PROGRAM
TUESDAY, 26 MAY 2026 – ARTISTIC ANGLES
Kuppelsaal, TU Wien
09:30 Registration
10:00 Introduction
Prof. Vera Bühlmann, Prof. Georg Schiemer, Dr. Lona Gaikis.
11:00-17:30 Plenary Sessions
19:00 Salomé Voegelin (CH/UK) PUBLIC KEYNOTE
20:00 “On the Resources of Feeling” PANEL DISCUSSION
Dr. Megan Poole, Dr. Krista Ratcliffe, Dr. Kyle Jensen and Prof. Adam Nocek.
Milena Georgieva (BG/AT) SOUNDSCAPE
WEDNESDAY, 27 MAY 2026 – PHILOSOPHICAL CIRCLES
Boecklsaal, TU Wien
09:30-18:00 Plenary Sessions & Posters
19:00 Dr. Sander Verhaegh (NL) PUBLIC KEYNOTE
20:00 “Susanne K. Langer and the Vienna Circle” PANEL DISCUSSION
Prof. Juliet Floyd, Dr. Silke Körber and Dr. Sander Verhaegh.
Moderated by Dr. Christoph Limbeck-Lilienau (IVC) and Dr. Lona Gaikis.
THURSDAY, 28 MAY 2026 – POETIC DOTS
Boecklsaal, TU Wien
09:30-18:00 Plenary Sessions
19:30 Prof. Adam Nocek (USA) PUBLIC KEYNOTE
Jakob Schauer (AT) SOUNDSCAPE
FRIDAY, 29 MAY 2026 – TECHNICAL LINES
Kuppelsaal, TU Wien
09:30-17:00 Plenary Sessions
Keynotes
Keynote Speaker
TUESDAY, 26 MAY 2026
Salomé Voegelin (CH/UK)
Salomé Voegelin is Professor of Sound at the London College of Communication, University of the Arts London, UK. She is a writer, researcher, and practitioner, who works from the relational logic of sound to focus on the in-between and the liminal, where different disciplines meet to deal with contemporary issues, and where feminist, decolonial, and post-anthropocentric demands can engender different and plural knowledge possibilities. Salomé is the author of Listening to Noise and Silence (2010), Sonic Possible Worlds (2014/21), The Political Possibility of Sound (2018) and Uncurating Sound (2023). Link: https://www.salomevoegelin.net/.
Panel Discussion
“On the Resources of Feeling”
Dr. Megan Poole (USA) in conversation with Dr. Krista Ratcliffe, Dr. Kyle Jensen, Prof. Adam Nocek.
This panel explores Susanne K. Langer’s innovative philosophy of feeling and symbolism and its significance for contemporary philosophy and rhetoric. Drawing on archival materials and canonical works, the presentations examine Langer’s influence on new materialist rhetoric, theorize a “nature’s punctum” of affective, sonic experience, and analyse the complexities of listening across her symbol theory. The session situates Langer’s account of feeling and consciousness alongside Kenneth Burke, offering new theoretical avenues for the study of form, motivation, and symbolic action in both the sciences and the humanities.
Dr. Megan Poole
Dr. Megan Poole is an assistant professor of rhetoric and writing at the University of Texas at Austin, specializing in the intersection of rhetoric, science, and embodied experience. She is the author of Listening to Beauty: Rhetorics of Science in Sea and Sound (2025), a book that examines how encounters with beauty and wonder shape scientific discovery, drawing from interviews with leading biologists and stories of researchers’ experiences in the field. Poole’s work highlights the role of sensory engagement and aesthetic appreciation in expanding both the methodologies and possibilities of scientific knowledge.
Dr. Krista Ratcliffe
Dr. Krista Ratcliffe is Foundation Professor of English at Arizona State University, specializing in rhetoric, feminist theory, and critical race studies. Known for her work on rhetorical listening, she is the author of Rhetorical Listening: Identification, Gender, Whiteness, and co-editor of Rhetorics of Whiteness. Ratcliffe previously chaired English departments at Marquette and Purdue, served as president of major rhetoric societies, and is recognized as a Rhetoric Society of America Fellow.
