Julian Rios Acuña

Professor Rios' teaching and research focuses on creating dialogues across philosophical traditions such as decolonial and postcolonial theories, western/continental political philosophy, and Latin American and Africana philosophies. His scholarly work seeks to develop philosophical frameworks and investigations that, using tools produced through dialogues among these traditions, can confront colonial histories of violence in multiple locations in the present. His doctoral dissertation entitled “Genealogy, Colonialism, Violence: Confronting Metaphysical Thinking Between and Beyond Santiago Castro-Gómez and Michel Foucault” established a critical dialogue between the two authors as well as Sylvia Wynter and Achille Mbembe to investigate the possibilities of genealogy as a historical-philosophical method to question the political configuration of contemporary violences that extend into the present from modern European colonial projects through what Mbembe has called “necropower.” He has also written and presented work on Martinican philosopher, psychiatrist, and revolutionary Frantz Fanon’s concept of national culture and on Peruvian sociologist Aníbal Quijano’s concept of coloniality. He is currently working on a series of articles on Fanon in dialogue with other Caribbean and Latin American thinkers that explore possibilities for political agency in situations of extreme violence stemming from colonial histories and situations. Professor Rios has also translated multiple articles and interviews by Colombian philosopher María del Rosario Acosta López including contributions to the most resent edited volume by this author entitled “Memory Work in Colombia: Past and Present Experiences, Legacies for the Future” (2023). In his future scholarly work, Professor Rios intends to explore the political, philosophical, and historical connections among counterinsurgent discourses and practices throughout the Americas and the Caribbean. These research interests inform in important ways Professor Rios’ classes. The goal of his teaching is to work collaboratively with students to use philosophical tools, both from the western/continental as well as the Africana and Latin American traditions, to explore questions such as the role of colonization and colonialism in shaping the present at the levels of social, cultural, and political organization as well as those of personal experience and self-identification.  

Classes Taught

Introduction to Philosophy, Philosophy and Colonialism, Philosophy of Race and Gender

Publications

"Radicalizing Localization: Notes on Santiago Castro-Gómez's Genealogies of Coloniality," Journal of Speculative Philosophy, Vol. 37, No. 3, 2023.