Messner: "Experimentieren mit Flüssigkeit. Zur Bedeutung der Deutung in Die Verklärung des Gewöhnlichen. Überlegungen mit Arthur C. Danto", in: Hannes Schumacher/Felix Miericke (eds.), Philosophie als Kunst. Philosophy as Art, Berlin: Freigeist Verlag, 2016, 122-177. 

Talks (selection)

Andrea Messner: "Walter Benjamins 'kopernikanische Wende in der geschichtlichen Anschauung'. Fortschritt, Fortsprung, Utopie", X. Tagung für Praktische Philosophie, Paris Lodron University of Salzburg (September 29, 2023).

Andrea Messner: "Denn es ist so, 'dass die Männer die Gesetze schreiben, sie die Frauen aber als Juristinnen ausschließen'... – Auszüge aus Lucrezia Marinellas Der Adel und die Vorzüglichkeit der Frauen Venedig 1600/1601, übersetzt aus dem Italienischen von Andrea Messner", Tagung RECHTSPHILOSOPHINNEN. Die unsichtbaren Beiträge europäischer Denkerinnen zur Rechts- und Sozialphilosophie, FB Völkerrecht, Europarecht und Grundlagen des Rechts, Paris Lodron University of Salzburg (September 28, 2023).

Andrea Messner: "History/Memory and Recognition. A case study: Lucrezia Marinella's (1571-1653) La Nobiltà e l'Eccelenza delle Donne (1600/01) ", project-discussion, International Summer School Recognition: Conceptual Contours and Contemporary Challenges, University of Zurich (June 12-14, 2023).

Andrea Messner: "Black out. Was kann Gegen-Geschichte leisten? Eine kurze (Wieder-)Entdeckungsreise von der biblischen Figur der Eva zu Black Lives Matter", Vortragsreihe Störung, IfC Berlin (June 17, 2022).

Andrea Messner: "Back to the Future? On the Concept of 'Progress' in Walter Benjamin", International Critical Theory Conference in Rome, John Felice Rome Center of Loyola University Chicago (May 16-18, 2022).

Andrea Messner: "PRO-GRESS/PRO-LEAP. Walter Benjamins notion of a present-centred, non-processual progress", History Progress Critique, Istanbul Oldenburg Critical Theory Conference, Universität Oldenburg (September 12-14, 2019).

Andrea Messner: "Kausalität, Fortschritt, Prognose. Walter Benjamin und die II. Internationale", Vortragsreihe Prognose, IfC Berlin (July 03, 2019).

Andrea Messner: "Alternatives in Progress? Some introductory reflections", Alternatives in Progress? Degrowth and Acceleration, student symposium, Humboldt University of Berlin (October 27, 2017).