Lovisa Andén

I work both as researcher in Philosophy at Åbo Akademi University and as Associate Professor in Philosophy at UiT - The Arctic University of Norway.  My research focuses on testimonial literature, memory cultures and historiography. I am one of the founders and leaders of the research centre MYTH, Centre for Research in Memory, Testimony and Historiography (togeteher with Jonas Ahlskog and Natan Elgabsi, at Åbo Akademi University).

From 2022, I am working on the research project, Muted Memories and Silenced Stories: Memoirs by Women of the Gulag Archipelago at Åbo Akademi University, funded by the KONE foundation. The project examines questions of representation, truth and experience in witness literature written by women from the Gulag-Archipelago.

2019-2020, I worked on a post-doctoral research project funded by Östersjöstiftelsen, on memoirs from the Gulag Archipelago written by western survivors. In particular, the project focuses on the question of truth with regard to literature and subjective experiences. Furthermore, it explores the interrelation between experience, literary expression and reality in the case of Gulag memoirs.

I defended my PhD at Uppsala University/Södertörn University 2017. My thesis concerns literature, language and experience in the philosophy of Maurice Merleau-Ponty. In particular, I examine Merleau-Ponty’s reading of Marcel Proust, Paul Valéry and Stendhal in his unpublished course notes from Collège de France 1953-1954. I have transcribed, edited and annotated the course, Sur le problème de la parole, together with Franck Robert and Emmanuel de Saint Aubert (published at MetisPresses 2020). This research is also partly presented in the book, Mer verklig än verkligheten, published in 2024.