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
- The historical, cultural, and health geographies of meteorosensitivity.
- The psychoanalytic, atmospheric, and affective geographies of air purification.
- Creative methods in geography and media studies (zines & digital methods).
- Geographies of blindness and haptic geographies.
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)
- Affect, activism, ether, ghosts: radio as a political and elemental medium (2024)
- Media histories of wind (2023, with German Studies)
BA European Media Studies (2022-23)
- What is a phenomenon? Introduction to phenomenology (of media) (2022-23)
Department of Geography, University of Cambridge
MPhil Anthropocene Studies seminars (2020-22)
- What changes with climate change? Indigenous, feminist, and phenomenological approaches to climate(-change) (2021-22)
- Getting a feel for the Anthropocene: on technology and shame (2020-21)
Geography undergraduate supervisions (2019-2020)
- Living with Global Change (2020)
- Understanding Cultural Geographies (2020)
- Environmental Knowledges & the Politics of Expertise (2019)
Department of Philosophy, State University of New York at Stony Brook
Teaching assistant (2017-2018)
- Logical and Critical Reasoning (2018)
- Introduction to Ancient Philosophy (2017)
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).