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Benedict Kenyah-Damptey

Research Interests

  • AOS: Dehumanization; Social Cognition, Philosophy of Race and Racism, Philosophy of Mind and Cognitive Science
  • AOC: Social and Political Philosophy, Social Metaphysics, the Philosophy of Michel Foucault

Education

Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf (HHU)

M.A. in Philosophy (2020)
Thesis: Social Identity and Dehumanization. How Self‐Categorization and Group Membership Shape Forms of Racism
Supervisor: Leda Berio, PhD / Prof. Dr. Gottfried Vosgerau

B.A. in Philosophy (2015)
Thesis: Foucaults Theorie der Macht [Foucault’s Theory of Power]
Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Frank Dietrich / Dr. Ulrike Hinke‐Dörnemann

Appointments

Beginning in Fall 2020 Research and teaching fellow [Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter], Heinrich-Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU)
Spring 2018 Lecturer, HHU

Teaching

Fall 2024 Philosophie sozialer Kognition: Schemata, Skripte und Normen ["Philosophy of Social Cognition: Schemata, Scripts and Norms"], HHU.
Spring 2024 Philosophie der Diskriminierung (Teil 2): Stereotype, Vorurteile, sozio‐strukturelle Unterdrückung ["Philosophy of Discrimination (Part 2): Stereotypes, Prejudice, Socio‐structural Oppression"], HHU.
Fall 2023 Philosophie der Dehumanisierung ["Philosophy of Dehumanization"], HHU.
Spring 2023 Philosophie sozialer Kognition: Schemata, Skripte und Normen ["Philosophy of social cognition: schemas, scripts and norms"], HHU.
Fall 2022 Aufbauseminar: "Philosophische und sozialpsychologische Theorien der Diskriminierung" (Studiengang Philosophy, Politics and Economics) [Advanced seminar: "Philosophical and socio‐psychological theories of discrimination" (Philosophy, Politics and Economics study program)], HHU.
Fall 2022 Philosophische und sozialpsychologische Theorien der Diskriminierung [Philosophical and Social-Psychological Theories of Discrimination], HHU.
Spring 2022 Rassismus: ein unkämpfter Begriff ["Racism: A Contested Concept"] (with Dr. Daniel James), HHU.
Spring 2022 Aspekte der Philosophie Sally Haslangers: Gender, Race und soziale Konstruktion ["Aspects of Sally Haslanger’s Philosophy: Gender, Race, and Social Construction"], HHU.
Spring 2022 Gender, Race und soziale Konstruktion ["Gender, Race, and Social Construction"] (Philosophy, Politics and Economics course), HHU
Fall 2021 Empatie und Mentalisieren: Wie verstehen wir andere? ["Empathy and Mentalizing: How do we understand others?"], HHU.
Spring 2021 The Semantics, Metaphysics and Politics of Race (with Dr. Leda Berio and Dr. Daniel James), HHU.
Fall 2020 I can't breathe: Sozialpsychologische und philosophische Theorien rassistischernDiskriminierung [“I can’t breathe”: Social Psychological and Philosophical Theories of Racist Discrimination], HHU.
Spring 2018 Foucault – Überwachen und Strafen [Foucault – Dicipline and Punish], HHU.
Fall 2017 Faucaults Hermeneutik des Subjekts [Faucault’s Hermeneutics of the Subject] (together with Dr. Dennis Sölch), HHU.
Fall 2016 Genealogische Denkbewegungen – Nietzsche und Foucault [Genealogical Styles of Thought – Nietzsche and Foucault] (together with Dr. Hans Malmede), HHU.
Spring 2016 Tutorial: "Basisseminar: Immanuel Kant – Kritik der Urteilskraft" [Undergraduate Seminar: Immanuel Kant – Critique of Judgement], HHU.

