Alba Montes Sánchez

Primary fields of research

Philosophy of Mind, Phenomenology, Selfhood, Intersubjectivity, Sociality and Group Membership, Narrative Identity, Moral Psychology and Phenomenology, Emotion (especially self-conscious and moral emotions), Ethics and Emotion, Shame

Short presentation

As a postdoc at the Center for Subjectivity Research I am affiliated with the project The Genomic History of Denmark. My previous recent work has taken place in the framework of the Marie Curie ITN programme TESIS (Towards an Embodied Science of Intersubjectivity), and it has focused on understanding the ethical role of shame from a broad philosophical (analytic and phenomenological) perspective. This work led to my PhD dissertation "Self-Consciousness, Caring, Relationality: an Investigation into the Experience of Shame and its Ethical Role" (click here for pdf). To that end I have done research into issues of selfhood, intersubjectivity and sociality, as well as into the phenomenological aspects of ethical sensibilities and behaviour. Now, in the framework of the project on The Genomic History of Denmark, I am addressing issues of personal identity and group membership as well as ethical questions arising in connection with population genetics and its findings about our “deep past.”

The guiding research questions are: (i) What is the relation between personal (self-)identity and social identity (group-membership)?; (ii) What kinds of group-memberships are mediated or determined by biological facts such as genetics?; (iii) Is it possible to integrate genetic findings in a system of group belonging without leaning towards a biological essentialism that leaves the door open to racism and related forms of xenophobia? How can genetic findings be presented so as to avoid that risk?

Teaching

At the moment I do not teach any courses, but I am avilable to supervise MA or BA theses on topics related to my research and I welcome expressions of interest in this regard.