Costanza
Penna

About

I am currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for Subjectivity Research at the University of Copenhagen.

My work sits at the intersection of social ontology and phenomenology, with a focus on transgenerationality.

Before moving north, I received my PhD in philosophy from the IUSS School for Advanced Studies in Pavia and the University of Turin in May 2026, after completing both my BA and MA at the University of Turin.
Since 2022, I have been a member of LabOnt – Center for Ontology.

My doctoral dissertation, Groups and Generations, develops a phenomenological account of transgenerational groups, explaining how some groups unfold as diachronic subjects beyond one's lifetime and how transgenerational normativity is shared across generations.

Research

I began my research in moral philosophy, studying the work of the French-naturalized thinker Emmanuel Levinas while moving between Turin and Paris. I was then introduced to social ontology and developed a profound interest in the “what is” of our living together. I spent the spring quarter of 2022 on the sunny coast of Orange County, where I studied with Margaret Gilbert, whose work I was then exploring in my Master's thesis. My time there crucially convinced me that I wanted to pursue a life in research.

Since then, I have been thinking mostly about social groups and how “we” come to take shape and stand the test of time, even across many generations. My research focuses on puzzles of transgenerational group formation and persistence; collective memory, shared transmission, and processes of collective renegotiation; collective agency and transgenerational social action; normative bonds; group identity and ethos; and transgenerational responsibility. I approach these questions through a phenomenological lens, drawing on Husserl, Stein, Steinbock, Schütz, and others. Somehow, I also seem always to find my way back to Levinas. More broadly, I am interested in the foundations of social ontology as a contemporary field in analytic philosophy, its methodology, and its relationship to phenomenology. My interests also extend to the philosophy of action and metaphysics. I have a particular passion for the ontology of art, although I have yet to write anything academic on the subject.

AOS: Social Ontology · Phenomenology · Moral Philosophy
AOI: Philosophy of Action · Metaphysics · Philosophy of Art

Dissertation Abstract