Chris Watkin

Chris is a philosopher based in French Studies at Monash. His research focuses on contemporary French thought, notably how philosophers generate different and often conflicting ways of understanding important concepts like atheism and the human being. He is currently working on a project that combines approaches from philosophy, literary studies, the social sciences and linguistics to explore how understandings of freedom and liberation are being transformed in current debates around technology, religion, identity and climate change.

Chris’s recent publications include Difficult Atheism: Post-Theological Thinking in Alain Badiou, Quentin Meillassoux and Jean-Luc Nancy (Edinburgh UP, 2011), French Philosophy Today: New Figures of the Human in Alain Badiou, Quentin Meillassoux, Catherine Malabou, Michel Serres and Bruno Latour (Edinburgh UP, 2016), Thinking Through Creation: Genesis 1 and 2 as Tools of Cultural Critique (P&R Press, 2017), and the chapter on ‘Postmodernism’ in the Blackwell Companion to Atheism and Philosophy (2019). His book Michel Serres: Figures of Thought is due for publication in 2019. Chris edits the ‘Crosscurrents’ international monograph series in European thought with Edinburgh University Press. He blogs at christopherwatkin.com and you can find him on twitter @DrChrisWatkin.