New Academic Advisory Board
As we enter the second funding period of CAPAS, we are pleased to announce the formation of a new Academic Advisory Board. We extend our sincere gratitude to the members of the previous board for their invaluable guidance, support, and contributions throughout the first phase of our Centre’s development. Their insights were instrumental in shaping the intellectual directions of CAPAS. At the same time, we warmly welcome the newly appointed members of the board, whose diverse expertise and perspectives will help us navigate the next stage of our research and outreach. We look forward to the continued exchange and collaboration that this renewed board will foster. Meet our new members:
PROF. María del Pilar Blanco (Chair)
Professor María del Pilar Blanco is a specialist in Spanish American literature at the University of Oxford. Her research focuses on modernismo, science and literature, spectrality, and global modernisms. She is currently completing her second monograph, Modernist Laboratories, supported by a British Academy Mid-Career Fellowship. She was co-investigator of the AHRC-funded network Science in Text and Culture, which led to the edited volume Geopolitics, Culture, and the Scientific Imaginary in Latin America (2020). Her previous publications include Ghost-Watching American Modernity and two co-edited volumes on spectrality.
PROF. DR. Volkhard Krech
Prof. Dr. Volkhard Krech is Professor of Religious Studies at Ruhr University Bochum and Director of the Center for Religious Studies (CERES). He also leads the Collaborative Research Centre 1475 “Metaphors of Religion” and serves as spokesperson for the interdisciplinary graduate program RePliV. His research focuses on the theory of religion, religious evolution, pluralization and globalization, sacralization processes, and the relationship between religion, violence, and the arts. He also has a strong interest in the history of the academic study of religion.
PROF. DR. Thomas Lemke
Prof. Dr. Thomas Lemke holds the Chair of Sociology with a focus on Biotechnology, Nature, and Society at Goethe University Frankfurt. His work centers on biopolitics, governmentality, and the social implications of genetic and reproductive technologies. He studied political science, sociology, and law in Frankfurt, Southampton, and Paris, and completed his Ph.D. with a dissertation on Michel Foucault’s theory of power. He has held visiting positions at institutions including Goldsmiths, NYU, and Copenhagen Business School.
PROF. DR. Kate Rigby
Prof. Dr. Kate Rigby is an internationally recognized scholar in the Environmental Humanities. She holds the Alexander von Humboldt Professorship in Environmental Humanities at the University of Cologne and is founding director of the MESH research hub. Her work is situated at the intersection of environmental literary, historical and religious studies, with a focus on decolonial, multispecies and disaster studies. Originally from Australia, she has held academic posts at Monash University and Bath Spa University. Her key publications include Reclaiming Romanticism and Dancing with Disaster. She is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities.
PROF. DR. Renata Salecl
Prof. Dr. Renata Salecl is a Slovenian philosopher, sociologist, and legal theorist. She serves as Professor of Psychology, Psychoanalysis & Law at Birkbeck College, University of London, and is a Senior Researcher at the Institute of Criminology, Faculty of Law, University of Ljubljana. Her interdisciplinary research integrates law, psychoanalysis, and sociology, focusing on topics such as choice, anxiety, and the emotional dimensions of legal practice. She has held visiting professorships at institutions including the London School of Economics, Cardozo School of Law (New York), and King's College London.
