PD Dr. Federica Gregoratto
Visiting Associate Professor of Philosophy with a focus on Practical Philosophy
T +41 41 229 55 94
federica.gregoratto@unilu.ch
Frohburgstrasse 3, Room 3.A43
Consultation hour during the semester:
Tuesdays, 12:15 - 14:00 (by prior arrangement by e-mail)
CV
Federica Gregoratto is Visiting Associate Professor of Philosophy with a focus on Practical Philosophy at the University of Lucerne since September 2024. From April 2023 to August 2024, she was guest professor of Social Philosophy and Anthropology at the Free University of Berlin. She studied philosophy at the Universities of Venice and Frankfurt am Main (M.A. 2008, Dr. phil. 2012).
From 2012 to 2013, she was a postdoctoral fellow at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, and from 2013 to 2015, she was a postdoctoral fellow at the Excellence Cluster "The Formation of Normative Orders" at Goethe University Frankfurt. From 2015 to 2022, she was a research associate in the Department of Philosophy at the University of St. Gallen, where she completed her habilitation. From 2022 to 2023, she was a guest professor at the University of Konstanz, and in 2019, she was a visiting scholar at the New School for Social Research in New York.
Her research interests lie in the areas of Social Philosophy, Feminist Philosophy, Critical Theory, Philosophy of Love and Emotions, Pragmatism, and Psychoanalysis. She has published articles in English, Italian, and German, some of which have been translated into French, Spanish, and Portuguese. She has written a book on Jürgen Habermas, edited a critical edition of a book by John Dewey, and co-edited collections of essays. Her latest book is titled Love Troubles: A Philosophy of Eros (New York, Columbia University Press, 2024).
Currently, she is working on two projects: the first is dedicated to a social-critical philosophy of psychic suffering, aiming in particular to understand depression as a form of "affective injustice"; the second examines potential German and English (early) Romantic contributions to contemporary debates on recognition theory.
She writes a column for the Italian online magazine Le Parole e Le Cose (“L’amore ai tempi del nineralismo”), where she discusses love relationships, sexuality, fiction, films, and politics. In general, she likes to contribute to "public philosophy", when possible.
Research
Research interests:
- Philosophy of love and emotion
- Critical Theory (esp. Adorno, Marcuse)
- Theories of recognition
- Marx und Hegel
- German Early Romanticism (esp. Karoline von Günderrode, Friedrich Schlegel)
- Philosophy of Psychoanalysis, with a focus on philosophy of depression
- Feminist philosophy and intersectionality
- Pragmatism (esp. John Dewey, Jane Addams)
Publications
- Gregoratto, F. (2025). Love Troubles: A Philosophy of Eros (New Directions in Critical Theory) (1st edition). New York: Columbia University Press. Retrieved from https://cup.columbia.edu/book/love-troubles/9780231217637
- Gregoratto, F. (2013). Il doppio volto della comunicazione: Normatività, dominio e critica nell’opera di Jürgen Habermas. Milano/Udine: Mimesis.
- Gregoratto, F. (2025). Against Fusion: Faces of Love and Recognition in Amy Allen, Melanie Klein and Kleist’s Penthesilea. Critical Horizons.
- Gregoratto, F. (2024). Critical Naturalism: Replies to the Critics of the Manifesto. Krisis. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.21827/krisis.44.1.41311
- Gregoratto, F. (2023). Romances of Nature: Hegelian and Romantic Impulses for Critical Theory. Verifiche, 52 (1), 39–62.
- Gregoratto, F. (2023). Between Anger(s) and Radical Hope: Emotions in Progress. European Journal of Pragmatism and American Philosophy. https://doi.org/10.4000/ejpap.3580
- Gregoratto, F. (2022). Aecsthetic Transformative Experience: A Pragmatist Outline. Philosophy & Social Criticism, 48 (10). https://doi.org/doi.org/10.1177/01914537221117086
- Gregoratto, F., Ikäheimo, H., Renault, E., Särkelä, A., & Testa, I. (2022). Critical Naturalism: A Manifesto. Krisis, 42 (1), 108–124. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.21827/krisis.42.1.38637
- Gregoratto, F. (2022). Critical Naturalism: A Manifesto. Krisis, Vol. 42 No. 1. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.21827/krisis.42.1.38637
- Gregoratto, F. (2021). Capitalism and The Nature of Life-Forms. Critical Horizons, 22 (2).
