CS: Alumni berichten: Ruben Pfizenmaier: Should I stay—And where to go?

Honestly: research and academia can be exhausting. What are the alternatives? Pursuing a PhD usually means one spent a lot of time inside university. And spending time inside a specific system means getting adopted to its explicit and implicit rules, to its methods, formats and modes of work, but also to its quirks. The more aligned one is, the less obvious working in other environments often seems. But then: where to go and what to do—especially when one is passionate about research and scholarship, learning and teaching?

During my professional life I struggled with this issue. I left academia twice (with the best of reasons), still I returned twice. In this workshop I would like to launch a discussion on the difficulties of finding one’s place. In this context I will then present some of the career options and work places I got to know and in which academic skills but especially a background in the study of culture could be fruitfully applied—and in which an interest in research, an interest in growth or working with theories can potentially prosper.

// Ruben Pfizenmaier defended his PhD at JLU Gießen in early 2023, from 2017 to 2022 he was a member of the GCSC. Topic of his dissertation was the phenomenon of exercise, which he approached by reading handbooks of ancient rhetoric with concepts of phenomenology and practice theory. Since January 2024 he is postdoc researcher at the DFG Research Training Group 2477 „Aesthetic Practice“ at the University of Hildesheim. During and after his studies in Philosophy, cultural studies and literature he worked for several publishing houses (from editing to sales and distribution), was part of the management team of the consulting firm Concadora and worked as trainer for mindful leadership. For many years, balancing theory and practice seemed to be one of the main constants in his professional life.

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