Hartmut Rosa awarded honorary doctorate by ENS Lyon

On Monday, 15 December 2025, the École normale supérieure de Lyon (ENS Lyon) will confer an honorary doctorate on Professor Dr Hartmut Rosa, sociologist at Friedrich Schiller University Jena. The award recognizes Rosa’s internationally influential work on acceleration, alienation and resonance as fundamental concepts for diagnosing contemporary society. Following the ceremonial conferral, Rosa will deliver a public lecture entitled »Acceleration, Alienation and Resonance: Forms of Connecting With the World«. The event will be livestreamed on the ENS Lyon website.

ENS Lyon is one of France’s leading research universities. Honorary doctorates are awarded only rarely—Rosa is just the 26th scholar to receive this distinction and only the second German awardee. The university particularly acknowledges Rosa’s contribution to the analysis of social change and his commitment to fostering a vibrant exchange between academia and society.

»At a time when scientific rationality is challenged and the flow of words and ideas is diminishing, research and education, along with the link between science and society, remain central to what can generate and sustain this resonance,« says Emmanuel Trizac, President of ENS Lyon.

Professor Dr Andreas Marx, President of Friedrich Schiller University Jena, welcomes the international recognition of the sociologist: »We warmly congratulate Hartmut Rosa on this exceptional honour. The honorary doctorate from ENS Lyon not only recognizes his scholarly achievements but also enhances the international visibility of the social sciences and humanities at the University of Jena.«

Hartmut Rosa is among the most widely cited German social scientists. His work Acceleration (2010) deepened understanding of the dynamics that many people experience as a constant intensification and speeding-up of everyday life. With his subsequently developed theory of resonance, Rosa established a theoretical framework for understanding tendencies of alienation in modern societies and for describing alternative modes of relating to the world.

Rosa’s research also helps shape Jena’s excellence focus on »Social Imaginations« and contributes to positioning the University as a strong research location that attracts both German and international students and researchers.