PhD Courses in Denmark

Welcome to Despair: Interdisciplinary Perspectives

Description:

This PhD course invites participants from the humanities, social sciences, as well as clinical and pedagogical disciplines, to engage in an interdisciplinary discussion about despair and related phenomena such as suffering, hopelessness, anxiety, depression, and grief. What can despair tell us about who we are, how we live, and how we relate to others? Is despair an inherent part of the human condition that we can and should learn to live with, or is it something we should fight against at all costs? Is there a courage of despair – a resolute rebellion in the face of the near catastrophe? To what extent are the forms despair takes dependent on historical contexts, social structures, and economic conditions? What forms of despair are predominant in our time?

With etymological roots in the Latin verb dēspērāre, despair is often understood as a lack of hope. In German and Scandinavian languages, words like Verzweiflung, fortvivelse, or förtvivlan similarly connote a radical form of doubt. Despair, then, can be seen both as an abandonment of hope and as a radical questioning of the very ground of existence. While the circumstances leading to despair vary greatly across time and space, the condition might, following thinkers such as Søren Kierkegaard (1849) and Anthony Steinbock (2014), be generally described as one in which trust and possibility seem equally absent.

In despair, it is difficult—almost impossible—to imagine a future worth living for. With this gloomy outlook, all action becomes borderline superfluous: there seems to be nothing the person in despair can do to change their condition. While some forms of despair verge on manic desperation, it often manifests through passivity and withdrawal from the world and others. Those in despair have given up—on the future, on others, on God, and on themselves.

Since the ground given up through despair can be existential, religious, ethical, pedagogical, psychological and political, despair can haunt individuals, groups, and societies alike. Suicide—the ultimate expression of individual despair—remains “the most serious philosophical problem,” as Albert Camus famously put it, and thoughts of it haunt each of us at times. Loss of faith and other forms of religious crises are situations where the telos of existence is shaken, and despair often lurks. And in the veritable upsurge of crises witnessed since the beginning of the third millennium—9/11 and the war on terror, financial crises, new and endless wars, the Covid-19 pandemic, and accelerating ecological crises—alongside a political order that is becoming increasingly unstable, despair might offer a useful hermeneutic key for understanding our times more deeply.

In scientific literature, despair has been scarcely explored. As a transdisciplinary phenomenon, which profoundly affects individual and social existence, it seems worthwhile to investigate the topic of despair from different scientific perspectives and theoretical backgrounds. We thus invite Ph.D. students engaged in projects related to despair or similar topics to a two-day course designed to stimulate readings, lectures, and discussions on despair and its associated subjects.

Questions we aim to explore include, but are not limited to, the following:

• How can we understand despair conceptually and theoretically?
• How is despair related to other forms of suffering and negative emotions, such as grief, anxiety, shame, and anger?
• What contemporary forms and expressions of despair emerge in the early twenty-first century?
• How is despair portrayed and thematized in literature, film, theater, dance, and music?
• How can despair inform and improve our understanding of individual suffering in medical and clinical psychological settings?
• Is there a pedagogical dimension to despair that can even be used constructively?
• What can cross-cultural studies of despair teach us about the universality and specificity of despair?
• How can we conceive of the relationship between religious and secular forms of despair

Teaching methods:

Keynote lectures, student presentations, group discussions

Program outline (preliminary):

Day 1:

9:00 – 9:30 Introduction and round of presentations

9:30 – 10:30 Keynote 1: Alfred Sköld

10:30 – 10:45: Break

10:45 – 12:30: Student presentations

12:30 – 13:30: Lunch

13:30 – 14:30: Keynote 2: Tom Wellman

14:30 – 15:00: Student presentations

15:00 – 15:15: Break

15:15 – 17:00 Group work

Day 2:

9:00 – 9:30 Introduction and follow up from day 1

9:30 – 10:30 Keynote 3: Dennis Dietz

10:30 – 10:45: Break

10:45 – 12:30: Student presentations

12:30 – 13:30: Lunch

13:30 – 14:30: Keynote 4: Matti Weisdorf

14:30 – 15:00: Student presentations

15:00 – 15:15: Break

15:15 – 17:00 Wrap up

Description of paper requirements, if applicable:

One months ahead of the course, participating PhD-students are asked to submit a 2-page paper on the role of despair in their project. The paper is developed at the course, where they are giving a 15-minute oral presentation that is subsequently discussed in plenum.

Mandatory literature:

See PhDMoodle

Suggested literature:

See PhDMoodle

Organizer:

Alfred Sköld, Department of Communication and Psychology, Qualitative Studies

Lecturers:

Alfred Sköld, Aalborg University

Tom Wellman, Heidelberg University of Education

Dennis Dietz, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg University of Education

Matti Weisdorf, University of Copenhagen

Time: 5, 6 November 2025

Place: See PhDMoodle

City: Copenhagen

Number of seats: 20

Deadline: 16 October 2025

Important information concerning PhD courses: 

There is a no-show fee of DKK 3,000 for each course where the student does not show up. Cancellations are accepted no later than 2 weeks before the start of the course. Registered illness is of course an acceptable reason for not showing up on those days. Furthermore, all courses open for registration approximately four months before start of the course.

We cannot ensure any seats before the deadline for enrolment, all participants will be informed after the deadline, approximately 3 weeks before the start of the course.

For inquiries regarding registration, cancellation or waiting list, please contact the PhD administration at phdcourses@adm.aau.dk When contacting us please state the course title and course period. Thank you.