Prof. Dr. Alena Rettová teaches African and Afrophone Philosophies

The ERC-funded project 'Philosophy and Genre: Creating A Textual Basis for African Philosophy' explores the role of the text genre in the expression of philosophical meaning. The case studies deal with texts in eight languages (Ciluba, Swahili, Shona, Lingala, Kinyarwanda, Wolof, French, and English), and several text genres. Since starting at the Faculty of Languages & Literatures, Alena Rettová has taught African Philosophy and Semiotics only digitally due to the coronavirus crisis. In the 2020/21 winter semester, she will teach Literary Studies & Critical Theory, as well as a course in African Literature.

Alena Rettová received her doctorate from Charles University in Prague in 2005. After her doctorate, she spent one year at the University of Bayreuth. Between September 2006 and March 2020, she worked as a lecturer in Swahili Literature and Culture, then as Professor of African and Comparative Philosophy at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London.

During this time, she went to Bayreuth every year to attend the Swahili Colloquium and teach in the Erasmus programme. "I have always liked Bayreuth very much", says Alena Rettová, "the city is small but world famous in the field of African studies - and of course in music. I am Czech but I feel very much at home in Bavaria - I think the cultures are very similar." After the Brexit referendum in 2016, the researcher decided to leave Britain: "I find England's current political culture very problematic, and since I had received a grant from the European Union immediately after the referendum, I was also looking for more certainty regarding my research. Bayreuth was my first choice. I am very pleased that it was possible to take up a professorship at the University of Bayreuth".