Laura Rogalski studied sociology, political science, social and cultural anthropology and peace and conflict studies at Humboldt University of Berlin and Pontificia Universidad Javeriana Bogotá. During her studies, she worked at the WZB Berlin Social Science Center and the Collaborative Research Centre 1171 "Affective Societies".

Since 2022, she has been a doctoral researcher in subproject B03 "Expectations of the Impact of Artistic Intervention".

Her research interests include cultural sociology, sociology of art and literature, practice theory, qualitative methods, new materialism, affect studies, right-wing extremism, critical theories, and social theory.

PhD Project: Forms of Intervention. Expectations of Impact in Practices of Artistic Intervention

In my dissertation, I examine how perspectives on and expectations of the social impact of the arts are produced, negotiated, and justified within practices of artistic intervention. The project takes as its starting point the tension between the normative ideal of artistic autonomy and a growing pressure of legitimation that increasingly addresses the arts in terms of their social relevance.

Theoretically, the study situates this problem within European intellectual history, especially the relationship between art and politics, as well as within sociological debates on differentiation, autonomy, and aestheticization. Drawing on a practice-theoretical understanding of society, it does not conceive impact as a predefined or measurable outcome, but rather as a relational and situated phenomenon that emerges in the interplay of programmatics, poetics, self-understandings, and concrete practices. This theoretical perspective is complemented by the methodological framework of situational analysis (Star/Clarke). Based on the empirical material, the study reconstructs how explicit and implicit expectations of impact are sedimented in collective practices, materialize in concrete performances, and also emerge situationally.

Empirically, the research is based on several months of ethnographic fieldwork accompanying an activist collective and an artistic collective. Through the analysis of specific projects, the study examines tensions between artistic ambition, political effectiveness, ethical practice, aspirations of inclusion, and institutional frameworks.

The project thus contributes to an empirically grounded sociology of the arts that does not normatively define the relationship between art and politics, but reconstructs it through the analysis of situated practices while sharpening the concept of effectiveness in both its historical and contemporary manifestations.

Presentations

Aesthetic Experimentation With Alternative Futures: Collaboration in the Transdisciplinary, Immersive Performance OderHive. Cultural Vulnerabilities and Planetary Problems. ESA RN Sociology of Culture 10th Mid-term Conference, Sapienza Università di Roma, 21.-23.01.2026.

Jenseits der Feldlogik: Künstlerisch-intervenierende Praktiken zwischen Kunst und Aktivismus. Transitionen. 42. DGS-Kongress, Universität Duisburg-Essen, 22.-26.09.2025.

Between Disruption and Collaboration: Artistic Interventions in Late Capitalist Society. Questioning Artistic Hegemony. ESA RN Sociology of the Arts 13th Mid-term Conference, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08.-09.09.2025.

Literaturkritik, Gesellschaftskritik und die Neue Rechte. Kulturelle Hegemoniestrategien der Neuen Rechten. Interdisziplinärer Fachtag, Literaturforum im Brecht-Haus, 25.03.2025.

OderHive. Kollektivität in künstlerisch-intervenierenden Praktiken der sozialökologischen Krise. Die Kunst in der sozialökologischen Krise / Die sozialökologische Krise in der Kunst. Jahrestagung des AK Soziologie der Künste in Kooperation mit der Sektion Umwelt und Nachhaltigkeitssoziologie, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, 06.-07.03.2025.

Wirksamkeit als Aufmerksamkeitsproblem aktivistischer Kunst? Eine praxeologische Perspektive auf Spannungen kunstaktivistischer Praxis. Aufmerksamkeitsökonomien in der Kunst. Events, Inszenierungen, Skandale.
Kooperationstagung der Sektion Kultursoziologie und des AK Soziologie der Künste, Universität Leipzig, 24.-25.10.2024.

Perspectives On The Impact Of Artistic Interventions. Observations From Fieldwork Within A German Activist Choir And Orchestra. Tension, Trust and Transformation. 16^thESA Conference, University of Porto, 27.-30.08.2024.

Wirksamkeit der Künste und intervenierende Praxis. Ringvorlesung Intervenierende Künste. Politische und ästhetische Potentiale, Freie Universität Berlin, 07.05.2024. With Christian von Scheve and Simon Teune.

