Thomas Macho

Biography

Thomas Macho was a professor of cultural history at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin from 1993–2016. In 1976, he completed his doctoral dissertation in philosophy of music at the University of Vienna. His Habilitation thesis in philosophy at the Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt, Austria, was dedicated to the topic of metaphors for death. Macho was one of the founders of the Hermann von Helmholtz Centre for Cultural Techniques (HZK), and was the dean of the Faculty of Philosophy (III) at Humboldt-Universität from 2006–2008. From 2008–2009, he was a fellow at the Internationales Kolleg für Kulturtechnikforschung und Medienphilosophie (IKKM). From 2009–2011, he acted as the Director of the Department of Cultural History and Theory at the Humboldt-Universität. Since 2016, he has led the IFK International Research Center for Cultural Studies in Vienna.

His recent publications include Das Leben ist ungerecht (Residenz, Salzburg/Vienna, 2010; Vorbilder (Fink, Munich, 2011) and Schweine. Ein Portrait (Matthes & Seitz, Berlin, 2015). His forthcoming book Das Leben nehmen: Suizid in der Moderne (Suhrkamp, Berlin, 2017) will be published in fall of 2017.

[2017]