Montanna Owens

I began my studies in International Studies as a member of the Helen Hardin Honors College at the University of Memphis in Tennessee before coming to Germany in 2020 on a three-year bachelor's scholarship. I remained in Germany on a two-year scholarship to pursue a master's degree in Politics, Philosophy, and Economics (PPE).

My master's thesis explored the concept of Heimat through an ethnographic field study in Stellichte, a rural village in Lower Saxony with approximately 620 inhabitants. Drawing on narrative interviews, participant observation, and visual ethnography, the research examined how home, belonging, and collective memory are experienced and sustained through everyday social practices. This work laid the groundwork for my broader philosophical interest in home and dwelling, which I now pursue through phenomenology, critical theory, and decolonial thought.

Alongside my studies, I work as a research assistant on a DFG-funded project examining psychoanalysis, right-wing populism, and utopias.

• As of September 2026: Doctoral Candidate in the Philosophical Seminar at Europa-Universität Flensburg. Working title: Between Dwelling and Home: Coloniality and the Migrant-Refugee Spectrum2
• 2026–Present: Research Assistant, DFG Project Dialectics of the Pandemic: Between Authoritarianism and Utopia, with Professor Dr. Nadja Meisterhans, Karlshochschule International University
• 2023–2026: Master's Degree in Politics, Philosophy, and Economics, Karlshochschule International University, Germany. Thesis title: Village Governance and Conviviality: The Case of the Community of Stellichte in Lower Saxony
• 2020–2023: Bachelor's Degree in International Relations, Karlshochschule International University, Germany. Thesis title: Autonomous Cooperatives and Community-Based Economics as a Catalyst for Ecological Autonomy
• 2019–2020: Began a Bachelor's Degree in International Studies at the University of Memphis, USA. Member of the Helen Hardin Honors College.

  *   Critical and political phenomenology
  *   Decolonial philosophy
  *   Postcolonial thought, coloniality, and power
  *   Philosophies of home, dwelling, and belonging
  *   Philosophy of migration
  *   Philosophy of social and interpersonal relationships