About
I was born in Brussels and grew up in Leuven (Belgium), which is also where I studied philosophy. Currently, I am employed as a postdoctoral researcher at Vrije Universiteit Brussel.
I hold a BA, MA and MPhil from KU Leuven, a PhD from Universidad Diego Portales (Santiago, Chili) and Radboud Universiteit, as well as a teaching degree for secondary education from Université Libre de Bruxelles.
My main research interests are twentieth century French philosophy and philosophical anthropology. I have had the chance to develop a strong expertise in the philosophies of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, and I am also interested in psychoanalysis, phenomenological psychology, and philosophy of art.
My research usually features close readings of texts, which I re-actualize or question in relation to contemporary issues. I also like to apply philosophical concepts to artistic work and media.
I have lived in Leuven, Brussels, Berlin, Barcelona, Naples, and Santiago de Chile, and I speak French, Dutch, English and Spanish. Apart from reading, writing and travelling, I am passionate about (analog) photography, sewing, performance arts, and dramaturgy. Before studying philosophy, I completed one year of a professional circus degree in Barcelona (Escola de Circ Rogelio Rivel).
Monograph
Empirisme transcendantal et subjectivité. La notion de sujet dans les monographies de Deleuze sur Hume, Kant, Nietzsche et Bergson
Published with Hermann (Paris), 2023. ISBN 979 1 0370 2896 9
In this book, which constitutes the main output of my PhD research (2017-2022), I reconstruct Deleuze's notion of subjectivity on the basis of his early monographs on Hume, Kant, Nietzsche and Bergson, while confronting his readings of these authors with their own writings. In this way, I articulate the concepts of the period of Difference and Repetition (singularities, habits, transcendental field, etc.) around the problem of the genesis and the status of subjectivity. I also show that it is not arbitrary that Deleuze develops a transcendental empiricism: this is the result of critical readings and a true reworking of concepts, notably in his monographs of the 1950s and 1960s.
This work offers an important contribution to the literature, which generally reads Deleuze's mature works without paying too much attention to his early writings, and which is divided regarding the status of subjectivity in Deleuze's philosophy. It also offers an important contribution to post-humanism and the longstanding yet still very actual problem of the validity of an appeal to the human subject in ethical and epistemological considerations.
Academic publications
Developer
Use this space to introduce yourself and share your professional history.
Other publications
Matter is not Dead: Manu's New Materialism. In: A Glittering Ruin Sucked Upwards, catalogue of the exhibition of the 2023 HISK laureates (forthcoming):
© Niels Vaes
Sandrine's Slum Naturalism. In: Various Positions, catalogue of the exhibition of the 2022 HISK laureates.
RuPaul versus Zarathustra (with Alice Van der Wielen). In: RuPaul's Drag Race and Philosophy. Sissy that Thought. Eds. Hendrik Kempt & Megan Volpert, Open Court, Philosophy and Popular Culture, 2019.
Academic courses
2023, Radboud Universiteit (RU): replacement BA2 practicum Grote teksten in de fundamentele filosofie 2 (5 ECTS, Great texts in fundamental philosophy)
2023, Radboud Universiteit (RU): replacement BA1 lecture course Metaphysics and Philosophical Anthropology: New Ontologies for Mutable Worlds (5 ECTS)
2021, Radboud Universiteit (RU): course design and teaching BA2 practicum Grote teksten in de fundamentele wijsbegeerte: Kant’s Kritiek van het oordeelsvermogen (5 ECTS, Great Texts in Fundamental Philosophy: Kant's Critique of Judgement)
2021, RU: course design and teaching BA3 lecture course Filosofische antropologie: de institutie van Hume tot Deleuze en Guattari (5 ECTS, Filosophical Anthropology: The Institution from Hume to Deleuze and Guattari)
2021, RU: course design and teaching MA seminar Het beeld van het denken, de filosofie volgens Gilles Deleuze (10 ECTS, The Image of Thought, Philosophy According to Gilles Deleuze)
2021, RU: coordination practical Bachelorwerkstuk: Subjectcentrisme, individual supervision BA theses, and evaluation of BA thesis
2018, Universidad Diego Portales (UDP): course design and teaching honorary degree course La filosofía y sus sujetos: una introducción a Gilles Deleuze y Rosi Braidotti (together with Prof. María Isabel Peña Aguado)
2017, UDP: teaching assistant to Prof. Wolfhart Totschnig MA course Pensamiento Político 3: La muerte y el renacimiento del sujeto (responsible for two sessions, co-responsible for the evaluation of mid-term and final papers)
Other talks and collaborations
2022: dramaturgical support hello-loser (Berlin-based artist collective)
2019: invited speaker the reading group Toward a Dirty Universalism at Akademie der Künste der Welt (Cologne): “Toward a Minor Thought: Deleuze and Guattari Against Universality and Identity Logics” and “Toward an Undogmatic Thought: Deleuze’s Critique of the Image of Thought”
2019: creation of the philosophical performance Georgette et Taxi ou la gourmandise des crânes (with choreographer and performer Anastasia Guevel), and interpretation at Les nuits du beau tas, Artist Commons, and Volksroom (Brussels)
2016: coordination of a philosophy workshop for seniors at the Centre d’Action Laïque in Nivelles (organisation representing the secular community of Belgium)
