DR MAXIMILIAN GREGOR HEPACH

Geographer, i.e. phenomenologist of space.

Maximilian is Assistant Professor (Research) in Geography at Durham University. His current research project "Under pressure: A historical and cultural geography of meteorosensitivity" is funded by the Wellcome Trust (2024-2029).

Previously, he was post-doctoral researcher and project coordinator of Weather Reports: Wind as Media, Model, Experience (AHRC & DFG, 2022-2024).

Email. GitHub. Callsign: M7YZE

Areas of specialisation

historical & cultural geography, phenomenology, media theory

Current research themes

  1. The historical, cultural, and health geographies of meteorosensitivity.
  2. The psychoanalytic, atmospheric, and affective geographies of air purification.
  3. Creative methods in geography and media studies (zines & digital methods).
  4. Geographies of blindness and haptic geographies.

Google Scholar

Interview

Character head

Background

PhD in Geography (2023)
“Is climate real? A phenomenological approach to climate and its changes”
University of Cambridge

MA in Philosophy (2017)
University of Freiburg

BA in Philosophy (2015)
University of Vienna

Select publications

2024

“Phenomenology”, in: The Encyclopedia of Human Geography (with Eden Kinkaid).

“Geography, influence on and by phenomenology”, in: Encyclopedia of Phenomenology (with Eden Kinkaid).

“Phänomen”, in: Zeitschrift für Medienwissenschaft.

2023

“Sauerian phenomenology: German Theory and Carl Sauer's The Morphology of Landscape”, in: Geographica Helvetica.

“What is lost from climate change? Phenomenology at the ‘limits to adaptation’”, in: Geographica Helvetica (with Friederike Hartz).

“Sensing weather and climate: phenomenological and ethnographic approaches”, in: Environment and Planning F: Philosophy, Theory, Models, Methods and Practice (with Catharina Lüder). [Pre-print available here]

2022

“Ephemeral climates: Plato's geographic myths and the phenomenological nature of climate and its changes”, in: Journal of Historical Geography.

2021

“Entangled phenomenologies: Reassessing (post-)phenomenology’s promise for human geography”, in: Progress in Human Geography.

“Is climate real?”, in: The Philosopher.

2017

“A Phenomenology of Weather and Qi”, in: Journal of Japanese Philosophy.

Teaching

Department of Arts and Media, University of Potsdam

MA European Media Studies (2023-24) BA European Media Studies (2022-23)

Department of Geography, University of Cambridge

MPhil Anthropocene Studies seminars (2020-22) Geography undergraduate supervisions (2019-2020)

Department of Philosophy, State University of New York at Stony Brook

Teaching assistant (2017-2018)

Presented at...

2024 ◌ Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) Annual International Conference (London) ◌ stsing Inaugural Conference (Dresden) ◌ 2023 ◌ Annual Conference of the German Society for Media Studies (Bonn) ◌ German Geographers' Congress (Frankfurt a.M.) ◌ Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) Annual International Conference (London) ◌ Virtual Conference “The Coronavirus Pandemic: An Environmental Humanities Perspective” (Vienna/Online) ◌ New Cultural Geography/Neue Kulturgeographie Conference (Halle) ◌ 2021 ◌ Doctoral Workshop of the German Society for Phenomenological Research (Jena) ◌ Annual Conference of the German Society for Media Studies (Innsbruck) ◌ 25. Congress of the German Philosophical Society (Nürnberg) ◌ Annual International Conference of the Royal Geographical Society (London) ◌ ASLE (Online) ◌ Uncommon Senses III (Montreal/Online) ◌ American Association of Geographers Annual Meeting (Online) ◌ 2019 ◌ Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association (Vancouver) ◌ German Geographers' Congress (Kiel) ◌ Atmospheres of Shared Emotion Workshop (Vienna) ◌ 2018 ◌ Warwick Continental Philosophy Conference (Warwick) ◌ Cultural Histories of Air and Illness Conference (Warwick) ◌ 2017 ◌ Graduate Conference of the Collegium Phaenomenologicum (Citta di Castello) ◌ 2016 ◌ European Network of Japanese Philosophy Conference (Brussels) ◌ East-West Philosophers’ Conference (Honolulu) ◌ 2015 ◌ Congress of the Austrian Philosophical Society (Innsbruck) ◌ Phenomenology and Health Conference (Oxford) ◌ 2013 ◌ Modern European Philosophy and its Politics Conference (London) ◌ XXIII. World Congress of Philosophy (Athens).