- Gregoratto, F. (2021). Love and the (Wrong) World. Adorno and Illouz on a Complicated Relation. Journal of Social Philosophy, 52:1,. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1111/josp.12345
- Gregoratto, F. (2021). Loving Vulnerability: Fragments on Polyamory. Compàs d’Amalgama, 4.
- Gregoratto, F. (2018). The Ambiguity of Love: Beauvoir, Honneth and Arendt on the Relation between Recognition, Power and Violence. Critical Horizons, 19 (1), 18–34.
- Gregoratto, F. (2018). The Robust Demands of Oppression: A Critical View of Pettit’s Account of Attachments. Moral Philosophy and Politics, 5 (1), 49–68.
- Gregoratto, F. (2017). Love is a Losing Game: Power and Exploitation in Romantic Relationships. The Journal of Political Power, 10 (3), 326–341.
- Gregoratto, F. (2017). The Critical Nature of Gender: A Deweyan Approach to the Sex/Gender Distinction. Journal of Speculative Philosophy, 32 (2).
- Gregoratto, F. (2017). Agonistic Recognition, Intersections and the Ambivalence of Family Bonds: John Dewey’s Critical Theory Manifesto in China. Transactions of the Charles S. Pierce Society, 52 (1), 127–145.
- Gregoratto, F. (2017). Why Love Kills: Power, Gender Dichotomy and Romantic Femicide. Hypatia, 32 (1).
- Gregoratto, F. (2016). Recognizing Care, Caring Recognition: Democratic Love and the Problems of Care Work. Thesis Eleven, 134 (1), 56–72.
- Gregoratto, F. (2015). Political Power and its Pathologies: An Attempt to Reconsider Habermas’ Critical Theory of Democracy. Constellations, 22 (4), 533–542.
- Gregoratto, F. (im Druck). A Romance of Recognition: Nature, Gender and Sex(ism) in Friedrich Schlegel. In Congdon, Matt & Khurana, Thomas (Eds.), The Philosophy of Recognition: Expanded Perspectives on a Fundamental Concept. New York/London: Routledge.
- Gregoratto, F., & Särkelä, A. (2021). Social Reproduction Feminism and Deweyan Habit Ontology. In Caruana, Fausto & Testa, Italo (Eds.), Habits: Pragmatist Approaches from Cognitive Neurosciences to Social Sciences (pp. 438–458). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Gregoratto, F. (2021). The Passionate Nature of Freedom: From Hegel to Dewey and Adorno, from this to Another Country. In Giladi, Paul (Ed.), Hegel and the Frankfurt School (pp. 242–264). London/New York: Routledge.
- Gregoratto, F. (2020). Intersektionen zwischen Kapitalismuskritik und feministischen Motiven nach John Dewey und Jane Addams. In Brunkhorst, Hauke, Petersen, Felix & Seeliger, Martin (Eds.), Pragmatismus und Sozialforschung. München: Metzler Verlag.
- Gregoratto, F. (2020). Love Will Tear Us Apart: Marx and Hegel on the Materiality of Erotic Bonds. In Fareld, Victoria & Kuch, Hannes (Eds.), From Marx to Hegel and Back: Re-actualizing the Foundations of Social Critique. London: Bloomsbury.
- Gregoratto, F. (2020). Reality and Resistance: Habermas and Haslanger on Objectivity, Social Critique, and the Possibility of Change. In Acosta López, Maria del Rosario & McQuillan, Colin (Eds.), Critique in German Philosophy: From Kant to Critical Theory (pp. 357–375). New York: SUNY.
- Gregoratto, F., & Särkelä, A. (2020). Social Reproduction Feminism and Deweyan Habit Ontology. In Caruana, Fausto & Testa, Italo (Eds.), Habits: Pragmatist Approaches from Cognitive Science, Neuroscience, and Social Theory (pp. 438–458). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Gregoratto, F. (2018). Deuda, poder y la normatividad de la interdependencia: Debates contemporáneos y el joven Marx. In Casuso, Gianfranco & Serrano, Justo (Eds.), Las armas de la crítica. Barcelon: Anthropos.
- Gregoratto, F. (2017). La vie psychique des régimes d’endettement-culpabilité et les identités traditionnelles de genre: Perspectives nietzschéennes et kleiniennes. In Bissonnette, Jean François & Pierre Crétois (Eds.), La dette comme rapport social. Lormont: Le Bord de l’Eau.
