Bartholomew Ryan is a philosophy researcher and coordinator of the CultureLab at the Nova Institute of Philosophy (IFILNOVA) at the Universidade Nova de Lisboa. His academic and creative works orbit around the central motif of ‘transformation’ and the plurality of the subject which takes into account the masks, ecologies, journeys and (multiple) identities that define the modern human condition and ecological being. Amongst his various publications, his books include Fernando Pessoa and Philosophy: Countless Lives Inhabit Us (co-editor, 2021), Faces of the Self: Autobiography, Confession, Therapy (co-editor, 2019), Nietzsche and Pessoa: Ensaios (co-editor, 2016), Nietzsche and the Problem of Subjectivity (co-editor, 2015), and Kierkegaard’s Indirect Politics: Interludes with Lukács, Schmitt, Benjamin and Adorno (author, 2014). He has also published various articles on the theatre of the self linking philosophy and literature, focusing especially on writers such as Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Pessoa and Joyce. He is an integrated member of the research groups ‘Art of Living’ and the ‘Lisbon Nietzsche Group’ in the CultureLab; the the project ‘Fragmentation and Reconfiguration: experiencing the city between art and philosophy’; and is also a member of ‘HyperNietzsche’. He was awarded the FCT Exploratory Grant (April 2014-March 2015) for the project ‘The Plurality of the Subject in Nietzsche and Pessoa’ in which he was the project leader. He was an active member of Experimentation and Dissidence’ Research Project (2017-2019) at the Centre of Philosophy at the University of Lisbon.
He currently teaches a Masters programme in Philosophy under the theme ‘Art and Experience’ at Universidade Nova de Lisboa, with courses such as ‘Ecological Thought in Philosophy and Art’ (2020-2021); and ‘Plurality, Paralysis and Revolution in the Theatre of the Self’ (2018-2019). He was a lecturer at Bard College Berlin for four years, and has also taught at universities in Brazil, Oxford, Aarhus, Dublin and Bishkek. He co-wrote and performed a play on the various inner and outer journeys of human rights activist and revolutionary Roger Casement, and is now completing a book on the subject. In addition, he leads the international music project The Loafing Heroes, releasing a sixth album – ‘meandertales’ in 2019; and is also part of the three-piece experimental audio formation called Headfoot.