Theses supervised

Addiction and itsrelated Stigma ‐ The Impact of Addiction Theories on the related Stigma. (Bachelor thesis)
The 'enculturated' self: Social identity in conflict situations. (Bachelor thesis) [Original title: Das ‚enkulturierte‘ Selbst: Soziale Identität in Konfliktsituationen.]
The Hardimon‐Ludwig Debate in the Philosophy of Race: Does Antiracism Need a Concept of “Race”? (Bachelor thesis) [Original title: Die Hardimon‐Ludwig‐Debatte in der Philosophy of Race: Braucht Antirassismus ein Konzept von „Race“?]
Epistemic Injustice and Peer Disagreement: How Discriminatory Phenomena Can Exclude Agents from Epistemic Discourse. (Bachelor thesis)
Gender Stereotypes and Discrimination in the Context of Social Justice. A philosophical analysis. (Bachelor thesis) [Original title: Geschlechterstereotypen und Diskriminierung im Kontext sozialer Gerechtigkeit. Eine philosophische Analyse.]
Discipline and Punish in the Jobcenter: A critical perspective following Foucault. (Bachelor thesis) [Original title: Überwachen und Strafen im Jobcenter: Eine kritische Perspektive im Anschluss an Foucault.]

Publications

  • Berio, Leda; Koch, Steffen; James, Daniel; Kenyah‐Damptey, Benedict; Wiegmann, Alex (forthcoming): „Folk concepts of race, cross‐culturally”, Australasian Journal of Philosophy
  • James, Daniel; Berio, Leda; Kenyah‐Damptey, Benedict (forthcoming): „How do Germans and US‐ American Conceive of Race? Using Corpus Analysis and Semantic Feature Production Tasks to Compare Race Conceptions”, In Justin Sytsma, Joe Ulatowski & Dan Weijers (eds.), Experimental Philosophy and Corpus Methods (Advances in Experimental Philosophy), Bloomsbury.
  • Erbach, Kurt; Kenyah‐Damptey, Benedict; Berio, Leda; James, Daniel; Seyffarth, Esther (2023): „A Comparative Corpus Analysis of Race and Rasse“, Journal of Applied Corpus Linguistics, 3. 10.1016/j.acorp.2023.100044
  • Baston, René; Kenyah‐Damptey, Benedict (2020) ‘Unintentional Trolling: How Subjects Express Their Prejudices Through Made‐up Stories’, Philosophy & Technology, online first. doi.org/10.1007/s13347‐020‐00425‐4.
  • Kenyah‐Damptey, Benedict (2018) ‘Rezension zu: “Ulrich Bröckling: Gute Hirten führen sanft”’, Zeitschrift für philosophische Literatur, 6(3), pp. 56–64.
  • Kenyah‐Damptey, Benedict (2016) ‘Nietzsche/Foucault – Die Funktion des “spezifischen Intellektuellen” im Werk Michel Foucaults im Hinblick auf das Denken des Politischen’, Nietzschestudien, 23(1), pp. 179–188.

Funding

April-September 2022 HHU Citizen’s University project “Rassismus: ein umkämpfter Begriff” [“Racism: A Contested Concept”], with Dr. Daniel James. Funding: 25.000 €.
April 2021-September 2022 HHU Citizen’s University project “‘Rasse’: Zur Aushandlung eines belasteten deutschen Ausdrucks” [“’‘Rasse – Negotiating a Fraught German Term’”], with Dr. Leda Berio and Dr. Daniel James. Funding: 59.821 €. Project website: https://das‐r‐wort.com/