With Prof. Adam Nocek (Thursday’s Keynote)
Keynote Speaker
WEDNESDAY, 27 MAY 2026
Dr. Sander Verhaegh (NL)
Sander Verhaegh is Assistant Professor of Philosophy of Science at Tilburg University, the Netherlands. He is the principal investigator of “Exiled Empiricists: American Philosophy and the Great Intellectual Migration,” funded by the European Research Council. The aim of this project is to reconstruct the American reception of logical empiricism in the years before the Second World War, when dozens of European philosophers sought refuge in the United States. Sander’s publications include Working from Within: The Nature and Development of Quine’s Naturalism (2018) and the volume Women in the History of Analytic Philosophy (2022) (with Jeanne Peijnenburg). He contributed the chapter “Susanne K. Langer and the Harvard School of Analysis” to the handbook (2024), excavating the link between Schlick and Langer and providing profound insights into the undercurrents that shaped the intellectual movement of analytic philosophy.
Panel Discussion
“Susanne K. Langer and The Vienna Circle”
Prof. Juliet Floyd, Dr. Silke Körber and Dr. Sander Verhaegh.
Moderated by Dr. Christoph Limbeck-Lilienau (IVC) and Dr. Lona Gaikis.
Prof. Juliet Floyd (USA)
Prof. Juliet Floyd, Boston University, known for her expertise in the history and philosophy of logic, mathematics, and early analytic philosophy, with particular emphasis on Wittgenstein, Turing, and most recently on Langer. She has been working on the philosophical implications of computation. In 2024, she gave a keynote at the conference Susanne K. Langer: Creativity and American Thought.
Dr. Silke Körber (AT)
Fellow of the Vienna Circle Institute (IVC) (2023-2024), focusses on two main research projects: a collaborative publication with Dr. Ádám T. Tuboly on the intellectual relationship between L. Susan Stebbing and Otto Neurath, and a study on representations at the interface of art and science in climate and pandemic research.
Dr. Christoph Limbeck-Lilienau, IVC (AT)
Philosopher at Institut Wiener Kreis, University of Vienna, specializes in the history of analytic philosophy, logical empiricism, and logic. His research focuses on the origins and development of logical empiricism, the Vienna Circle, and debates around logic, mathematics, and representation, especially the transition from psychologism to more formal, system-based approaches.
Dr. Lona Gaikis (AT)
Independent researcher and lecturer with the arts and philosophy. Lona Gaikis obtained her doctoral degree (Dr. phil.) in Philosophy, Art and Cultural Studies from the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna in 2017. Her research focused on the “new key” in the American philosopher Susanne K. Langer and the meaning of music in artistic practice. Lona is editor of The Bloomsbury Handbook of Susanne K. Langer (2024) and organizer of the 2026 Susanne K. Langer Conference in Vienna.
Keynote Speaker
THURSDAY, 28 MAY 2026
Prof. Adam Nocek (USA)
Prof. Adam Nocek is an Associate Professor of Philosophy of Technology and Science and Technology Studies at the School of Arts, Media and Engineering, Arizona State University. He is also the Founding Director of ASU’s Centre for Philosophical Technologies. Adam recently published Molecular Capture: The Animation of Biology (2021), and is working on a new book on AI, design, and Whitehead with references to Langer throughout. He is author of chapter 12, “Susanne K. Langer and Philosophical Biology” in The Bloomsbury Handbook of Susanne K. Langer (2024).
Conference organizer: Dr.Lona Gaikis.
Committee: Prof. Vera Bühlmann (AT), Prof. Randall E. Auxier (USA), Prof. Christian Grüny (DE), Dr. Matthew Ingram (USA), Dr. Tereza Hadravová (CZ).
Funded by the Technical University of Vienna, the University of Vienna, City Council of Vienna Stadt Wien MA7 Kultur.