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Dr Alex Thinius (A.C.)

Dr. Alex Thinius is a scholar of philosophy with a background in cultural analysis and in socio-cultural anthropology. Alex works on a better understanding of what categories are and how they change, for example, gender/sex categories. 

 

At HES, Alex's main task is teaching the reflection on social and philosophical dimensions of academic (health) research. As a dedicated educator, Alex is interested in pro-democratic pedagogies. (See 'education').

 

Alex's most recent work analyzes how contemporary researchers in biomedicine renegotiate their understandings of sex and gender. A second theme focuses on the metaphysics of socio-cultural categories as dynamic processes of configuration in complex social structures ("Dynamic Categories").  (See 'research')

Expertises

AREA OF SPECIALIZATION

  • History, Philosophy, Social Studies of Science
  • Social Philosophy (Critical Theories)
  • Theories of Categories and Dynamic Social Structures
  • Sex and Gender (Masculinity; Trans*; Social Reproduction)

AREA OF COMPETENCE

  • Ethics
  • Embodied Cognition Theory (4EA)
  • Existential Phenomenology and Philosophical Anthropology
  • Qualitative Research Methods
  • Social Ontology (Analytic and Continental)
Career history

ACADEMIC EMPLOYMENT

  • Since 2025      Lecturer in Sociology and Philosophy of (Health) Science, Universiteit Maastricht, Department HES/Metamedica
  • 2024-26      Lecturer, Universiteit van Amsterdam (UvA): Dept. Literary Studies and Linguistics, Section Literary and Cultural Analysis; Department of Philosophy, Section Philosophical Tradition in Context
  • 2024-25       Lecturer, Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen (RU), Dept. Metaphysics and Philosophical Anthropology
  • 2023             NWO Rubicon Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard University, GenderSci Lab, Department of History of Science. Funded by an NWO Rubicon individual postdoc research grant.
  • 2021-22        Lecturer (D4), UvA: Dept. Literary Studies and Linguistics, Section Literary and Cultural Analysis; Dept. Philosophy, Philosophy and Public Affairs; Amsterdam University College
  • 2016-21        Doctoral Researcher, Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis (ASCA), UvA. Funded by an individual PhD research grant

 

Other Academic Employment

  • 2021            Teaching Assistant, UvA, Departments of Theater Studies and Art History
  • 2018            Adjunct Lecturer (Lehrauftrag), Department of Philosophy I, Philosophy of Science, Bochum University
  • 2016            Adjunct Lecturer (Lehrauftrag), Münster University: Dept. Political Science; Center for Philosophy of Science
  • 2011-12      Student Assistant, Münster University, Center for Philosophy of Science

 

EDUCATION

  • PhD            2021            Universiteit van Amsterdam (UvA). Dissertation “Genders as Genres: Understanding Dynamic Categories” Supervisors Prof. dr. Beate Rössler, Prof. dr. Robin Celikates (FU Berlin)
  • MA(Research) 2015            Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen (RU). Philosophy (cum laude)
  • BA            2012            University of Münster. Double Major in Philosophy and in Cultural- & Social-Anthropology (both rated excellent)

 

Certificate Courses (Selection)

  • 2024            UvA, Institute for Social Sciences, Comprehensive Introduction to Research Methodology and Design (Qualitative, Quantitative, Mixed Methods)
  • 2018            Central European University, Budapest, The Biological and the Social Between 1900 and Today

 

Without Degree

  • 2012-14        ArtEZ Conservatory Arnhem, Study Bachelor of Music
  • 2011-15        Münster University, BA Study Musicology