Thorsten
Botz-Bornstein

Bio:

Thorsten Botz-Bornstein was born in Germany and studied Russian at the University of Münster for two years. In 1985, he enrolled in philosophy at the Sorbonne Paris-I. He obtained a maîtrise in philosophy in 1990 and a Ph.D. in philosophy from Oxford University in 1993. As a postdoctoral researcher based in Finland Thorsten undertook research for four years on Russian formalism. He received a ‘habilitation’ from the EHESS in Paris in 2000 and worked as an adjunct. For three years Thorsten had scholarships in Japan for research on the Kyoto School. Later he worked for the Center of Cognition at Hangzhou University in China and taught philosophy at Tuskegee University in Alabama. At present he is working at the Gulf University for Science and Technology in Kuwait.

Research Interests:

As a philosopher Thorsten is interested in the notion of the “organic”, which brought him to hermeneutics, structuralist stylistics, Derrida, but also Nishida Kitaro’s basho (場所, place), the Chinese notion of wen(文) or the Russian idea of Всеединство (All-Unity). He continues working on philosophy, but often applies abstract theories to concrete phenomena. His research is situated on the crossroads of philosophy, cultural studies, aesthetics, religious studies, and political science. The best way to understand what Thorsten is working on is to go on his website and to have a look at the publication list; alternatively, here is a list of his research themes:

AESTHETICS

Coolness, Comparing Japanese and African American coolness (link 1, link 2), Cool Ethics “ Coolness between Virtue Ethics and Aesthetics”, Kitsch and Bullshit (link 1, link 2, Japanese aesthetics and kitsch)

PHILOSOPHY OF SPACE

Space in Russia and Japan, On Hong Kong and Dubai, On the Maidan in Kiev

SUBCULTURES

Tattoos, graffitti, Japanese culture in Kuwait

TRANSCULTURALITY

Book on transcultural architecture

COMPARING CULTURES

America and China, Russia and Japan

ISLAM

Hijab in Kuwait, Hijab and tattoos, Veils and sunglasses, ISIS, terrorism