Tullio Viola is an Assistant Professor in the Philosophy of art and culture at Maastricht University. His research focus lies at the intersection of theory of culture, philosophy of the social sciences, and intellectual history. He is particularly interested in how we conceptualize cultural change and in how long-term cultural phenomena shape individual agency. Pursuing this question has led him to focus on the theories of symbol, the philosophy of history, the concepts of cultural memory and cultural transmission.

His historical work has focused on the dialogue between philosophy and the socio-cultural sciences in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. 

He will give a presentation on "Folkloric transmission and social critique. From Europe to Chicago and back."