Personal profile

Biography

Research interests

My main research interests are existential and ethical questions of responsibility and understanding in the philosophy of writing, especially in the philosophy of historiography and anthropology. In this context, I am mainly inspired by philosophical hermeneutics (Dilthey, Gadamer, Ricoeur), existential moral philosophy (Lévinas, Weil, Murdoch), and deconstructive phenomenology (Derrida, de Certeau, Wyschogrod). Alongside my main research interest, I have also written about various themes in philosophy of history, philosophy of time, aesthetics, moral psychology, biological anthropology, bioethics, sociology of science and the methodology of the human sciences.

Projects

In 2022 I defended my doctoral dissertation, Literacy, Historiography, and the Ethics of Writing About the Absent Other: On Responsibility Toward the Past. The dissertation examines existential and ethical dimensions of writing and reading, especially with regard to what it means to historicize. Growing up in a culture of literacy means gradually coming to understand a life that spans over several generations, which invites a personal responsibility as to what it means to think, tell, read, and write about the past.

As of 2022, I am active in the project Doing Justice to Experience: Relations to the Difficult Past in History and Memory. The project deals with the difficult relationship between memory and historical research. The difficulties investigated concern, on the one hand, how to consider the experiential authority of memory accounts in historical research. On the other hand, how historical research should function as a critique of memory. The project is led by Jonas Ahlskog (University lecturer in history at ÅA) and is financed by Koneen säätiö.

With Bennett Gilbert (Portland State University) I have recently published an anthology Ethics and Time in The Philosophy of History: A Cross-Cultural Approach. The book consists of essays by scholars in the philosophy of culture and history, as well as moral philosophy and related fields, and highlights the intersection of temporality and ethics in human life. Currently I am working on a monograph, Existential Ethics and the Calls of History: Transgenerational Life, Literary Culture, and a Responsibility for Absent Others.

Teaching

At bachelor's and master's level:

Thematic seminar in philosophy: “Philosophy of existence: Personal and social responsibility today”

Thematic seminar in philosophy: "Emmanuel Lévinas on ethics and aesthetics"

Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals

In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):

  • SDG 4 - Quality Education
  • SDG 16 - Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

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Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years

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