Talks

06.05.2025 „See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil: Wie die Dethematisierung von ‚Race‘ soziale Ungerechtigkeit stützt.“ [See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil: How the Dethematization of ‘Race’ upholds Social Injustice.] Invited talk for the „Leonardo“ project „Ungerechte Gesellschaft in der Kritik“ [Unjust Society: the critique] supervised by Prof. Dr. Carmen Leicht-Scholten, apl. Prof. Dr. Wulf Kellerwessel and Sebastian Bernhard, M.A., at the Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule (RWTH) Aachen
06.02.2025 “Critical Race Theory Across Borders.” Invited talk together with Michael Thomas as part of the Black History Month 2025. organized by: Amerikahaus NRW e. V. and the Friedrich‐Naumann‐ Stiftung NRW in cooperation with the Volkshochschule Köln.
03.10.2024 „‚Rasse‘: Zur Aushandlung eines umkämpften Begriffs.“ [“‘Race’: On the negotiation of a contested term.”] Invited talk for the graduate conference “Wir und ‘die Anderen’” [“We and ‘the Others’”] by the Cusanuswerk.
22.08.2023 “Dehumanization Trouble: How Dehumanization Might Hinder Forms of Mindreading.” Talk given at ECAP 11: The 11th European Congress of Analytic Philosophy at the University of Vienna.
08.10.2021 “Race and Rasse: Comparing Conceptions of Race in Germany and the United States.” Talk given with Dr. Daniel James, and Dr. Leda Berio at 4S (Society for Social Studies of Science) Annual Meeting 2021, panel “Same Same but Different: Race and Racializations across National, Disciplinary and Temporal Contexts” chaired by Tino Plümecke and Andrea zur Nieden on 8 October 2021 (online event).
20.12.2017 “Foucault und die Ethik der Technologien des Selbst: Eine theoretische Verschiebung.” [Foucault and the Ethics of the Technologies of the Subject: A Theoretical Shift.] Talk given at the colloquium of the Institute for Philosophy at the Heinrich‐Heine‐Universität Düsseldorf on 20 December 2017.
16. ‑ 18.09.2015 “Nietzsche/Foucault. Die Figur des spezifischen Intellektuellen im Werk Michel Foucaults.” [Nietzsche/Foucault. The Figure of the Specific Intellectual in the Work of Michel Foucault.] Talk given at the 23. “Nietzsche‐Werkstatt‐Schulpforta: ‘Nietzsche und das Politische’” [Nietzsche‐ Workshop‐Schulpforta: ‘Nietzsche and the Political’], 16‐18 September 2015, directed by: Prof. Dr. Martin Saar (Frankfurt); organizer: Friedrich‐Nietzsche‐Stiftung – Nietzsche‐Gesellschaft e. V.

Miscellanea

22.-24.11.2023 Co‐organizer (with Leda Berio, Gen Eickers, Sophie Kikkert, Kristina Musholt, Albert Newen) of the Workshop: 'Social Interaction and Social Abilities: Norms, Scripts, and Injustices'. Humboldt University of Berlin. With talks by Albert Newen, Benedict Kenyah‐Damptey, Daniel Kelly, Esa Díaz‐ Léon, Evan Westra, Gen Eickers, Kristina Musholt, Leda Berio, Leonhard Schilbach, Miguel Segundo Ortín, Samia Hesni, Sophie Kikkert, Tadeusz Zawidzki, Tobias Schlicht.
19.07.2022 Co‐organizer (with Dr. Daniel James): Workshop “Rassismus: ein umkämpfter Begriff” [“Racism: A Contested Concept”] at Schloss Mickeln (HHU), Düsseldorf on July 19th 2022. With talks by Viktoria Knoll, Deborah Mühlebach, Steffen Koch, Philipp Haueis, and Morgan Thompson.
03.03.2022 Co‐organizer (with Dr. Leda Berio, and Dr. Daniel James): online Mini‐Workshop “Das R‐Wort: Philosophische Perspektiven auf einen belasteten deutschen Ausdruck” [“The R‐Word: PhilosophicalPerspectives on a Fraught German Term”] on March 3rd 2022. With talks by Daniel James, Leda Berio, Benedict Kenyah‐Damptey, and David Ludwig.
04./05.10.2021 Co‐organizer (with Dr. Leda Berio, and Dr. Daniel James): online Workshop “Race and Racism - ‘Rasse’ und Rassismus” on October 4th/5th 2021. With talks by Nahed Samour, Anna Danilina, Michael Thomas, Yoko Arisaka, Lillian Cicerchia, Robin Celikates, Cengiz Barskanmaz, Tereza Hendl, and Jacob Blumenfeld.

Languages

German: native English: fluent Japanese: intermediate French: basic knowledge