Thomas Szanto

Thomas Szanto

Associate Professor

Member of:

    I'm a philosopher with a background in phenomenology and analytic philosophy of mind. Currently, I am working at the intersection of phenomenology, philosophy of emotions, social cognition and social ontology. 

    Particularly, I am interested in understanding irrational or disruptive phenomena concerning emotions in social, collaborative, collective, and most recently in political contexts (such as emotional alienation, collaborative akrasia and self-deception, group-related distrust, Ressentiment and hatred). I continuously engage with the relevant strands in the empirical and social sciences, and especially the sociology of emotions, social psychology, social identification theory and political psychology.

    I am an Associate Professor at the Center for Subjectivity Research, Dept. of Communication, at the University of Copenhagen, affiliated to the Carlsberg Foundation research project “Who are We? Self-identity, Social Cognition, and Collective Intentionality” (2020-2024; PI: Prof. Dan Zahavi). You can find more information on this project here: https://cfs.ku.dk/research-activities/researchprojects/who-are-we/.

    2019, I was a Research Assistant at the Institute of Philosophy, University of Vienna, employed within the framework of my Austrian Research Council (FWF) research project "Antagonistic Political Emotions" (2019-2021).

     2018-2019, I was a Senior Researcher at the Department of Social Sciences and Philosophy, at University of Jyväskylä.

    2016-2018, I was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Center for Subjectivity Research (CFS), working on my Marie Curie research project, "SHARE: Shared Emotions, Group Membership, and Empathy" (SHARE-655067).

    2014-2016, I have spent two Postdoc years at CFS in the VELUX Fonden research project “Empathy and Interpersonal Understanding”.

    2012-2013, I was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the School of Philosophy, University College Dublin, affiliated to the Irish Research Council project "Discovering the 'We': The Phenomenology of Sociality" (PI: Prof. Dermot Moran).

    I have also held a number of Adjunct Lecturer positions, among others at the Department of Philosophy, University of Vienna (2008-2014).

    You can find more information about my work and access my publications here: https://ku-dk.academia.edu/ThomasSzanto 

    ID: 108810504