Dwelling in Experience: Body, Image and Education in a Phenomenological Perspective

Abstract

The Center of Hermeneutics and Applied Phenomenology (CHAP) at the University of Salento develops research within the field of contemporary phenomenology, with a particular focus on its applied dimensions. It fosters interdisciplinary dialogue between philosophy and disciplines such as pedagogy, psychology, neuroscience, and design, promoting international collaboration through mobility programs, joint publications, and scientific exchange. Within this framework, the notion of dwelling in experience provides the theoretical horizon of the project: experience is understood not as an external object of observation, but as a lived and embodied condition of being-in-the-world. In this perspective, the body constitutes the primary site of perception and relation, while imagination and image are considered constitutive dimensions of meaning-making rather than mere representations of reality. Education is thus reinterpreted as an experiential and situated process grounded in embodiment, relationality, and lived experience. The main lines of research will be presented and concern perception, imagination, intersubjectivity, and spatiality, grounded in the phenomenological tradition of Husserl and Merleau-Ponty. CHAP integrates theoretical and applied approaches through projects in education, gender studies, and smart cities, and develops innovative conceptual tools such as phenomenological lexicons and open-source conceptual maps to bridge philosophical reflection and professional practice. Through conferences, advanced training activities, editorial initiatives, and international partnerships, the Center contributes to the development of phenomenology as a dynamic, interdisciplinary, and practice-oriented field focused on the lived structures of experience.

Biography

Daniela De Leo is a professor of theoretical philosophy at the University of Salento. Her work focuses on the phenomenological tradition as applied to interdisciplinary approaches in education and psychology, with particular attention to perceptual thought in the learning process and the phenomenological status of the imagination. Her publications include editions of unpublished manuscripts by Carlo Michelstaedter and Maurice Merleau-Ponty.