- Alloa, Emmanuel, Festl, Michael, Gregoratto, Federica, & Telios, Thomas (Eds.). (2019). Quertreiber des Denkens: Dieter Thomä: Werk und Wirken. Bielefeld: Transcript.
- Särkelä, Arvi, Gregoratto, Federica, & Serrano Zamora, Justo (Eds.). (2017). John Dewey and Social Criticism (Journal of Speculative Philosophy) (Vol. 63). State College (PA): Pennsylvania State University Press.
- Gregoratto, Federica (Ed.). (2017). John Dewey: Filosofia sociale e politica: Lezioni in Cina (1919-1920). Torino: Rosenberg & Sellier.
- Gregoratto, Federica, & Ranchio, Filippo (Eds.). (2014). Contesti del riconoscimento. Milano/udine: Mimesis.
- Gregoratto, F. (2019). Counterfactual Presuppositions. In Allen, Amy & Mendieta, Edoardo (Eds.), The Cambridge Habermas Lexicon. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Gregoratto, F. (2018). Feministische Philosophie. In Festl, Michael (Ed.), Handbuch Pragmatismus. Stuttgart/Weimer: Verlag J.B. Metzler.
- Gregoratto, F. (July 2033). Review of: Amia Srinivasan, The right to sex. Contemporary Political Theory, 22, 63–66. Retrieved from https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/s41296-022-00554-9?fbclid=IwAR03Fw5Hg1Zsem1M589bhEmR03Jd88gRThCQG_hXFVyDt0VfEVK1BYSY0Hs#citeas
- Gregoratto, F. (2025). Review of Frederick Neuhouser’s ‘Diagnosing Social Pathology: Rousseau, Hegel, Marx, and Durkheim’. Graduate Faculty Philosophy Journal, 46 (1), 231–254. https://doi.org/doi.org/10.5840/gfpj20254619
Achievements
- Backwards and forwards to nature. Chair/panel-moderation, Seminario die Teoria Critica (36. Incontro Annuale), Società Italiana di Teoria Critica, Parma, 2025
- Love Troubles: A Philosophy of Eros. Key Note, Love Troubles: A Philosophy of Eros, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, 2025
- Futurity and the Life of Critique. Romantic Wanderings in Critical Theory. (Panel) contribution, Philosophy and Social Sciences Conference 2025, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prag, 2025
- Concrete unfreedom. Depression, habits and the reproduction of social life. (Panel) contribution, Life and Death of Habits, Université de Picardie Jules Verne / NOVI International Research Network, Amiens, 2025
- Love Troubles: A Philosophy of Eros. Discussion contribution, APA Central Division Meeting, APA American Philosophical Association, Online, 2025
- "Depression as social critique" Key Note, Filosofia tra (auto)critica e trasformazione/Filosofía entre (auto)crítica y transformación, Università degli Studi di Padova (Giovanna Miolli), Padova, 2024
- "Homesick. Notes for a Critical Social Philosophy of Depression" Key Note, "Trasformazioni. Psicanalisi, lavoro, digitale, ecologia" (Seminario di Teoria Critica, XXXV. Incontro Annuale), Società Italiana di Teoria Critica, Università di Parma, Parma, 2024
- "Liebe" Discussion contribution, Standpunkte:Feministische Philosoph:innen im Gespräch. Federica Gregoratto und Cornelia Klinger über Liebe und Care, Institut für Philosophie, Freie Universität Berlin (Susanne Lettow, Esther Neuhann, Francesca Raimondi), Berlin, 2024
- Love Troubles: How Love Drives Transformation. Kick-off speech, Vienna Humanities Festival 2025, Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen (IWM), Europäisches Netzwerk der Häuser für Debatten “Time to Talk” (TTT) und Wien Museum, Wien, 2025
- Il disagio della libertà. Diagnosi e cure, passioni e patologie della teoria critica oggi. Kick-off speech, Fare critica sociale oggi. Con i francofortesi e oltre, University of Padova, Padua, 2025
- Sadness as a Gift. Transference of depression with Gloria Anzaldúa. Lecture, The Politics of Transference, University of Bologna, Bologna, 2025
- Diskussionsbeitrag zum Thema "Beziehungsformen" Kick-off speech, 6 X SEX. Podiumsdiskussion zum Thema Sexualität, ONO Kulturlokal, Bern, 2024
