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 (Docent at ÅA) and is financed by Koneen säätiö.

I am also active in an anthology project together with Bennett Gilbert (Portland State University). In early 2023, the anthology Ethics and Time in The Philosophy of History: A Cross-Cultural Approach will be published. 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. The idea of the book is to create a space for an existential philosophy of history.

Teaching

At bachelor's and master's level, I have taught two seminar courses on the theme “Philosophy of existence: Personal and social responsibility today.”