AAP 2026 CONFERENCE

The field of phenomenology is still undergoing healthy development over a hundred years since Edmund Husserl published Ideas. In this paper I explore how the emerging field of critical phenomenology both separates itself from and actively integrates classical phenomenological concepts. More specifically, I analyse how Husserl’s method lingers in contemporary critical approaches. Original concepts such as the natural attitude and the eidetic reduction remain central for current scholars, such as Gail Weiss and Sara Heinämaa, but are critiqued by others, such as Lisa Guenther and Johanna Oksala. By rethinking phenomenology though existentialism and Foucault, for example, current scholarship more broadly contextualises the phenomenological project. Indeed, the inclusion of historical, sociological, and anthropological discourses is fundamental to a materially grounded critical phenomenology. I argue that a well constructed critical phenomenology can remain faithful to Husserl while providing us with a sufficient critique of broader power structures to deliver a more holistic insight into personal experience. I discuss how ‘post-phenomenologists’ engage with Husserl’s work to ask whether the original tools ought to be discarded, or if they possess a certain power that helps us understand more about sexed, racialized, disabled, and classed experience.