Critical Theory is honored to present Alenka Zupančič,

Research Councilor at the Institute of Philosophy, Scientific Research Center of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Professor at the European Graduate School

for our Biannual Koehn Lecture this Winter 2026.

The Koehn Lecture will be held in the Humanities Gateway 1030 on February 4th, 2026, from 4-6pm. Please RSVP if attending: Koehn Lecture RSVP Form

Appearance, Desire, Movement

The three words in the title carry considerable conceptual weight. But they can also be reactivated as “light weapons” against the linear pressure of the Inevitable—fortified by mechanisms of disavowal—, and as a way of reintroducing contingency, non-linearity, and openings for emancipatory politics.

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Alenka Zupančič is a Slovene philosopher and social theorist, one of the prominent members of the “Ljubljana school of psychoanalysis”. She obtained her PhD in Philosophy from the University of Ljubljana (1996) and from Université Paris VIII (1997).

She works as Research Councilor at the Institute of Philosophy, Scientific Research Center of the Slovene Academy of Sciences, Ljubljana. She is also professor at the European Graduate School in Switzerland and is invited as guest lecturer to numerous universities worldwide. She is editor-in-chief of the Slovenian journal Problemi and the book series Analecta and, together with Slavoj Žižek and Mladen Dolar, editor of the book series “Short Circuits” at MIT Press. Notable for her work on the intersection of philosophy and psychoanalysis, she is the author of numerous articles and many books, including Ethics of the Real: Kant and Lacan; The Shortest Shadow: Nietzsche's Philosophy of the Two; The Odd One In: On Comedy; What is Sex?, Let Them Rot: Antigone’s Parallax, and Disavowal. Her books have been translated in many languages and appeared with acclaimed international publishers.