Dr. Alex Thinius
photos
LinkedIn
OrcID
Bluesky
GScholar
PhilPapers
Researchgate
U Maastricht Profile
U van Amsterdam Profile
Projects
Who is Alex?
Dr. Alex Thinius is a scholar of philosophy and socio-cultural studies, interested in how categories change in socio-cultural practice. Since 2025, Alex teaches philosophy and sociology of (health) science at Universiteit Maastricht.
Alex’s most recent work analyzes how researchers in biomedicine renegotiate their understandings of sex and gender (“The Reconceptualization of Sexual Difference”). This research is, in part, grounded in the GenderSci Lab at Harvard University, of which Alex has been a member since 2022.
A second research theme focuses on the metaphysics of socio-cultural categories as dynamic processes (“Dynamic Categories”), following up on Alex’s PhD research on what gender and genre categories are, completed at the Universiteit van Amsterdam in 2021 (Genders as Genres).
As an educator, Alex is interested in pro-democratic pedagogies. Alex has taught and coordinated courses at Universiteit van Amsterdam, Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen, RU Bochum, and Universität Münster, in:
• Cultural Theory and Analysis
• Philosophy of Science
• Social and Political Philosophy
• Philosophical Anthropology
• Gender Studies
• Philosophy of Language and Cognition
Affiliations
Lecturer: Philosophy and Sociology of (Health) Science, Metamedica, Universiteit Maastricht
Lecturer: Philosophy, Universiteit van Amsterdam
Member: GenderSci Lab, Harvard University
Section Editor “Social Philosophy,” Diversity Reading List
Background
Alex holds a Research MA in Philosophy from RU Nijmegen and studied music at ArtEZ conservatory. They have a Bachelor majoring in Philosophy and in Socio-Cultural Anthropology from Münster University.
What did Alex do so far, in academia?
DEFPoS Reading Group on feminist philosophy of science, together with Rose Trappes,
Lecturer at Universiteit van Amsterdam
(2024-2026) Literary and Cultural Analysis & Philosophy
Lecturer at Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen
(2024-2025) Metaphysics and Philosophical Anthropology
Rubicon Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University, via RU Nijmegen
(2023) I conducted the first phase of my research project “The Reconceptualization of Sexual Difference”, and collaborated on research of the GenderSci Lab.
Lecturer at Universiteit van Amsterdam
(2021 – 2022) Literary & Cultural Analysis and in Philosophy
PhD Researcher at Universiteit van Amsterdam
(2016 – 2021) I completed my PhD research project, “What does it mean to be of a particular gender?”. More…
Visiting PhD Student at Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(Fall – 2019)
Visiting PhD Student at Sheffield University
(Fall 2018)
Lecturer in Philosophy at Bochum University
(Summer 2018)
Lecturer in Philosophy of Science and in Political Science at Münster University
(Summer 2016)
Student Assistant at Center for Philosophy of Science, Münster University
(2011 – 2012)
Alex Thinius 