Martin Dege

Martin Dege, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Narrative Inquiry in the Department of Social Science and Cultural Studies at Pratt Institute. His work is based on historical investigations and theoretical approaches to psychology as a discipline. Martin’s past publications cover topics such as action research, culture and psychology, agency, identity politics, digitalization, and the self. In recent years, Martin explored concepts of crisis as they shape our everyday lives and the narratives we deploy to make meaning of the world and ourselves.

Martin currently works on three distinct projects.

In a manuscript under preparation, Martin rethinks the concept of generalization through the lens of Kurt Lewin’s field-theoretical and action research framework. He aims to show how the social-organizational psychologist’s political commitments were deeply embedded in his methodological innovations, particularly his focus on the dynamic interplay between research and action. By revisiting Lewin’s field theory and his lesser-known epistemological writings, Martin demonstrates that Lewin’s approach to generalization was not merely a statistical concern but a tool for increasing human agency in diverse social contexts. The ultimate goal is to explore how generalization in the social sciences can be redefined as the generalization of potentialities within life spaces, thereby offering a methodological answer to failures of the past and current challenges.

In a book project titled When the Shit Hits the Fan – Narratives of Human Remains, Martin explores narratives of human metabolic waste on both metaphorical and ontological levels. In a journey that takes him from early enlightenment accounts of filth through Hegelian and Marxian applications of shit to psychoanalytical accounts of abjection, colonized humans and the category of waste, and, ultimately, postcolonial resurrections and digital erections, he explores how potty training relates to capitalism in its contemporary techno-feudalist iteration.

Martin also hopes to complete another book project entitled “A Reading of the Interpretation of Dreams” in time for the 125th anniversary of the publication of Sigmund Freud’s Traumbuch. The goal of this manuscript is to offer a somewhat eclecticist reading of the Interpretation of Dreams in an attempt to disentangle some psychoanalytical concepts that may help readers engage with their dreams productively.

Martin is the series editor of Studies in Narrative (SiN) with John Benjamins Publishing.

Martin serves as the Secretary of The International Society for Theoretical Psychology (ISTP). He is co-editor of Journal für Psychologie, Associate Editor of Trends in Psychology, Scientific Board Member of Human Arenas, and on the Editorial Board of the International Review of Theoretical Psychologies.

Martin received PhD and MA degrees in Psychology from Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, and a BA from Freie Universität Berlin, Germany. He has been at Pratt since 2020. In the past, he worked at the American University of Paris, the University of Potsdam, the University of Konstanz, the University of Hamburg, and Yale University. Martin is the recipient of various research scholarships, including the Marie Curie Program of the EU, the Fritz-Thyssen Foundation, and the German Academic Scholarship Foundation.

Recent and Upcoming Books:

Dege, M. & Strasser I. (Eds.) (2024). Narrative in Crisis: Reflections from the Limits of Storytelling. Oxford University Press.

Dege, M. (2023). Action Research and Critical Psychology. Springer.

Dege, M. & Strasser, I. (Eds). (2021). Global Pandemics and Epistemic Crises in Psychology: A Socio-Philosophical Approach. Routledge.

Strasser, I. & Dege, M. (Eds.) (2021). The Psychology of Global Crises and Crisis Politics – Intervention, Resistance, Decolonization. Palgrave.

Recent and Upcoming Book Chapters:

Dege, M. (2024). Society does not exist. In T. Manderback et al. (Eds.). Beyond Adaptation.  Peter Lang.

Bamberg, M. & Dege, M. (2022). Decentering histories of identity. In M. Bamberg, C. Demuth & M. Watzlawik (Eds.), Cambridge Handbook of Identity. Cambridge University Press.

Dege M. (2021) The Self Inside of Us: Biologism, Internalization, Quantification, and Science. In: Wagoner B., Christensen B.A., Demuth C. (Eds.), Culture as Process. Springer.

Dege, M. (2021). Zwei kleine Geschichten zur Aktionsforschung [Two small stories about action research].  In M. Dietrich, I. Leser, K. Mruck, P.-S. Ruppel, A. Schwentesius, & R. Vock (Eds.), Begegnen, Bewegen und Synergien stiften. Transdisziplinäre Beiträge zu Kulturen, Performanzen und Methoden [meet, move, synergize – transdisciplinary contributions to culture, performance, and method] (pp. 423-439). VS.

Dege, M. (2020). Rethinking Generalization with Kurt Lewin and Action Research. In C. Højholt & E. Schraube (Eds.), Subjectivity and Knowledge: Generalization in the Psychological Study of Everyday Life (pp. 41-60). Springer.

Recent Journal Articles:

Strasser, I., & Dege, M. (2021). Arenas of Crisis. Human Arenas.

Teo, T., Jovanović, G., & Dege, M. (2021). Motivated historiography: Comments on Wolfgang Schönpflug’s reappraisal of German critical psychology. History of Psychology, 24(3), 215-222.

Dege, M. (2020). The politics of psychology as a science: Some comments on research for and about the folk. Theory & Psychology, 30(3), 388-394.

Dege, M. (2020). The Neo-Kantian Paul Natorp and the Role of Subjectivity in Psychology. Integrative Psychological & Behavioral Science, 54(1), 142-151.

Dege, M. & Knigge, M. (2020). Editorial – Professionalisierung im Bereich Inklusion [Editorial – Professionalization for Inclusion]. Journal für Psychologie, 2019(2), 3-5. doi:10.30820/0942-2285-2019-2-3

Jäntsch, C., Dege, M., & Knigge, M. (2020). »Wenn Sie da reingucken, ist da wirklich eine große Wüste …« [“If you take a closer look… its as empty as a dessert…]. Professionalisierung für Inklusion [Professionalization for Inclusion], Journal für Psychologie 27(2), 143-169. doi:10.30820/0942-2285-2019-2-143

Dege, M. (2019). Natorp, Holzkamp and the role of subjectivity in psychology. Annual Review of Critical Psychology, 16, 117-133.

Dege, M. & Strasser, I. (2019). The Lone-Wolf Coder: an Autoethnographic Reflection on the International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry in Urbana-Champaign, Illinois. Human Arenas, 2(3), 322-340.