Biographical Note
Prof. Dr. Petra Gehring (*1961) studied philosophy, political science and law at the Universities of Gießen, Marburg, and Bochum (Germany). Since 2002 she is Professor for Theoretical Philosophy at TU Darmstadt.
Petra Gehring has served as managing co-editor of the Historisches Wörterbuch der Philosophie (edited by Joachim Ritter, Karlfried Gründer, and Gottfried Gabriel, Basel, 1971-2007). She is a member of the editorial board for several journals, including , Journal Phänomenologie, and, since 2022, Jahrbuch Technikphilosophie. Additionally, she was part of the editorial team of the Deutsche Zeitschrift für Philosophie until September 2022 and currently serves on the advisory board of Zeitschrift für Ideengeschichte. Philosophisches Jahrbuch
Until 2006, Petra Gehring was the Speaker of the DFG Research Training Group (RTG) , and until 2015, she served as Speaker of the DFG RTG Technification and Society. She also held the position of Principal Investigator (PI) for the DFG RTG E-Learning until 2010, the LOEWE-Schwerpunkt Topology of Technology, the Doctoral Programme Eigenlogik der Städte, and the DFG RTG Knowledge Discovery in Scientific Literature at the Europäische Traumkulturen (until 2024). Since 2023, she has been the PI of the DFG RTG University of Saarbrücken. Standards of Governance
Petra Gehring currently serves on several committees, including the of the German Science Council and the evaluation commission, where she is the chairwoman. Since April 2020, she has been the scientific director of the Hessian Council for Information Infrastructures. Together with physicist and philosopher Marlene Görger, she hosts the ZEVEDI podcast Centre for Responsible Digitality (ZEVEDI). Digitalgespräch
Areas of Research
- Metaphysics and anti-metaphysical criticism, especially in the 19th and 20th centuries
- Classical and post-classical phenomenology, structuralism, post-structuralist and systems theory
- Philosophical conceptual history (Begriffsgeschichte) and metaphorology
- Technology and power, new technologies: Biotechnologies, digitality and digital infrastructures
- Applied ethics as a political field
- Selected problems of aesthetics: on the performance of signs, voice, text, and sound
Current Research
- History of Bioethics in Germany (1970-2010)
- Modal approaches to the problem of Power
- Advanced digital infrastructures, data trusteeship
- Digital metaphor analysis, Digital Humanities