Dissertationsprojekt:
Elisa Rufenach-Ruthenberg has also been working on her research project as part of an independent doctorate since April 2023 with a continued focus on listening and listening up, which was developed in her thesis on radical democratic theories, and emphasizes the special importance of listening, listening and listening up, asking the right questions and answering responsibly (#response_ability). Based on a quote by Erich Kästner ("What does the wind do when it's not blowing?"), she would like to work with students and teachers to investigate artistic and academic "blowing" at the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar. The focus is on the attitudes and behaviour of teachers in their specific contexts and becomes the starting point for the thesis that students of the teaching profession do not primarily advance their professionalization process through the acquisition and application of didactic methods, but through the investigation and exploration of attitudes and behaviour - their own as well as that of other actors. The entire sociotope of their educational institution offers a variety of opportunities for this. It becomes a field that is entered, investigated and thus always changed through aesthetic and academic practices in between, alongside and with one another, in crossing and interweaving, in listening and contradicting, in asking and answering, in crossing disciplines.
With the concept of didactics based on - this must not go uncommented: the problematic person - Hartmut von Hentig, who understands it as a "science", as a "design", as an "open system", as "an act of honesty in that it forces us to keep an eye on the point of view from which we research and teach something, to name it and thus open it up to criticism", is also linked to a particular understanding of professionalism and relationality in the field of knowledge transfer in artistic and creative fields, which is elaborated on.
Central concepts include 'radically democratic'. 'Situated knowledge', 'intra-action', 'relationalities', 'performativities', 'response_ability' and 'design'.
The aim of the research is to explore the potential of critical reflection on internal university practices and practices of knowledge transfer and examination formats in the field of art and design for didactic - as scientific and artistic - theory and practice in teacher training and to draw conclusions for a research-based and performatively-informed teaching that promotes a theory-led, explorative and practice-reflective professionalization process.
“Nobody lives everywhere; everybody lives somewhere. Nothing is connected to everything; everything is connected to something” (Donna Haraway 2016: 31)
“[D]ie Handlung selbst ist das, was sie ist, aufgrund dessen, wie sie getan wird. In der Handlung gibt es keine Unterscheidung, sondern die völlige Integration von Methode und Inhalt, Form und Substanz.” (John Dewey 1988: 128f.)
"If indeed "the mind is a muscle, we are who we work out with." (Adele E. Clark 2009: 219)
Publications:
Rufenach-Ruthenberg, Elisa / Dreyer, Andrea (2023): Entfernte Stimmen oder stimmige Entfernung? In: Marc Fritzsche (Hg.): Kunstpädagogik nach der Pandemie. Befunde und Spekulationen. München: Kopaed, S. 73-83
Dreyer, Andrea / Rücker, Sandra / Schöder, Luise / Rufenach-Ruthenberg, Elisa (2025). MATRIX. Beurteilen und Bewerten mediengestützter Formate der Wissen(schaft)skommunikation in Schule und Studium. Bauhaus-Universität Weimar.
Rufenach-Ruthenberg, Elisa (2025): Im Gespräch mit Simon Frisch in Episode 18 des Podcast »Zwischen Magie und Handwerk. Ein Podcast über Lehre und Lernen an der Bauhaus-Universität Weimar«. [https://www.uni-weimar.de/de/universitaet/lehre/weiterentwicklung-des-lehrens-und-lernens/podcast-lehre/ep-18-gespraech-mit-elisa-rufenach-ruthenberg/]
Rufenach-Ruthenberg, Elisa (2025): Rezension zu Birte Kleine-Benne (Hrsg.) 2024: Eine Kunstgeschichte ist keine Kunstgeschichte - Kunstwissenschaftliche Perspektivierungen in Text und Bild. Publiziert auf ART-Dok. Publikationsplattform Kunst- und Bildwissenschaften. Volltextserver von arthistoricum.net – Fachinformationsdienst Kunst, Fotografie und Design. Universitätsbibliothek Heidelberg. [DOI: doi.org/10.11588/artdok.00009555]
Currently in progress are:
- (working title) VER_HALT_UNG_EN ent/unter\werfen. Zur Begründung eines performativitäts-informierten und responsiblen Lehrkonzepts im Feld kunstdidaktischer Praktiken.
- kollegial publication with Birte Kleine-Benne und Diana Sirianni on performativity-informed teaching.