María Tocino Rivas

María Tocino Rivas serves as an Associate Professor in the Philosophy Area at the University of Salamanca, Spain, based in the FES Building (Office 515) at the Francisco Tomás y Valiente Avenue campus. She maintains active research leadership as principal investigator of the project "Conceptual tools for the immediate future: Towards a sustainable subjectivity" and as a core member of the JANO Research Group (Group for the History of Philosophy and Critical Ontology), with contact via mariatocino@usal.es.

Her research centers on critical examinations of contemporary political structures through three interconnected domains: biocapitalism's impact on life and labor, the affective turn in emotional politics, and feminist deconstructions of patriarchal political economy. She synthesizes Bourdieusian theories of symbolic violence with Illouz's emotional sociology to analyze how "emotional domination" operates as a neoliberal governance mechanism, while her biopolitical work interrogates shifting notions of "life" under post-Fordist capitalism. This interdisciplinary approach bridges continental philosophy, critical theory, and gender studies to expose power dynamics in modern subjectivity formation.

Professor Tocino Rivas' recent publications (2021-2023) reveal a methodical progression from debt/governmentality studies to the affective turn, consistently addressing how biocapitalism reshapes human experience. Her work demonstrates rigorous engagement with critical theorists while developing original frameworks for understanding emotional capital, feminization of labor, and sustainable subjectivity. The cohesive trajectory across six publications in prestigious journals like Endoxa and Isegoría establishes her as a significant voice in contemporary Spanish philosophy.

She actively mentors students through the Philosophy program at Salamanca, integrating research into teaching through courses on Current Trends in Philosophy and contemporary History of Philosophy texts. Her leadership of the "Conceptual tools" project provides structured research opportunities where students contribute to developing philosophical frameworks for sustainable subjectivity, benefiting from her national collaborations with scholars in edited volumes on citizenship and social inclusion.

The JANO Research Group serves as her primary intellectual hub, focusing on critical ontology through historical and contemporary philosophical lenses. This collaborative environment hosts seminars exploring intersections between classical philosophical traditions and urgent modern concerns like biopolitical governance and emotional economies, with Professor Tocino Rivas directing research toward practical applications for sustainable societal models.