Die Situationsanalyse nach Adele Clarke und ihr Potential für die Forschung an der Schnittstelle von Kunst und Aktivismus. Methoden der Bewegungsforschung. Jahrestagung des Instituts für Protest- und Bewegungsforschung, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, 15-16.09.2022.

Wirksamkeitserwartungen an künstlerische Interventionen. Plurale Verschränkungen. Jahrestagung des AK Soziologie der Künste, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, 13.-14.10.2022. With Simon Teune.

Panel Discussions

Im Brennpunkt: Neurechte Literaturpolitik, Literaturhaus Frankfurt, 08.12.2025. With Torsten Hoffmann and Alexander Fischer.

Aired at the show Literaturland Hessen (hr2): Neue Rechte Literaturpolitik.

Formate neurechter Literaturpolitik. Buchmarkt der unabhängigen Verlage Hamburg. Presentation and discussion with Else Laudan. Universität Hamburg, 04.12.2025. Organisation: Studis gegen Rechts and Green Office.

Kunst und Aktivismus, Discussion as part of the exhibition Challenged Togetherness, Kunstmuseum Magdeburg, 05.11.2025. With Marina Naprushkina and Dr. Annegret Laabs.

Book Launch & Discussion Drafts in Action, Espace DIAPHANES Berlin, 13.10.2025. With Anna Kipke, Judith Siegmund und Iryna Kovalenko.

Edited Volumes

Intervenierende Intimität. Praktiken, Körper, Künste. Bielefeld: transcript Verlag 2026 (forthcoming). With Annika Klanke, Alisa Kronberger and Florian Schlittgen. 

Dynamics of the Intransitive. Zürich: Diaphanes 2026. With Eva Backhaus, Grit Dommes, Susanne Hauser, Tim Lörke, Henning Podulski and Andrea Schütte. 

Drafts in Action. Concepts and Practices of Artistic Intervention. Zürich: Diaphanes 2025. With Anna Kipke, Iryna Kovalenko, Simon Teune and Mimmi Woisnitza.

Articles

Mehr-als-menschliche Intimität? Künstlerisch-wissenschaftliche Kooperationspraktiken in der Arbeit OderHive, in: Annika Klanke/Alisa Kronberger/Laura Rogalski/Florian Schlittgen (Eds.): Intervenierende Intimität. Praktiken, Körper, Künste. Bielefeld: transcript Verlag 2026 (forthcoming).

Wirksamkeit der Künste und intervenierende Praxis, in: Jürgen Brokoff/Karin Gludovatz/Matthias Warstat (Eds.): Intervenierende Künste. Begriffe, Verfahren, Prozesse. Zürich: Diaphanes 2026, pp. 219–244. With Simon Teune and Christian von Scheve.

Intransitive Interventions. An Introduction, in: Eva Backhaus/Grit Dommes/Susanne Hauser/Tim Lörke/Henning Podulski/Laura Rogalski/Andrea Schütte (Eds.): Dynamics of the Intransitive. Zürich: Diaphanes 2026, pp. 7–16. With Eva Backhaus, Grit Dommes, Susanne Hauser, Tim Lörke, Henning Podulski and Andrea Schütte. 

Rethinking Objectives, Theory, and Practice. Studying Artists’ and Activists’ Perspectives on Impact in Empirical Research, in: Anna Kipke/Iryna Kovalenko/Laura Rogalski/Simon Teune/Mimmi Woisnitza (Eds.), Drafts in Action. Concepts and Practices of Artistic Intervention, Zürich: Diaphanes 2025, pp. 123–136.

Von Schreibschulen und Pegida-Verstehern. Neurechte Literaturkritik, in: Soziologiemagazin 2022 (1), doi: 10.3224/soz.v15i1.06, pp. 77–94.

Reviews

Bedingt autonom. Kunstaktivismus im Brexit, in: Artis Observatio 4 (2025), S.161-165.

Short Texts

»Eine Mark mehr« und zwei Generationen später, in: neues deutschland, 23.01.2024.

Queere Dissidenz gegen Pinochet, in: neues deutschland, 19.12.2023