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:
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
RELIGION
FEMINISM
MEDICAL ETHICS
VIRTUAL REALITY
THE FUTURE OF EDUCATION