What Does It Mean to Displace Oneself in Thinking? An Investigation of Migrant Knowledge and Thinking

• Applicant: Dr. Coretta Ehrenfeld
• Subject Area: Theoretical Philosophy
• Term: since 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 561332391

The research project aims to investigate the epistemic and epistemological dimension of migration. The “epistemic dimension” refers to the “knowledge” of migrants and its role, structure and function in immigration societies. The “epistemological dimension” focuses on cognitive processes as they occur in the context of migration and questions cognitive processes in general with regard to their “migrant” characteristics. Three main objectives are decisive: Firstly, the socio-epistemic processes to which migrants, migrated or migrantized persons are exposed as knowing subjects in the social context of “immigration societies” will be investigated. The aim is to gain a better understanding of the epistemic structure of migration societies and which epistemic advantages and disadvantages can be attributed to the migrant and migrantized position in the social space of the immigration society. The second aim of the research project is to demonstrate the epistemological potential of one's own epistemic displacement. This involves the relation between the “thinking of migrants” and a “thinking that is migrant” in general. The aim is to develop “migrant characteristics” of thought, which thinking and knowing subjects are capable of, regardless of their physical mobility. Finally it is asked what the results can mean for our times. What does epistemic displacement imply philosophically for the contemporary global age? What role can mobile knowledge and thinking play in a European and global context? The three parts build on each other. The overall aim is to sketch a picture of “migrant knowledge and thinking”.

• DFG Programme: WBP Position